The past year has been a trying one for the National Park Service, and for many of the units in the National Park System. For the agency, employee morale continued to be a major issue as housing, pay, and leadership remained sore spots for many who worked for the Service.
On the ground, climate change continued to impact parks, from sea level rise and more potent storms, to wildfires, and hotter and dryer conditions that adversely affected vegetation, wildlife, and facilities.
With time running out on 2023, and 2024 on the horizon, we’re going to be taking a look this week and next at many of the top stories that played out, or are playing out, across the National Park System and the National Park Service. Joining us for the conversation are Mike Murray, Chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, and Kristen Brengel, the Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association.
By Jess Repanshek - December 24th, 2023
0:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
0:12 Episode Intro with Kurt Repanshek
0:44 Amaranth - Bill Mize - The Sounds of the Great Smoky Mountains
1:13 Xplorer Maps
1:34 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
1:56 Friends of Acadia
2:27 Episode 254 - 2023 Park System Year in Review
27:05 Torch - Bill Mize - The Sounds of the Everglades
27:22 NPT Promo
27:34 Interior Federal Credit Union
28:01 Yosemite Conservancy
28:23 Washington’s National Park Fund
28:58 Episode 254 - 2023 Park System Year in Review Continues
48:39 Whispering Winds - Grant Geissman - The Sounds of the Caribbean
48:56 Great Smoky Mountains Association
49:17 Grand Teton National Park Foundation
49:46 Potrero Group
50:13 The Everglades Foundation
50:29 Episode 254 - 2023 Park System Year in Review Continues
1:03:07 Escalante - Tim Heintz - The Sounds of Peaks, Plateaus and Canyons
1:03:23 Episode Closing
1:03:40 Orange Tree Productions
1:04:13 Splitbeard Productions
1:04:23 National Parks Traveler footer
Have you ever closely inspected the landscape when you’re touring the National Park System, particularly in the West? You never know what you might find.
Back in 2010 a 7-year-old attending a Junior Ranger program at Badlands National Park spied a partially exposed fossil that turned out to be the skull of a 32-million-year-old saber-toothed cat.
If you’ve ever visited Petrified Forest National Park you’ve no doubt marveled over the colorful fossilized tree trunks. There are also fossilized trees on the northern range of Yellowstone National Park, but nowhere near as colorful.
Wolverines, the largest land-dwelling members of the weasel family, once roamed across the northern tier of the United States, and as far south as New Mexico in the Rockies and southern California in the Sierra Nevada range. But after more than a century of trapping and habitat loss, wolverines in the lower 48 today exist only as small, fragmented populations in Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, and northeast Oregon.
Spur a discussion about traveling to a national park for a vacation and odds are that it will revolve around getting out into nature, looking for wildlife, perhaps honing your photography skills, or marveling at incredible vistas.
Will the discussion include destinations that portray aspects of the country’s history, or cultural melting pot?
Tens of millions of people in the United States will be able to witness a Total Solar Eclipse on Monday as the rare astronomical event cuts a path from Texas to Maine, up to 122 miles wide in some spots. This is a great opportunity to see the exact moment when the moon fully blocks the sun, creating a blazing corona visible to those observing from the center line of totality.
With March madness down to the Sweet 16, and Opening Day of Major League Baseball having arrived, we’re going to take a break this week and dive into our podcast archives for this week’s show.
This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at the National Parks Traveler. My NCAA bracket was busted the very first day, and while the Yankees won their opening day game against the Houston Astros, I don’t think they’ll go undefeated this year.
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The Essential RVing Guide
The National Parks RVing Guide, aka the Essential RVing Guide To The National Parks, is the definitive guide for RVers seeking information on campgrounds in the National Park System where they can park their rigs. It's available for free for both iPhones and Android models.
This app is packed with RVing specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 parks.
You'll also find stories about RVing in the parks, some tips if you've just recently turned into an RVer, and some planning suggestions. A bonus that wasn't in the previous eBook or PDF versions of this guide are feeds of Traveler content: you'll find our latest stories as well as our most recent podcasts just a click away.
So whether you have an iPhone or an Android, download this app and start exploring the campgrounds in the National Park System where you can park your rig.
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