Ahira's Hangar

The National Parks wrapped up this evening. Twelve magnificent and moving hours of television worthy of their subject. Bravo, Ken Burns! Bravo!

Looking forward to seeing it on video when it gets to Netflix...

Kinda disappointed there wasn't all that much discussion about the National Parks series over at KW. Maybe the subject matter just didn't galvanize people (the way the Civil War did, which is understandable). I've never been to a national park anywhere, so in my mind such a place is almost mythological.

What does a national park mean to you? If any of you have visited such places, what were your impressions? What do you remember best?

Anyway...this evening, caught another "Life After People" special - it's a show that looks at what would happen to the constructs of humankind if one day humans suddenly vanished from the world. It's basically a neat thought experiment that becomes an entertaining hour, filled with CG effects, that simulates what happens when nature reclaims our cities. Tonight's episode was "Sin City Meltdown" - focusing on the disintegration of Las Vegas and Atlantic City over decades, then centuries, in the absence of their human caretakers.

You can hardly move in this country without stumbling over a national park. And since my Father's younger brother was a game warden for many years, I've been through more national parks than you can shake a stick at.

What do I remember best? Hell...Cheetah on a kill, Giraffes fighting Lions, a 30ft African Rock Python across the road, trying to sneak up on a Leopard on foot, Elephants anytime, they're so damn big...a tiny (unidentified) bird wedged into the fork of a tree fast asleep, Kite Spider webs 20ft across, a Vulture restaurant and being stung by a Scorpion while incredibly hung over.

--A

Oh man, that is just too much. I only watch nature documentaries, you live in them. Seeing a cheetah would be awesome beyond words for me. Pythons, leopards, lions, elephants, oh my. I could spend all day out there with my camera. I'd probably drop dead from heat stroke, of course. Or get one helluva sunburn.

Wow, Av. I've been to plenty of US national parks but I've never seen the kind of wildlife you have. Most of my sightings have been of the ground squirrel and prairie dog variety.

My memories tend to be of the scenery. I fell in love with the Rockies, and Colorado in general, in junior high, on a family trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. (Aw heck, the name of that smilie is "furls" -- hope she's doing better today...) The kids and I climbed down into a kiva at Mesa Verde. Mount Rushmore is pretty cool. I've seen Old Faithful erupt -- that was impressive.

I know I've been to a bunch of others, but those are the ones that are sticking out in my mind right now.

I love the South Dakota parks because there is so much wildlife there (Badlands, Wind Cave, Mt. Rushmore, Jewel Cave nationals and then the huge and the fully national worthy Custer State Park). Man, we saw lots of bison, deer, pronghorn, elk, coyotes, prairie dogs, wild goats, etc. etc.

And you cannot beat Rocky Mountain National Park, Bryce, Zion, and the Grand Canyon for scenery.

The ones I really want to visit out West: Theodore Roosevelt in North Dakota (supposedly the best place to see wildlife in the lower 48) and Yellowstone/Grand Teton.

Heh. The viewing platform is pretty far away, so they don't really loom over you.

On that same trip, we saw the Crazy Horse Monument under construction. The sculptor was still alive then -- this was back in the '60s, when I was a wee thing -- and they had barely blasted away enough for the top of his outstretched arm. I saw a report awhile back that they're now working on his nose. It will be years yet before it's done -- Crazy Horse will be bigger than all the Mt. Rushmore heads combined.

When I was an even younger wee thing, we visited the Grand Canyon. My mom wouldn't let me duck under the guardrail and scramble down the slope to pet a squirrel. I was *really* mad at her. I don't remember much about that trip to Flagstaff except the squirrel incident, and the cabin we stayed in overnight, which had a real potbellied stove. I suppose that means I should go back to the Grand Canyon again someday....

Mesa Verde National Park. My favorite place around the time I was in HS, my family went there more than a few times. The closest I came to wildlife was there, because I was walking back to our campsite after the nightly campfire program, and on a trail with no lights and I turn my flashlight to the side and not 10 yards away is a beautiful deer and it startles in my flashlight beam. It was awesome. Being I'm from California when I was a kid, my family went frequently to Kings Canyon and Yosemite, and at times the California Black Bears were very plentiful in both places and seeing them was not very remarkable. FYI, the bear's attrataction to human garbage sites made them attracted to populated areas.

Also in the SW is Canyon de Chelly National Monument, it's in the US state of Arizona. This site has a few pteroglyph sites and a few cliff dwelling ruins, too. So in the days we were there the Park Service arranged a personnel lead tour of the cliff dwelling ruins and the pteroglyphs. Since the Canyon floor is inhabited by Navajo who consider the Canyon their natural graze land, most parts of the Canyon floor itself are off-limits to ordinary sightseeing, and these tours were by special permission with the resident Navajo. So the day I went I was the only tourist, and it was awesome a personal tour of the cliff dwellings and the rock glyphs

Thanks for sharing your memories, taras! That's an interesting situation with the Canyon floor being off-limits -- tourism trumped by treaties. Not saying that's a bad thing: the miniseries talked about the problem of national parks being overrun by tourists as their popularity increased through the years. I guess that tension will always exist: the desire to preserve nature vs. the desire to let the public see and be a part of it.

Some of the more popular parks like the Grand Canyon, Zion, and Bryce have gone to trams/green busses to keep tourist cars to a minimum. I have ridden on the trams at these three parks and they stop at the lodges and the main trailheads and overlooks. I loved the one at Bryce - we stayed at Ruby's Inn, a historic lodging just outside the park. Could catch a free tram there to the park, then another tram took you along the park road with stops at the trailheads and overlooks. So you could ride the tram to the end of the line, then walk back along the trail along the rim of the canyon until you got tired (which happens faster than you would think due to the high altitude), get back on the tram, and be delivered right back to the front of the park and then to Ruby's. The trams were free and frequent, and really really convenient. And the lack of car traffic on the roads was good for wildlife, air quality, and just plain made more room for people.

The trams at Zion were similar - they gave free service to and through the town of Springdale, so you could check out the local businesses and restaurants - and went through the Canyon with stops at the lodge and visitors' center and the various trailheads. Opened up the roads for bicyclists (the trams also had bike racks on them) who were out in freaking droves.