National Parks by Ken Burns

Here's a reminder to watch the new Ken Burns documentary The National Parks on PBS. It actually started last night but I forgot to remind you.  If you missed the first episode in the series you can watch it online.

 I would be a different person without our family trips to National Parks.

I remember learning endurance when, as a tiny child, my parents tortured my small frail legs by forcing me to hike at Arches National Park. Only to then hike it as an adult and learn that I was being a whiner all those years ago. Then I saw the pictures and realized that they made me hike in a dress and then I  knew that they were mean!

We went to Yellowstone too, the National Park and an elementary school named after it. The paint pots were hysterically funny- What's not to love about a naturally occuring feature that smells and sounds like farts and makes bubbles?! Old Faithful Geyser is such a part of who I am that it is astonishing to me that my children haven't been there, how could I be so derelict in my parental duties? It is so fresh in my mind, but really it has been too long since I've felt the geyser spray on my face. The lake, the falls, the hikes that are too long because you want to see just one more rainbow pool. We've got to get back there.

I think it was there that my Dad first taught us about manners in nature. Pick up everything, but not the flowers. Stay on the trail. Don't touch animals, never feed them. Be quiet. Leave it better than you found it. These rules were sacred. I mean even more than when we were at home. I felt it when we were out there.

My parents were brave. There was a trip, in my faint memory, down to the dusty southwest. Mesa Verde and Carlsbad Caverns. Being the parent of children now I know they must have had a deep desire to see those places to be willing to drag four children along. It could not have been a picnic. At Mesa Verde there was whining about heat and lack of water. Now I wish, I really really wish, I could remember seeing it.

At Carlsbad my little brother freaked out so Mom spent her day sitting on the rim of the cave. Back then I didn't think a wit about what my parents were getting out of it. At Carlsbad I thought how cool it was to ride an elevator in a cave. Then I got chills, and not the scared kind, as I watched the bats rush out of the cave by the hundreds. When we got home I loved to tell my friends where I went on my summer vacation. Not to Disneyland, but to Mesa Verde and Carlsbad Caverns. It just danced off my tongue.

That's just a few I can think of this afternoon. Thank you to all of you co-owners in the National Parks. I've used more than my fair share of them in my lifetime, but I still need to see those Giant Redwoods and Yosemite.

Tell me, how have you used the National Parks? And which one do you want to see that you haven't yet?

Comments

[Becky Smith]

1.

Believe it or not, I have never been to Yellowstone. I guess it goes hand in hand with the fact I have never been skiing, but yet they are both basically in my backyard.

I saw part of the Ken Burns film yesterday. What I did see was pretty cool!

[readerMom]

2.

Knowing you, you picked that dress yourself. We are blessed to live so close. I feel cool and special to have a year-round pass.

[Dani]

3.

We took a month long trip last year (yay home school) and visited almost every park you mentioned. We started at Carlsbad moved onto Mesa Verde and Hoven Weep. Onto to Santa Fe, home of the Georgia O'Keefe museum (so wonderful! plus they had an Ansel Adams exhibit up too!) Next up was Arches followed by a few days in Salt Lake. We stopped at as many crazy or interesting places as we could along the way. A week was not enough time for Yellowstone... Our kids fell in love about 3/4 of a mile into the park when we saw our first bear. On our way back to Salt Lake (with Zion, Escalante/Grand Staircase, The Grand Canyon and The Petrified Forest still on the agenda) we learned that Hurricane Ike was going to hit our hometown. We decided to make our way back asap and cancel the rest of the trip.
All of the memories are bittersweet. It was a life changing trip in so many ways. We plan to finish where we left off and head back to Yellowstone as soon as we can.

[Rebecca]

4.

I've been reading your blog for a while now, and thoroughly enjoy your perspective on life. I love Yellowstone and have been enjoying Ken Burns documentary~can't get enough of that place! My husband has worked in many of the National Parks over the years and we have been so lucky to get to go with him. We spent 3 summers in Glacier and in 2007 my husband and I lived in Yellowstone for 5 months~ it was heaven. Everything changes when you enter the park, life slows down and the outside world falls away (kind of like the temple). I love the river, the animals; buffalo, wolves, moose, and bear! I went back for a quick drive through with my daughters and family earlier this month and home through the Teton's~more beauty, I wish I could stay there always, but alas I had to come back home. Although I do live next door to a National Park (Vancouver Historic Reserve) but there are no buffalo!

[Jendoop]

5.

Becky - I've never been skiing either. But never to Yellowstone! Shame shame on your Dad!!

Readermom - that is exactly the kind of comment a mean older sister would make when she is pregnant. But since you are pregnant I will kindly ignore it.

Dani - You know I'm jealous. But I stopped the jealousy at the hurricane part. So glad everything was Ok. One day you'll finish the trip.

Rebeca - I can only dream about living in a National Park, it would be lovely.

It is great hearing about your National Park experiences!

[Janelle]

6.

Jenny - I've been to a lot of the National Parks out west. But, my favorite places are the Redwoods and Yosemite. Please come soon.