Category: National Parks

Descriptive information about America’s national parks, monuments and memorials, often with a photo or two.

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site…

was established on this date in 2000.

“On November 29, 1864, Colonel John M. Chivington led approximately 700 U.S. volunteer soldiers to a village of about 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho people camped along the banks of Big Sandy Creek in southeastern Colorado. Although the Cheyenne and Arapaho people believed they were under the protection of the U.S. Army, Chivington’s troops attacked and killed about 150 people, mainly women, children, and the elderly.”

Chaco Culture National Historical Park


According to the National Park Service, “Chaco Canyon was a major center of ancestral Puebloan culture between AD 850 and 1250. It was a hub of ceremony, trade, and administration for the prehistoric Four Corners area – unlike anything before or since.”


“Chaco is remarkable,” the Park Service continues, “for its monumental public and ceremonial buildings, and its distinctive architecture. To construct the buildings, along with the associated Chacoan roads, ramps, dams, and mounds, required a great deal of well organized and skillful planning, designing, resource gathering, and construction. The Chacoan people combined pre-planned architectural designs, astronomical alignments, geometry, landscaping, and engineering to create an ancient urban center of spectacular public architecture – one that still amazes and inspires us a thousand years later.”

NewMexiKen visited Chaco Culture National Historical Park for the first time Sunday and Monday. More than anything Chaco resembles — in concept, not appearance — an assemblage of European monastaries. Relatively few people lived there, yet the dozens of “Great Houses” were extensive with hundreds of rooms, scores of kivas and large plazas.

The 56 National Parks

Update September 24, 2007: See America’s 58 National Parks.

State

Park

Year
Alaska Denali National Park 1980
Alaska Gates of the Arctic National Park 1980
Alaska Glacier Bay National Park 1980
Alaska Katmai National Park 1980
Alaska Kenai Fjords National Park 1980
Alaska Kobuk Valley National Park 1980
Alaska Lake Clark National Park 1980
Alaska Wrangell-St. Elias National Park 1980
American Samoa National Park of American Samoa 1988
Arizona Grand Canyon National Park 1919
Arizona Petrified Forest National Park 1962
Arizona Saguaro National Park 1994
Arkansas Hot Springs National Park 1921
California Channel Islands National Park 1980
California Death Valley National Park 1994
California Joshua Tree National Park 1994
California Kings Canyon National Park 1940
California Lassen Volcanic National Park 1916
California Redwood National Park 1968
California Sequoia National Park 1890
California Yosemite National Park 1890
Colorado Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park 1999
Colorado Mesa Verde National Park 1906
Colorado Rocky Mountain National Park 1915
Florida Biscayne National Park 1980
Florida Dry Tortugas National Park 1992
Florida Everglades National Park 1947
Hawaii Haleakala National Park 1916
Hawaii Hawaii Volcanoes National Park 1916
Kentucky Mammoth Cave National Park 1941
Maine Acadia National Park 1919
Michigan Isle Royale National Park 1931
Minnesota Voyageurs National Park 1975
Montana Glacier National Park 1910
Nevada Great Basin National Park 1986
New Mexico Carlsbad Caverns National Park 1930
North Dakota Theodore Roosevelt National Park 1978
Ohio Cuyahoga Valley National Park 2000
Oregon Crater Lake National Park 1902
South Dakota Badlands National Park 1978
South Dakota Wind Cave National Park 1903
Tennessee Great Smoky Mountains National Park 1930
Texas Big Bend National Park 1944
Texas Guadalupe Mountains National Park 1972
Utah Arches National Park 1971
Utah Bryce Canyon National Park 1928
Utah Canyonlands National Park 1964
Utah Capitol Reef National Park 1971
Utah Zion National Park 1919
Virgin Islands Virgin Islands National Park 1956
Virginia Shenandoah National Park 1935
Washington Mount Rainier National Park 1899
Washington North Cascades National Park 1968
Washington Olympic National Park 1938
Wyoming Grand Teton National Park 1929
Wyoming Yellowstone National Park 1872

The year indicates when the park was established or when an existing area was redesignated as a National Park.

Great Sand Dunes National Monument and National Preserve (Colorado) is designated to become a National Park once certain land acquisition has been completed.

National Park Service

  • 24 National Battlefields, National Battlefield Parks, National Military Parks, and National Battlefield Site
  • 120 National Historical Parks, National Historic Sites, and International Historic Site
  • 4 National Lakeshores
  • 28 National Memorials
  • 76 National Monuments
  • 56 National Parks
  • 4 National Parkways
  • 19 National Preserves and National Reserves
  • 18 National Recreation Areas
  • 15 National Rivers and National Wild and Scenic Rivers and Riverways
  • 3 National Scenic Trails
  • 10 National Seashores
  • 11 Other (White House, National Mall, etc.)
  • 388 total National Park System units

San Luis Valley and Great Sand Dunes National Monument

The San Luis Valley is said to be the largest mountain valley in the world. It runs north-south for 125 miles between the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) mountain ranges in south central Colorado. Both of these ranges have numerous peaks above 14,000 feet (4300m).

Just south of Poncha Pass, the narrower northern end of the San Luis Valley is an extraordinarily picturesque landscape — even this week without snow on the mountains. Further south the distance between the ranges widens to 65 miles and the Valley becomes broad and flat — and less picturesque. The altitude of the Valley averages near 7,500 feet.

The Rio Grande del Norte rises in the San Juan Mountains and flows generally eastward into the San Luis Valley. East of Alamosa the “Great River of the North” bends south toward New Mexico. Through centuries the river deposited sand and silt from the San Juan Mountains along its meandering, changing course across the Valley. The prevailing wind blew these deposits eastward toward the Sangre de Cristos, where they were trapped at the foot of the mountains. Today the resulting sand pile is known as the Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve.

The dunes tower as high as 750 feet (230m) and cover nearly 40 square miles. They are the tallest dunes in North America. Sufficient rain and snow fall to keep the dunes stable, though the surface dries quickly and the winds sculpt and restructure the surface continuously. Here the expression “leave nothing but footprints” has little meaning as footprints will soon be gone.

Hiking in the dunes is encouraged (with the usual caveats about heat, water, lightning and not getting lost). Showers and changing rooms are provided near the parking lot — just as at a beach. Walking across the broad, sandy space between the parking lot and the first dunes and then up into the dunes I was surprised by the amount of sand stowing away in my socks and shoes. The sand makes walking more strenuous than on more solid surfaces. It also makes sliding and rolling appealing.

The Sangre de Cristos loom more than a mile above the dunes, curving around them from the north to the southeast. The Valley land to the west is being acquired by the National Park Service to prevent the mining of ground water from under the dunes. Once the acquisition is complete, the Monument will be come the 57th National Park. (See report on the legislation.)