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This Just In : Fort Hancock STILL a Mess

Sep 28th - 21:34pm | Water Witch

The decision on keeping Fort Hancock's buildings has already been made for the NPS, the Fort having been placed on the Natonal Register some time ago.

Fall's Brightest Colors Descending on National Parks

Sep 28th - 16:31pm | jersu

Oops! Guess I should have looked at a map before claiming "about half way". Thanks for keeping me honest Mookie!

Sep 28th - 14:30pm | Mookie

Jeremy, I think you might have flunked geography in school. Asheville is about 60 miles from Great Smokey NP, but over 320 miles from Shenandoah NP.

Sep 28th - 11:39am | jersu

I had traveled through Asheville, North Carolina a few years ago. Asheville is a perfect jumping off point for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, it is about half way between Shenandoah and the Great Smokeys. I hit town in mid-October, prime time for leaf-peeping. I had not made reservations prior to arriving.

Sep 28th - 08:25am | repanshek

Not all of the Sun Road is closed. While the section between Avalanche and Siyeh Bend is closed to allow for continued repair work related to last fall's storms and stepped up work on the overall restoration of the road, on the east side you can travel by vehicle between St. Marys and Siyeh Bend, and on the west side between West Glacier and Avalanche.

Sep 28th - 08:11am | Anonymous

remember the "going-to-the-sun" road is closed this year (2007) in Glacier Park for repairs

GOP's Fred Thompson Open To Drilling In Parks for Oil

Sep 28th - 16:23pm | Anonymous

Mr. Thompson, I think your better off making "B" television serials then running for public office. Your right, you have much to learn about the environment as Geo. Bush. Read a couple of books on "land ethics" by Aldo Leopold, that should help get you started...but I doubt it!

Developing Diversity in the National Parks

Sep 28th - 12:37pm | Lone Hiker

Jim-

Sep 28th - 11:12am | Anonymous

Kath, maybe Nina Roberts has a valid point and perhaps she's black...or what ever. She has a point, that being, there is a certain amount blatant discrimination in the National Park system. Check out the campsite areas, and study the overt behavior of white campers once a black family settles next to them (at a adjacent campsite) and notice a bit of uneasiness.

Sep 28th - 10:29am | Gadfly

The ethnicity rage in general and Afrocentricity in particular not only divert attention from the real needs but exacerbate the problems. The cult of ethnicity exaggerates differences, intensifies resentments and antagonisms, drives ever deeper the awful wedges between races and nationalities. --Arthur M. Schlesinger

Sep 28th - 10:06am | Kath

First of all, I take issue with the study of racial disparity in visiting the parks. Yosemite, being close to the Bay Area, has plenty of diversity. Many national parks are in areas that are predominately white. Since most visitors to the parks are those within a close drive that accounts for much of the disparity. I'd be interested in a breakdown of visitors on a park by park basis.

Sep 28th - 06:48am | jsmacdonald

I'm reading posts like these and upset that I don't have a moment to respond to them because I think there's so much here being missed.

Sep 27th - 22:01pm | Lone Hiker

I must be the poster child for ignorant, but why is there so much emphasis being placed on RACIAL diversity and nobody seems to be enjoying the CULTURAL diversity that is omnipotent in the park system? Our parks seem to be the vacation target of a populace derived from most every national origin, and for that we can't take enough pride?

Sep 27th - 15:09pm | Anonymous

ayyyy, here we go again... if tax payers are funding a park system that they aren't using, then the whole system itself, including the backlog of maintenance, is in danger of implosion and becoming irrelevant...

Sep 27th - 12:38pm | E. Johnson

I thoroughly enjoyed the article. It was heart warming to know that NPS is concerned about diversity especially since I believe its funding comes from all Americans. A little less fear and negativity and a little more inclusiveness could really change the state of our public lands.

Sep 26th - 10:11am | Kath

I was thinking about this issue on my Labor Day trip to Yosemite. Believe me, there was plenty of diversity of visitors in Yosemite Valley. Asians, East Indians, Hispanics and blacks. California is diverse so Yosemite visitation is diverse. So at least as far as Yosemite is concerned, I don't think there is any diversity 'problem'.

Proposed Fee Increase for Crater Lake National Park Tabled

Sep 28th - 12:27pm | jersu

Looks like the fee to enter Lava Beds will remain at $10, as a result of the same southern Oregon opposition to the Crater Lake fees. It had been proposed that the Lava Beds fee go to $15.

Death Valley Looking to Electronic Rangers to Raise Money, Lure Younger Generations

Sep 28th - 11:51am | Lone Hiker

Assurance of quality aside, how many questions can you anticipate being correctly answered by a GPS ranger? If your answer is no more of less that an "actual" ranger, then what's the point of having either available to visitors?

Sep 28th - 10:02am | repanshek

*Blogs aren't really that tech...* I think five years ago that statement wouldn't have held true, and even today they're continuing to morph and stretch and grow, limited only by their creator's imagination and $$$.

Sep 28th - 09:20am | Anonymous

@ kurt- i really think the bias against podcasts is in the vein of a slight anti-technological bent, intentional or not. blogs aren't really that tech, they're bread and butter of mainstream media now. and that statement is not meant to detract from the high quality of this site.

Sep 27th - 17:00pm | Lone Hiker

While not trying to suck-up to the editors, indeed the overriding tone is NOT to be confused with an anti-technology idealism in the least. The sarcasm from this corner, at least, was directed toward the bias against the slothism (?) of the general public as a whole, not the devise in general.

Sep 27th - 15:35pm | repanshek

I would disagree that this site has a "strong anti-technology bias." If that were the case, this site wouldn't exist. The fact that it does exist speaks to our embrace of technology, as does the fact that we're entwining podcasts and videocasts with the typed word.

Sep 27th - 15:22pm | Anonymous

this site and it's following has a strong anti-technology bias. whether or not YOU go to the parks to escape technology isn't relevant to the public at large. that said, i imagine that the reality is that managers are looking for ways to combat declining funding.

Sep 27th - 14:24pm | Lone Hiker

They wouldn't happen to have some pizza and a drive-thru liquor store handy too, would they? I hope these devises are nice enough to inform you where the restrooms are.......

Sep 26th - 20:34pm | Merryland

So now they can hire an illegal alien to collect your money and hand out these gizmos to the techno-starved masses. For me, our National Parks will always be the place to get away from places like this blogosphere, the computer on my desk at work, my telephone, and my kids' video games. I love it when the cell phone doesn't work.

Sep 26th - 17:02pm | Claire Walter

These sound like the 21st century of those audio tapes you used to be able to buy or rent to describe places motorists were passing. Claire @ http://travel-babel.blospot.com

Longtime Yosemite Wilderness Ranger Retires

Sep 28th - 10:26am | Anonymous

They don't come any finer then ranger Laurel Boyer--31 years of devoted service beyond the call of duty! Happy trails ranger Boyer!

Sep 27th - 14:26pm | Tom Christensen

CONGRATULATIONS....... WENT TO YOSEMITE GRAMMER SCHOOL WITH RANDY MORGRNSON REMEMBER HIM? "BACK COUNTRY RANGER" "THE LAST SEASON" AMAZON.COM

The Fight Against Fees Losses a Champion

Sep 28th - 08:07am | Anonymous

Here is to my uncle, he will be missed1 I love you

Death Valley May Be On Lookout For Steve Fosset

Sep 27th - 22:51pm | Lone Hiker

I hope the Fossett estate is planning on stepping up to the plate when remuneration time rolls around. Or is it only the average Joe who has to pay the search and rescue bill these days?

Sep 26th - 20:27pm | Merryland

And SAR folks aren't very good at interp... although there are a few out there that can do it all -- my heroes.

Sep 26th - 18:32pm | Equally Anonymous

I doubt the GPS Rangers will assist in the search, but they would be able to provide information to visitors while traditional rangers are out looking for Fossett. Besides, interp rangers aren't very good at SAR!

Sep 26th - 15:40pm | Anonymous

No word yet from the Park Service as to whether the new GPS Electronic Rangers will be up for the challenge of a Search and Rescue mission. The park may employ some iPods as back up.

Overdue Hiker Turns Up in Rocky Mountain National Park

Sep 27th - 19:51pm | Merryland

Rocky Mountain National Park (CO) Missing Hiker Found After Night In Mountains

Sep 25th - 21:16pm | Merryland

DENVER -- Search and Rescue teams have found a hiker who went missing in the Rocky Mountain National Park Tuesday evening. Link: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/14205018/detail.html

Judge Orders Cross Removed from Mojave National Preserve

Sep 27th - 18:31pm | Lone Hiker

In one way shape of form, there is ALWAYS someone who will take offense to something. People have issues wtih various commentary expressed on this website, in particular with some of the views expressed by your's truly. Thank you for investing some of your precious time reading and taking my opinions to heart.

Sep 25th - 12:16pm | Randy Potgiesser

I am continually amazed at people who are "offended" by religious symbols or the beliefs of another person. No where in any documents of this country except the liberal media does it give you the right to not be offended. You're offended by something? So what? Live with it.

Bay Area Cartoonist with Yosemite Park Focus has Died

Sep 27th - 09:57am | Anonymous

Jeremy, a creative genius with a flair to make us all laugh with his delightful cartoons. I'm sure all the folks at Camp Farley miss him as much I do...the Yosemite spirit lives on!

NPS Snowmobile Plan for Yellowstone, Grand Teton Bucks Science, the Public, and Itself

Sep 25th - 16:47pm | jersu

I hate to throw this into the mix without double checking first, but I *think* one big difference between the motorcycle noise and snowmobile noise, is that snowmobile noise is unregulated. Motorcycles have to meet federal standards for highway travel, whereas snowmobiles are an off-road vehicle not confined to the same regulations.

Sep 25th - 16:35pm | repanshek

Kath, you raise a good point. I can't give you a complete answer, but I do know that those who want to see a snowmobile ban focus on the complete pollution package -- noise, air, water, etc., as well as wildlife disturbances.

Sep 25th - 14:17pm | Kath

I googled a bit and found that motorcycle noise is an issue along the Blue Ridge Parkway per a recent article in the Asheville Citizen-Times.

Sep 25th - 13:20pm | Kath

I've never had the pleasure of visiting Yellowstone or Grand Teton in winter, so I can't comment on the noise and pollution brought about by snowmobiles in the park. Few people (relatively) visit those parks in winter.

Padre Island Interpretive Program Simply Succeeds

Sep 25th - 15:43pm | pkrnger

I agree with Merryland above. The internet and other electronic means of communication are excellent mechanisms for promoting inter- and intra- staff communications.

Sep 24th - 16:27pm | Merryland

I support the administrative merging of co-located parks to reduce the upper management ranks. What's funny is that the techno-approach being used to reach visitors could also easily be used for management and staff to regularly interact.

Biodiversity Studies in the Parks Reveal Previously Unknown Species

Sep 25th - 10:50am | Lone Hiker

The outcome of this endeavor shouldn't be all that surprising. Microbiologists estimate that a mere 2% of all existing microbic life forms have been catagorized to date, again a function of research dollars (and time) not being allocated to the expansion of these types of projects.

How Would YOU Fix the Statue of Liberty?

Sep 24th - 17:24pm | jersu

Yes, Bandelier has ladders available for folks to climb, to get a good look at the dwellings carved into the cliff face (cavelets I think they are called). To get to these ladders requires visitors take a somewhat steep and narrow path that includes many stairs.

Sep 24th - 16:30pm | Merryland

I think Bandelier also has a bunch of ladders throughout the park that visitors are allowed to climb. Is anyone out there familiar with that park and how that gets handled?

Sep 24th - 14:00pm | Lone Hiker

While 268 steps is not MY idea of a strenuous endeavor, I get the point. But I totally disagree with the "can't tell 'em they're too fat" notion............just try and get your two-seater butt on a mule into the Grand Canyon. I'll attest to 200 lbs. not being a conventional guideline for obesity, but that's the limit for Arizona mules.

Considering a Hike up Half Dome?

Sep 24th - 14:51pm | Anonymous

Yea, maybe we should have elevator shafts running up the inside of the dome too, and an emergency staircase running down the face. Grow up. The park service does not need to put trails in the wilderness either. Since they do, should they put drinking fountains every 500 yards? The truth is, people do not need to go into the wilderness.

Management of Lady Liberty Discussed in Congress

Sep 24th - 13:34pm | jersu

Alexander,

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