Who are the National Park Travelers?

Robin, a lover of travel and adventure, has visited 16 National Parks in the last year. She is a rock climber, hiker, runner, and writer.

Miranda Altman works in the music education nonprofit sector. An avid hiker and outdoor enthusiast, she travels extensively throughout our country's national parks. She is currently working toward a lifelong goal of visiting and documenting each of the 58 National Parks in the United States. Miranda is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a dual degree in Geography and Communications.

I grew up in Kentucky where my family took frequent vacations to visit National Parks, mainly Shenandoah National Park and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Following graduation from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, with a degree in history, I took a 10,000-mile road trip across the United States.

Along the way, I visited 27 national parks and fell in love with the Northwest. I then attended law school at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. I graduated with a JD and a Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law and was awarded the Environmental Leadership Award for my work on environmental issues while in law school.

I'm a Survey Specialist in the Park Studies Unit (PSU) at the University of Idaho. The PSU conducts social science research for NPS and other agencies. (Check us out at psu.uidaho.edu.) I was an interpreter at Grand Canyon, Denali, Grand Teton, and Lassen Volcanic, and I love the NPS!

I'm a professor of political science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. My research and teaching focuses focuses on environmental politics, U.S. national parks, and the European Union.

I've authored academic publications on Yellowstone National Park, Isle Royale National Park, and Fort Davis National Historic Site, and teach a summer field course on the politics of the Greater Yellowstone Area.
I've collected some of my favorite national park photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13467208@N02/sets/72157626031350246/

I'm a wilderness advocate and nature writer whose resume lists a dozen books and a wealth of articles and essays. (Traveler reviewed my book, Changing Paths: Travels and Meditations in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness, back in January 2010).

The Natchez Trace National Historic Parkway is just across my boundary line. Got interested in that park as a very young child and it stays interesting now that I am in my mid 50s. There is a deer trail that runs as far north as I have yet followed it, a reminder of what park historians say is the way the Trace started. There is something wonderous about going out and standing in the woods, looking at that trail and thinking that if I wanted to, I could set out on it and, with minor deviations, walk 350 miles north on it, or turn around and walk 107 miles south. All without seeing more than a smidgin of modern life.Dad took me to the Smokies in '58 and got me hooked on the park there. Coming home, Grandpa got me hooked on the Trace. In my childs' mind, I figured that somehow the Trace would take me to the Smokies. Well, my cousins live up there, just outside the Smokies, in view of Chilhowee Mountain. So there was a bit more to it than just park.

I live in north east Texas, Fort Worth I enjoy camping, fishing, Hiking and taking pictures of nature.

Ian Shive is an award-winning conservation photographer, author and multimedia producer whose goal is to captivate audiences through new trends in story telling using imagery as the primary tool.

Ian is the recent recipient of the Gold Medal, 2010 Nautilus Book Award, in the Great Peacekeepers category in recognition of his top-selling book The National Parks: Our American Landscape, released in August 2009 on Earth Aware Editions, for promoting “spiritual growth, conscious living and positive social change…and offering the reader "new possibilities" for a better life and world, joining previous Nautilus Award winners including Deepak Chopra, M.D., Eckhart Tolle, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, among others.

Referred to as the leading chronicler of America’s National Parks today and a self-labeled “wilderness diplomat,” Ian and his book The National Parks: Our American Landscape were the focus of a presentation on the challenges facing America’s most beloved landscapes in Washington, D.C. in November 2009, hosted by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Max Baucus.

I love to go visiting the National Parks, and have been lucky to go backpacking and hiking in a number of them. I also love the historical parks, since I'm a history buff and grew up near Valley Forge and Gettysburg. My husband and I are now getting our 5-year-old daughter into hiking and she did her first back-packing trip in Canyonlands this spring.

I was first lured into the world of the NPS by way of the Wonderful World of Disney, through their programing. Having grown up in Chicago, I never would thought that I was never going to see Yellowstone National Park. We always went to the Indiana Dunes, but that was it. After I was married, our honeymoon was spent in Rocky Mountain National Park. That was in 1980. About 5 yrs later, My husband and I went to Yellowstone for the 1st time, and we have been there numerous times afterwords. We moved to Denver and since then, we have been to Glaicer, Mesa Verde, Arches, Carlsbad Caverns, The little Big Horn, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Pawnee National Grass lands just to name a few. I have a active interest in the Sioux wars and the settlement of the west. Thank you Dee Brown, for that interest. We go as often as we can, to the national parks. There are some that I still need to see, like how did I miss Canyonlands while I was in Moab, or Capital Reef, Zion etc. But that is the beauty of living in Denver. I am centered in a state, that I can travel to these places with in a day of driving. When I retire fulltime, then the traveling with be more intense, as that is something that Hubby and I like to do. I would also like to see as many of the national parks as I can. They are a inspiration to me.

Formerly a Forestry Technician for the US Forest Service in the Angeles National Forest, my home base and where I learned to backpack. I am currently a Park Ranger Reserve for Orange County Parks. I am also a Certified Interpretive Guide, and lead several hikes a month in Santiago Oaks Regional Park covering the natural and human history topics.
My wife and I find no greater joy in the world than traveling to our National Parks. Here is the list of Parks we have under our belt:
Please visit our blog!Jason and Christy's National Park Road Trips

I started a rather short NPS career as a seasonal Ranger / Naturalist at Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone in 1966. In 1968, I transferred to Old Faithful as a "Protection Ranger," where I had the great privilege of working with a young Jerry Mernin.

In August of 1968 I was sent to Albright Training Center for my "Introduction to Park Operations." Then it was on to Yosemite. From Yosemite to Greenbelt Park alongside the B-W Parkway in Maryland. We had to have some "Urban Experience" in those days. El Morro in New Mexico was next where I served under Robert L. Morris as Supervisory Ranger. We were part of the old Navajo Lands Group where Art White was general superintendent and Charlie Voll was archaeologist. My final permanent assignment was as Chief of I&RM at Wupatki / Sunset Crater National Monuments just north of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Because we were transferred about every three years in those days and because I'd grown up bouncing from school to school as an Army brat, I pulled the NPS plug and returned to teaching hoping my kids could grow up in a single school. I did spend a couple more seasons as a Ranger / Naturalist in Zion where Victor Jackson was chief of interpretation. That was pure fun! Outdoors enjoying the park and its visitors -- leading guided walks up Angel's Landing and the Narrows . . . and very little paperwork and none of the political shenanigans of permanency.

Retired now and spending as much time (and money) as I can spare to visit my favorite places and explore new ones throughout the park system. Things have certainly changed in NPS, and it's mostly been for the better I think. One thing that hasn't changed, though, is the quality of the people who wear the uniforms of the National Park Service -- whether they be maintenance workers, rangers, or volunteers. There is no finer bunch of folks anywhere on this dizzy old planet!

Lynn Fantom is a New York based media executive with one foot on the ground in Maine. Her 1880 home on Mount Desert Island is across from the fiord which divides Acadia National Park’s 46,000 acres. She writes frequently on topics ranging from Teddy Roosevelt’s impact on conservation to Bar Harbor’s best lobster pounds. Read more at www.ouracadia.com.