| Page 1099 | National Parks Traveler

What would have been the situation if Mrs. Palin just showed up with no official pre-visit notification to the NPS and why does the congressman even care? Because he'll ... do anything to try to make Palin look disfavorable. Sarah Palin has just as much right to access to any national park as does anyone else does.

Jun 8th - 16:39pm | Ameriken

I find it ridiculous that anyone in Washington, D.C.

Jun 8th - 16:04pm | Ron Saunders

OK, So now the Folks that like Sara Palin still like her and the ones that hate her still hate her.

Jun 8th - 15:50pm | Angela Bates

Palin should be treated exactly as any ordinary person would be, for that is what she is.

Jun 8th - 15:23pm | y_p_w

Jim Burnett: Perhaps the bigger concern here is that Rep. Earl Blumenauer apparently doesn't have a clue about which sites are even administered by the NPS.

Jun 8th - 14:40pm | Anonymous

So a Congressman is asking for an investigation about possibly unwise use of taxpayer dollars and the self-proclaimed fiscal conservatives are whining? (I'll even concede there's a political element--it's not say Senator Coburn who's pursuing this issue.) I'm not sure which is more nauseating, conservative hypocrisy or conservative ignorance. I need a week in Dinosaur to get away from their

Jun 8th - 13:28pm | Mellosy

She should have been treated like any private citizen that goes to a NP. Pay at the gate and explore. Millions of Americans do not get special treatment from the NPS, IE going into places early with a personal Ranger escort. That is ludacris. She does not hold public office, if anything she's trying to get more attention.

Jun 8th - 13:27pm | Jim Burnett

Perhaps the bigger concern here is that Rep. Earl Blumenauer apparently doesn't have a clue about which sites are even administered by the NPS. According to another news report, his letter to Director Jarvis complained about NPS special treatment for Palin at both Mount Vernon and the National Archives. The NPS has no role in the management of either of those locations.

Jun 8th - 13:02pm | AnonymousD

Let's rephrase the question to make it politically neutral: To what extent should the NPS spend its scant funds to provide extra support to a private citizen who does not currently hold public office? That is a question worthy of investigation.

Yosemite National Park Officials Instituting Reservation Program Changes To Stop Campsite Scalping

Jun 11th - 22:45pm | Anonymous

Stupid capitalism. It's so unfair that people can make money by selling NPS campsites that they've legally acquired. Only the NPS and its monopoly contractor are allowed to do that.

Jun 9th - 23:39pm | Bruce Hildreth

I hope that they will be able to bring a program like this to the Half Dome reservations soon. It really hurts to see the reservations being sold on eBay and Craig's list for shamful amounts. The Mount Whitney lottery system still appears to be fair, but I understand that it may go to a Internet reservation system soon. I hope this doesn't become a Ticket Scalping event also.

Jun 9th - 18:15pm | Glenn Scofield ...

I was writing to the NPS and various groups about this three or four years ago when I found blocks of Yosemite campsites being sold on eBay. It was infuriating to me how impossible it was to fairly acquire reservations because of the level of scalping going on. I'm so glad they finally instituted these changes. I hope it helps.

Jun 9th - 12:12pm | Bill

I had no idea this was going on, but it makes sense. Anything that is an in demand commodity can be and will be bartered whether legally or illegally. Glad to see the park service taking a pro-active approach. I wonder how many other parks see this. We have noticed many sites can be hard to get particually on busy weekends like around holidays.

Tornado Destroys Great Blue Heron Rookery At Mississippi National River and Recreation Area

Jun 11th - 11:25am | Kirby Adams

Yes, McGhiever, I've been hearing some great reports from Minneapolis about that. Looks like the birds have more determination and ambition than we gave them credit for!

Jun 10th - 13:02pm | mcghiever

Some positive news: many of the surviving adult herons are already building a new rookery a short ways downstream — even closer to downtown Minneapolis. Here's an article.

War And Consequences: The American Indian Movement Vs. The National Park Service At Fort Laramie

Jun 11th - 07:57am | Anonymous

I agree with this comment. NPS Military Sites focus so much on hardware that the sites become bastions of the dreaded "object tour". As an historian and park interpreter I am perplexed by the failure of many park sites to live up to the charge of Freeman Tilden to PROVOKE. The focus on the who, what, when, where, and how leaves out the most important question of all; WHY. Why?

An Indian Memorial Helps to Re-Image Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

Jun 10th - 19:45pm | Prim Young

Recently visited this National Memorial Park. It certainly is a beautiful place -- very peaceful -- very reflective spot. And as we entered the Indian Memorial, we were very aware that we were in a special place -- what a wonderful way to remember all that happened that day at Little Big Horn. Also enjoyed the wonderful wild flowers.

Plan Crafted To Address Threats To Whitebark Pine Forests in Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Jun 10th - 12:23pm | Whitney

For anybody who is interested in more detailed data on the devastation caused by mountain pine beetles in Greater Yellowstone, here is a comprehensive aerial survey conducted by the U.S. Forest Service and the

Backpacker Magazine's National Parks Collector's Edition

Jun 10th - 11:59am | y_p_w

Yeah - I figured that you probably weren't over 90 years old. It just seemed out of place since Kings Canyon wasn't added in the 60s/70s.

Jun 10th - 11:16am | Rick Smith

YPW-- I'm old but not that old. Fingers engaged before brain. But you can choose any park created after 1960 and I consider it of my generation. I first worked as a seasonal ranger in Yellowstone in 1959 during, for God's sake, the Eisenhower administration. Thanks for the good catch. Rick

Jun 9th - 23:39pm | y_p_w

Rick Smith: I would hate to think that some future generation of Americans would remove the parks that my generation added such as Guadalupe Mountains, Martin Luther King Jr., Kings Canyon, etc. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? I checked, and Kings Canyon was added in 1940. Maybe you meant Canyonlands?

Jun 9th - 19:31pm | Rick Smith

There's another little thing about the Backpacker list that makes me uncomfortable. Since 1872, with the establishment of Yellowstone, each generation of Americans, speaking through their congressional representatives, gets to add places to the National Park System that they believe deserve protection in perpetuity. It is a matter, it seems of me, of generational equity that we g

Jun 9th - 15:35pm | MVS

Their selection is made entirely on the value of a park in terms of its potential for backpacking, whereas there are more criteria for any park. A place like Wind Cave, which I enjoyed, doesn't have the extensive back country of, say, Yellowstone or Canyonlands, but is preserved largely because of its caves, a worthy thing to do.

Jun 9th - 10:50am | justinh

Not sure about Wind Cave. Its backcountry is pretty spectacular--prairie mixed with ponderosa pine forest, limestone cliffs, rushing streams; bison, prairie dogs, pronghorns--and I didn't run into another soul out there. Is the backcountry not officially designated wilderness? Is that the case for swapping it out?

Fire Danger Leads To Partial Closure of Saguaro National Park

Jun 10th - 08:14am | Kurt Repanshek

Don't misunderstand, MRC, I agree that fire is a very necessary landscape tool in forests. There are many positives, from the opening up of meadows that attract wildlife to even spurring regrowth of coniferous species with serontinus cones.

Jun 10th - 04:31am | MRC

Kurt, I was in Yellowstone in early June of 1990. And it was spectacular. New life, dead logs, the brand new visitor center at the south entrance telling the story of the fires and the recovery. Fire is a force of nature, and the NPS has learned over the last three to four decades to allow fires to burn, unless life or limb are in danger.

Jun 9th - 18:39pm | Kurt Repanshek

Some might say the NPS wants to save the taxpayer dollars by preventing forest fires... I was in Yellowstone in '88. It wasn't pretty. And at least one of those fires was started by humans...just outside the park boundary. I see nothing wrong with a little prudence and caution.

Jun 9th - 18:17pm | ChrisM-FtWorthTX

Now the federal government wants to regulate what days of the month you can visit the National Park we all pay taxes to support. Won't be long until they tell us we cannot visit NP's at all unless we are in some kind of elitist group.

Jun 9th - 13:02pm | Anonymous

Now if only we can keep the moronic smokers from throwing their lit cigarettes out of their car windows! I live outside of Phoenix and the other day I was behind a truck with Michigan plates that did just that - threw their lit cigarette out the window. A week ago south of Tucson in the middle of nowhere, there was a large brush fire on both sides of I-10 that slowed traffic to a crawl. Are

Jun 9th - 12:00pm | tomp2

An update on the Horseshoe 2 fire in the Chiricahuas: it has crossed Pinery Canyon Rd and is burning into Chiricahua National Monument. The incident team are going to set burnouts inside the Monument to protect structures and developed areas.

Grizzly Bear Shot and Killed By Hikers In Denali National Park and Preserve

Jun 9th - 23:56pm | Skip

Well, I'm back and thought I'd reply on my trip to Alaska. Yes, I am alive and didn't need the knive or bear spray. My wife and I spent 2 weeks in Alaska, which brought us from Denali National Park to the Kenai Pennensula. We hiked on many trails, took bus tours into Denali NP, two seperate cruises one from Seward and one from Wittier, and took close to a thousand pictures and videos.

Reader Participation Day: What Do You Do When You See A Visitor Doing Something Inappropriate In A National Park?

Jun 9th - 22:44pm | Mike Painter

I was at the Green River Overlook in Canyonlands a few weeks ago, when a German-speaking tourist dropped his cigarette butt and kicked some dirt over it. While I was pondering what to say to him "auf Deutsch," the problem solved itself when he turned around and asked if I'd take a picture of him and his family (all adults).

Jun 9th - 07:39am | Anonymous

As long as they are not my kids....I try to encourage that type of behavior

Jun 8th - 22:15pm | Megaera

I was at the Fountain Paint Pots in Yellowstone a few years ago when this young Asian couple decided that she needed to step off of the boardwalk so that he could take her photo. I got after them (with lots of gestures -- they obviously did not speak English) until she got back up on the boardwalk, without him having taken her picture.

Jun 8th - 18:41pm | Anonymous

Hey, I sleep with my dog! She's better behaved than my grandkids. Than most kids, for that matter. However, I don't need "mountain lion bait" when I'm on the trails. She stays home!

Jun 8th - 15:31pm | Anonymous

The problem is many people in this country don't have any manners. They consider their dogs "people" and family and don't understand why you don't love Fido as they do.For God's sake most of them sleep with the dog!!!LOL

Jun 8th - 14:32pm | Anonymous

I'm more inclined to speak up if someone is annoying animals, littering, harming plants, etc. Less so if they are simply risking their own life and limb. Once saw a pilgrim edge closer and closer to a cow & calf moose trying to get a photo while wife & kid hollered for him to come back. Moose was getting really fed up!

Jun 8th - 14:29pm | Bruce W. Bytnar

Making the decision as to whether or not to intercede when one observes violations in National Parks is a personal decision that should be made after fully assessing your situation. Ask yourself some of these questions; · Is correcting the person worth placing yourself in possible danger?

Trails I've Hiked: Anthony Creek Trail to Spence Field in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Jun 9th - 17:24pm | B

Great hike. Something of note is that Spence Field is the site of one of the more well known cases of a dissapeared person in the park. A young boy hiking with his family in 1969 at Spence Field ducked around some brush in an attempt to sneak up behind his parents and scare them. That was the last time he was ever seen. What followed was one of the largest manhunts ever to happen.

National Park Road Trip 2011: Lassen Volcanic National Park

Jun 8th - 22:27pm | y_p_w

I'm thinking Bumpass Hell would have been interesting with all the snow, although that's on the other end of the main park road. These cabins seem rather spartan - similar to KOA's "Kamper Kabins", but without electricity.

An Atonement at Fort Sumter

Jun 8th - 20:44pm | Anonymous

What a joyous occasion. It certainly calls for happy celebrations, and gig smiles of acknowledgement. The event is always bigger than man.

Busy Day On McKinley: Three Climbers Felled By Altitude Sickness Rescued in Denali National Park

Jun 8th - 18:38pm | Anonymous

Another good reason to charge climbers higher fees for their permits. All three of these climbers were from other countries. Why should the daily park visitors have to pay for the "enjoyment" of the few.

Yellowstone National Park's Wolf Population Down More than 25 Percent

Jun 8th - 16:40pm | WingedWolfPsion

No, we don't need to do anything about this. Drought, harsh winters, predation, and pressure from predators like wolves, and most CERTAINLY, high human harvest rates, lowered the elk population dramatically. The wolves in areas with lighter population densities were less affected, and that is as it should be. The severe reduction in wolves matches the severe reduction in elk. Nature has ALR

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