My Summer Home

The immensity often gets lost in the superlatives stirred up by the most outrageously scenic sites. But in the aggregate, this is what every citizen owns: 530 million acres, of which 193 million are run by the Forest Service, 253 million by the Bureau of Land Management and 84 million by the National Park Service. The public land endowment is more than three times the size of France.

From A nice tribute to our public lands by Timothy Egan.

New Yellowstone Visitor Center

Edward Rothstein has reviewed the new Old Faithful visitor center at Yellowstone. It opened last week.

I commend the article to you; I particularly liked this paragraph.

But as the symbol of one of the country’s most visited national parks, Old Faithful actually seems least faithful — least suggestive of untrammeled nature. From its measured eruptions to its paved surroundings, it can seem a manufactured extravaganza. Three hotels have grown around it, the most famous of which, the 1904 Old Faithful Inn, probably inspires far more gasps, with its fanciful, rustic, pine-log construction than the famed geyser’s jets of water. As for spectacle, the Bellagio’s Las Vegas fountains outdo nature, at least in this case.

Which is better, the Bellagio or Old Faithful?

Antietam National Battlefield (Maryland)

… was established as a national battlefield site on this date in 1890. It was redesignated a national battlefield in 1978.

23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of savage combat on September 17, 1862. The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia’s first invasion into the North and led to Abraham Lincoln’s issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

Antietam National Battlefield

It was the bloodiest day in American history. Among the battlefields I’ve visited, Antietam is my favorite, perhaps because it less congested and monumented-up than Gettysburg. It retains, it seems, more of its 1862 feel.

Fort Bowie National Historic Site (Arizona)

… was authorized on this date in 1964. According to the National Park Service:

Fort Bowie commemorates in its 1000 acres, the story of the bitter conflict between the Chiricahua Apaches and the United States military. For more than 30 years Fort Bowie and Apache Pass were the focal point of military operations eventually culminating in the surrender of Geronimo in 1886 and the banishment of the Chiricahuas to Florida and Alabama. It was the site of the Bascom Affair, a wagon train massacre, and the battle of Apache Pass, where a large force of Chiricahua Apaches under Mangus Colorados and Cochise fought the California Volunteers. The remains of Fort Bowie today are carefully preserved, the adobe walls of various post buildings and the ruins of a Butterfield Stage Station.

Visiting Fort Bowie requires a three mile round trip hike — unless you use the handicap entrance, which they keep a secret until you show up after walking a mile-and-a-half on a July afternoon with a daughter eight months pregnant and a two-year-old grandson.

State Fair

A writer visits three state fairs — Delaware, Ohio and Maine. As he says, “I was raised in a farm state, Indiana, but it was in an industrial suburb of Chicago. The only farm I knew was Pepperidge.”

“Despite urbanization, suburban sprawl, the collapse of family farms and the rise of corporate agriculture, every year, regular as the seasons, the midways light up, the Tilt-a-Whirls clang to life and the judges study the ample rumps of the local livestock.”

And there’s the chocolate covered bacon.

The New Mexico State Fair is September 10-26 (but closed on Mondays and Tuesdays this year, a sure sign of hard times).

Traveling Around the World

On March 13, 2007, I handed over the keys to my house, put my possessions in storage and headed out to travel around the world with nothing but a backpack, my laptop and a camera.

Three and a half years and 70 countries later, I’ve gotten the equivalent of a Ph.D in general knowledge about the people and places of Planet Earth.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned:

20 Things I’ve Learned From Traveling Around the World for Three Years

Thanks to Debby for the link.

Reading the author’s personal website I found this:

“I’ve had people ask me if they should take their SLR with them on their trip because they are worried about theft. My answer is, if you aren’t going to take your good camera with you on a trip around the world, there is no point in owning the camera.”

Today’s Photo

Taken with an iPhone 4 at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado, from the edge of the campground at 7:05 AM August 13th. The tallest dune is around 750 feet. Click for larger version of photo.

Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site (Arizona)

… was authorized on this date in 1965.

Feel the old wooden floor give slightly beneath your footsteps and hear it squeak as you enter the doors of the oldest operating trading post on the Navajo Nation. Step back in time and experience this original 160 acre homestead, which includes the Trading Post, Hubbell home and Visitor Center with weavers. Hubbell Trading Post offers you a chance to become a part of this unique slice of history.

Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site

The National Park Service . . .

was established on this date in 1916. Legislation enacting the service set the director’s salary at $4,500 a year.

Hidden gems

“Looking for some peace and quiet during your travels this summer? We give you America’s 20 least-visited National Monuments, taken from 2009 National Park Service data.”

Los Angeles Times

Six of the 20 are in New Mexico!

Technology Leads More Park Visitors Into Trouble

The New York Times reports on jerks and fools in the national parks. An excerpt:

The national parks’ history is full of examples of misguided visitors feeding bears, putting children on buffalos for photos and dipping into geysers despite signs warning of scalding temperatures.

But today, as an ever more wired and interconnected public visits the parks in rising numbers — July was a record month for visitors at Yellowstone — rangers say that technology often figures into such mishaps.

People with cellphones call rangers from mountaintops to request refreshments or a guide; in Jackson Hole, Wyo., one lost hiker even asked for hot chocolate.

A French teenager was injured after plunging 75 feet this month from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon when he backed up while taking pictures. And last fall, a group of hikers in the canyon called in rescue helicopters three times by pressing the emergency button on their satellite location device. When rangers arrived the second time, the hikers explained that their water supply “tasted salty.”

Driving Across New Mexico

By the time we reached New Mexico we were tired from driving across America so we took a couple of days off in Albuquerque to go to the ballgame and rest, before heading north to Santa Fe and Taos.

Click photo for a gallery of all four. Note: Captions not visible in gallery and in RSS feed.

Driving Across Oklahoma

The drive across America (really mostly a drive across Interstate 40) continued in Oklahoma, as did our visit to state capitols.

Click photo for a gallery of all nine. Note: Captions not visible in gallery and in RSS feed.

Driving Across Arkansas

Emily and I like visiting state capitols — we toured ten on a road trip we took in 1998. We always circumnavigate the building counter-clockwise and take our photo on the steps (Emily often running to pose after setting the timer on her camera). Emily has the state capitol photos of us from this trip; they may or may not show up on NMK in the future.

Click photo for a gallery of all eight. Note: Captions not visible in gallery and in RSS feed.

[A little more about Little Rock and a better photo of the high school from 2006: Little Rock 49 years later.]

Driving Across America

Last week I was in Taos and then Thursday and Friday at Great Sand Dunes National Park (100 miles north of Taos in Colorado). Thursday night after an evening rain it cleared, the moon set, and the sky was spectacular. With no nearby light pollution, the Milky Way appeared nearly solid in places. And the Perseid meteor shower provided fireworks — a few of the many “shooting stars” we saw were just amazing.

Two weeks ago I was on my way home from Virginia with Emily and her two Sweeties, Kiley (7) and Alex (5). As Kiley and Alex put it, we were “driving across America.” (From northern Virginia to Albuquerque, about 1860 miles.) I took a few photos of America with my iPhone along the way.

First, Tennessee (other states will be in subsequent blog posts).

Click images for a gallery of larger versions. [Note: There is a caption for each photo. It may not be visible in RSS readers.]

Redux posts of the day

My good friend Donna is in her hometown of Tulsa this weekend attending the Tulsa Powwow and visiting her Sweeties. We were in Tulsa five years ago and I posted these two items.

Idle thoughts between Albuquerque and Tulsa (and back)

Great Plains — You know you’re in the land of severe weather when you see that the interstate rest area restrooms have signs that say “Men,” “Women” and “Tornado Shelter.”

Small Town America — There are still places in America such as Jenks, Oklahoma, where the fireworks show commemorating the town’s 100th birthday is delayed because the firemen there to oversee the pyrotechnics were called away on an actual call.

Great idea — A kindergarten co-located with a nursing home. (Aside: NewMexiKen was amused while visiting to see a number of very old women in the lobby watching the Spike channel.)

Nostalgia — The Love’s truck stops along Interstate 40 reconstructed their price signs some years ago with space only for $1. (Seems rather short-sighted.) Unable to post $2, they simply post the cents. To the unsuspecting it would appear that gas was 26⁹ cents.

Religious symbolism — The purported largest cross in the Western Hemisphere at Groom, Texas, makes one wonder what the universal symbol for Christianity would be if Jesus had been executed by a firing squad or a lethal injection.

Unfortunate advertising — Showing burgers and steaks with steer horns protruding from them is not appetizing. I prefer to strongly compartmentalize my food thoughts from my animal thoughts.

Slap — Mosquitoes suck.

So hot, it seemed like two suns

That’s the Arkansas River at Tulsa early Saturday [July 16, 2005] — through a window.

Which brings two questions to mind:

1. Why would they build a hotel on a beautiful riverfront and not have balconies?

2. Why was I so slothful I couldn’t go outside to take photos on such a morning?

The Festival of San Fermin, 2010

Today marks the final day of the Spanish festival of San Fermin, a nine-day festival held since 1591. Tens of thousands of foreign visitors descend on Pamplona, Spain each year for revelry, morning bull-runs and afternoon bullfights. Although the tradition of bullfighting remains strong in Pamplona, opposition from animal rights groups remains high, and the parliament of the nearby Spanish province of Catalonia will soon be voting on a motion to outlaw bullfighting altogether. One new recent restriction in Pamplona – no vuvuzelas allowed. Sale of the noisy horns has been banned by the local government. Collected here are several photos of this years events in Pamplona, Spain. (40 photos total)

The Big Picture – Boston.com

I’ve never been to a bullfight and, while I think it is cruel and probably should be abandoned, I would like to go once. I tried to talk my colleague into it when we were in Madrid, but he’d seen one and wouldn’t go to another.

Coronado National Memorial (Arizona)

… was renamed on this date in 1952. It had been first designated Coronado International Memorial, but an adjoining Mexican memorial was never created.

“As a result of this expedition, what has been truly characterized by historians as one of the greatest land expeditions the world has known, a new civilization was established in the great American Southwest” reported the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1939. “To commemorate permanently the explorations of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado…would be of great value in advancing the relationship of the United States and Mexico upon a friendly basis of cultural understanding,” stated E. K. Burlew, Acting Secretary of the Interior in 1940. It would “stress the history and problems of the two countries and would encourage cooperation for the advancement of their common interests.”

Coronado National Memorial

Arkansas Post National Memorial (Arkansas)

… was established on this date in 1960.

In 1686, Henri de Tonti established a trading post known as “Poste de Arkansea” at the Quapaw village of Osotouy. It was the first semi-permanent French settlement in the lower Mississippi River Valley. The establishment of the Post was the first step in a long struggle between France, Spain, and England over the interior of the North American continent.

Over the years, the Post relocated as necessary due to flooding from the Arkansas River, but its position always served of strategic importance for the French, Spanish, American, and Confederate military. Spanish soldiers and British partisans clashed here in the 1783 “Colbert Raid,” the only Revolutionary War action in Arkansas.

Arkansas Post became part of the United States following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. By 1819, the post was a thriving river port and the largest city in the region and selected as the first capital of the Arkansas Territory.

During the Civil War, Confederate troops tried to maintain tactical control of the confluence of the two rivers, and in 1862 they constructed a massive earthen fortification known as Fort Hindman at the Post. In January 1863 Union troops destroyed the fort, ensuring control of the Arkansas River.

Today, the memorial and museum commemorate the multi-layered and complex history of the site. Located on a peninsula bordered by the Arkansas River and two backwaters, the site offers excellent fishing and wildlife watching opportunities.

National Park Service

Devils Postpile National Monument (California)

… was established on this date in 1911.

Established in 1911 by presidential proclamation, Devils Postpile National Monument protects and preserves the Devils Postpile formation, the 101-foot Rainbow Falls, and the pristine mountain scenery.

The Devils Postpile formation is a rare sight in the geologic world and ranks as one of the world’s finest examples of columnar basalt. Its columns tower 60-feet high and display an unusual symmetry. Another wonder is in store just downstream from the Postpile at Rainbow Falls, once called “a gem unique and worthy of its name”. When the sun is overhead, a bright rainbow highlights the spectacular Falls.

The monument is also a portal to the High Sierra backcountry, with some 75% included in the Ansel Adams Wilderness. At 800 acres, Devils Postpile National Monument may be considered small by some, yet its natural and recreational values abound.

National Park Service

Olympic National Park (Washington)

… was renamed and redesignated on this date in 1938. It had been Mount Olympus National Monument since 1909.

Glacier capped mountains, wild Pacific coast and magnificent stands of old-growth forests, including temperate rain forests — at Olympic National Park, you can find all three. About 95% of the park is designated wilderness, which further protects these diverse and spectacular ecosystems.

Olympic is also known for its biological diversity. Isolated for eons by glacial ice, and later the waters of Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Olympic Peninsula has developed its own distinct array of plants and animals. Eight kinds of plants and 15 kinds of animals are found on the peninsula but no where else on Earth.

Olympic National Park

Fort Union National Monument (New Mexico)

… was created on this date in 1954, when President Eisenhower signed a bill authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to acquire the site and remaining structures.

Fort Union was established in 1851 by Lieutenant Colonel Edwin V. Sumner as a guardian and protector of the Santa Fe Trail. During it’s forty-year history, three different forts were constructed close together. The third and final Fort Union was the largest in the American Southwest, and functioned as a military garrison, territorial arsenal, and military supply depot for the southwest. Today, visitors use a self-guided tour path to visit the second fort and the large, impressive ruins of the third Fort Union. The largest visible network of Santa Fe Trail ruts can be seen here.

Fort Union National Monument

Petroglyph National Monument (New Mexico)

… was authorized on this date in 1990. It is owned and managed jointly by the National Park Service, the city of Albuquerque and the state of New Mexico.

As you walk among the petroglyphs, you are not alone. This world is alive with the sights and sounds of the high desert – a hawk spirals down from the mesa top, a roadrunner scurries into fragrant sage, a desert millipede traces waves in the sand. There is another presence beyond what we can see or hear. People who have lived along the Rio Grande for many centuries come alive again through images they carved on the shiny black rocks. These images, and associated archeological sites in the Albuquerque area, provide glimpses into a 12,000 year long story of human life in this area.

Petroglyph National Monument stretches 17 miles along Albuquerque’s West Mesa, a volcanic basalt escarpment that dominates the city’s western horizon. . . .

Petroglyph National Monument protects a variety of cultural and natural resources including five volcanic cones, hundreds of archeological sites and an estimated 25,000 images carved by native peoples and early Spanish settlers. Many of the images are recognizable as animals, people, brands and crosses; others are more complex. Their meaning, possibly, understood only by the carver. These images are inseparable from the greater cultural landscape, from the spirits of the people who created them, and all who appreciate them.

Petroglyph National Monument is a place of respect, awe and wonderment.

Petroglyph National Monument

Pecos National Monument (New Mexico)

… was redesignated Pecos National Historical Park on this date in 1990. It had been made a national monument in 1965.

Pecos preserves 12,000 years of history including the ancient pueblo of Pecos, two Spanish Colonial Missions, Santa Fe Trail sites, 20th century ranch history of Forked Lightning Ranch, and the site of the Civil War Battle of Glorieta Pass.

Pecos National Historical Park

Redux post of the day

I still want Matt’s job and I can dance at least that well.

Still makes me feel good just to watch.