You can't go wrong in a national park.
I mean, yeah, you can take a wrong turn. Well, I can, for sure. (If not for my husband's input, the rangers might still be looking for me somewhere in the national park wilderness.)
I've also forgotten to bring water on a hike alone in Big Bend in, what was it, July? I walked too far out, and by the time I emerged from the trail, I was pretty much crawling. The hiking gods were kind, though, because a convenience store was within shouting _ croaking _ distance of the trailhead; I chugged down a shelf-full of Gatorade.
Yes, there are maybe some ... challenges. But if you want a destination that will rock your world, a national park will never disappoint. Since this year marks the centennial of the National Park Service, the agency that oversees our park system, the parks are ramping up their programs and facilities. Pick a park that strikes a chord with your particular interests. Or one that sounds too good to actually be real. Then go. You'll see.
Look, I am from Brooklyn. I am paralyzed by the sight of a spider or snake, and I am not a fan of scorpions, either. I can barely start a fire with a book of matches, and I don't like wearing hiking boots. A trail with even a slight uphill grade eventually ends in an asthma attack.
But just mention the words "wanna go" and "national park" in the same sentence, I'll pack whatever gear I need. Yeah, gear. I bought hundreds of dollars of scientifically created clothing to go wolf-watching in Yellowstone in winter. A good investment considering the consistent 30-below temperatures. Then again, freezing cold is easily trumped by gorgeous.
Which reminds me. That word: gorgeous. It's one of the problems with national parks. A word, even gorgeous, doesn't really convey what you'd like to describe. You kind of have to be there. Once you're rendered speechless by some view around a bend, you'll see the limitations of spoken language. My husband and I just call these jaw-dropping times "holy (well ... something)" experiences.
It's all about experience. Your experience. Every visitor has a story. Just as every one of the 411 sites in the park system has a story _ a uniquely American story.
They're not all about beautiful landscapes, though. When you hear national park, you think of the rock stars first. The Yosemites and Grand Canyons _ the vast ones with the buffalo and the forever rolling vistas. There are 59 official National Parks _ each must be passed and designated by a congressional vote.
The rest of the 411? Well, there are National Battlefield Parks, National Historic Parks, National Lakeshores, National Recreation Areas, National Scenic Rivers, National Historic Landmarks, etc. They are classified according to why they are significant _ history, archaeology, cultural preservation, natural beauty and rarity, significant events. Their common thread is that they are quintessentially America.
The park system has grown, stretching its definition of significant as awareness has grown, new discoveries were made, and history was revisited. The national park system now includes places that commemorate more recent, and sometimes more sobering, history. The stories of the fight for civil rights, the World War II Japanese-American internment camps, and Sand Creek, the site of a tragic Indian massacre in 1864, are all told in national parks. One of the most recent additions, last November to the roster is the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, comprising three sites in Tennessee, New Mexico and Washington State that were significant in the creation of the first atomic bombs.
"Andersonville is one of those sites that is breathtakingly dramatic," said Elizabeth Paradis Stern, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, referring to the Andersonville National Historic Site in Georgia, once a Confederate prisoner-ofwar camp. It tells the story of the horrors of Civil War prisons.
"That's a really important part of our history and our experience," Stern said. "We can learn from it going forward."
Find Your Park (FindYourPark.com) is helping spread the wealth of park visitation to lesser-known sites. You can find all the parks, big and small, near and far. It's also been a way to promote the variety and diversity of sites in the park system, making it more relevant and appealing to the next generation of park visitors.
The park service, part of the Department of the Interior, has been fretting over that next generation for several years, as boomers like me, are getting older, creakier maybe, and are dwindling. Young visitors have been noticeably absent; a report last year found that the number of visitors under age 15 had fallen by half in the last decade; the average age of visitors to Denali was 57; to Yellowstone, 54.
So the centennial was a good time for a good push to reach out and grab the next generation. FindYourPark seems to be doing its job _ along with all the publicity about the centennial. Overall, park attendance was up about 2 percent before the summer started.
During National Park Week, so many people tweeted the #findyourpark that it was a top 10 trending story, and Twitter gave it its own emoji: a ranger with a flatbrimmed hat.
"So we know that we are reaching that audience, that target audience," Stern said. "We've captured interest from the White House to Sheryl Crow. I think that the fact that this is resonating with so many people speaks a lot to the power of these places."
The next generation may connect with a different aspect of the parks than we older fans do but will find those amazing, speech-fails-you moments. When even OMG won't really do it justice.
