Category: Places & Travel

Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming)

… was so designated on this date in 1929.

Grand Teton

Located in northwestern Wyoming, Grand Teton National Park protects spectacular mountain scenery and a diverse collection of wildlife. The central feature of the park — the Teton Range — is a 40-mile-long mountain front rising from the valley floor some 6,000 feet. The towering Tetons were formed from earthquakes that occurred over the past 13 million years along a fault line. The jagged range includes its signature peak — Grand Teton, 13,770 feet (4,198 m) — and at least twelve pinnacles over 12,000 feet (3,658 m). Seven morainal lakes adorn the base of the range, and more than 100 alpine lakes dot the backcountry.

Elk, moose, mule deer, bison and pronghorn, are commonly found in the park. Black bears roam the forests and canyons, while grizzlies range throughout more remote portions of the park. More than 300 species of birds can be observed, including bald eagles, peregrine falcons and trumpeter swans.

Grand Teton National Park

Lafayette National Park (Maine)

… was designated on this date in 1919. It became Acadia National Park in 1929.

Cadillac Mountain

Located on the rugged coast of Maine, Acadia National Park encompasses over 47,000 acres of granite-domed mountains, woodlands, lakes and ponds, and ocean shoreline. Such diverse habitats create striking scenery and make the park a haven for wildlife and plants.

Entwined with the natural diversity of Acadia is the story of people. Evidence suggests native people first lived here at least 5,000 years ago. Subsequent centuries brought explorers from far lands, settlers of European descent, and, arising directly from the beauty of the landscape, tourism and preservation.

Attracted by the paintings and written works of the “rusticators,” artists who portrayed the beauty of Mount Desert Island in their works, the affluent of the turn of the century flocked to the area. Though they came in search of social and recreational activities, these early conservationists had much to do with preserving the landscape we know today. George B. Dorr, the park’s first superintendent, came from this social strata. He devoted 43 years of his life, energy, and family fortune to preserving the Acadia landscape. Thanks to the foresight of Dorr and others like him, Acadia became the first national park established east of the Mississippi.

Acadia National Park

Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona)

… was so designated on this date in 1919.

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is more than a great chasm carved over millennia through the rocks of the Colorado Plateau. It is more than an awe-inspiring view. It is more than a pleasuring ground for those who explore the roads, hike the trails, or float the currents of the turbulent Colorado River.

This canyon is a gift that transcends what we experience. Its beauty and size humble us. Its timelessness provokes a comparison to our short existence. In its vast spaces we may find solace from our hectic lives. The Grand Canyon we visit today is a gift from past generations.

Grand Canyon National Park

Mount McKinley National Park (Alaska)

… now Denali National Park & Preserve, was established on this date in 1917.

Denali.jpg

It’s more than a mountain. Denali National Park & Preserve features North America’s highest mountain, 20,320-foot tall Mount McKinley. The Alaska Range also includes countless other spectacular mountains and many large glaciers. Denali’s more than 6 million acres also encompass a complete sub-arctic eco-system with large mammals such as grizzly bears, wolves, Dall sheep, and moose.

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial (Indiana)

… was authorized by the signature of President Kennedy on this date in 1962. It was the first unit of the National Park Service in Indiana. Indiana Dunes and George Rogers Clark National Historical Park have been added since.

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial preserves the site of the farm where Abraham Lincoln spent 14 formative years of his life, from the ages of 7 to 21. He and his family moved to Indiana in 1816 and stayed until 1830 when they moved on to Illinois.

National Park Service

Death Valley (California)

… was proclaimed a national monument on this date in 1933. It became a national park in 1994.

Death Valley

Hottest, Driest, Lowest: Death Valley is a land of extremes. It is one of the hottest places on the surface of the Earth with summer temperatures averaging well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. At 282 feet below the level of the sea, it is the driest place in North America with an average rainfall of only 1.96 inches a year.

This valley is also a land of subtle beauties: Morning light creeping across the eroded badlands of Zabriskie Point to strike Manly Beacon, the setting sun and lengthening shadows on the Sand Dunes at Stovepipe Wells, and the colors of myriad wildflowers on the golden hills above Harmony Borax on a warm spring day.

Death Valley National Park

Best Cities

In its September issue, National Geographic Adventure Magazine picked the “best mountain, urban, coastal, wilderness, and small towns in every state, where you can live the adventure dream daily”

Among cities, these were the top ten:

Chicago, Illinois
Nashville, Tennessee
Austin, Texas
Huntsville, Alabama
Gainesville, Florida
Overland Park, Kansas
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Springfield, Missouri
Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Las Vegas was the top “adventure” spot overall.

Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado)

… is celebrating its 93th anniversary today.

Established on January 26, 1915, Rocky Mountain National Park is a living showcase of the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains. With elevations ranging from 8,000 feet in the wet, grassy valleys to 14,259 feet at the weather-ravaged top of Long’s Peak, a visitor to the park has opportunities for countless breathtaking experiences and adventures.

Elk, mule deer, moose, bighorn sheep, black bears, coyotes, cougars, eagles, hawks and scores of smaller animals delight wildlife-watchers of all ages. Wildflower-lovers are never disappointed in June and July when the meadows and hillsides are splashed with botanical color. Autumn visitors can relax among the golden aspens or enjoy the rowdier antics of the elk rut (mating season).

National Park Service

Michigan

… joined the Union as the 26th state on this date in 1837.

  • “Derived from the Indian word Michigama, meaning great or large lake.”
  • The State Nickname is the “Great Lake State”. Others include “Wolverine State” or “Water Winter Wonderland”.
  • Michigan
  • The State motto is “Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice” (If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you).
  • The Michigan state flower is the apple blossom, the tree the white pine and the bird the robin.
  • Indigenous people in Michigan at the time of contact were the Ojibwa, Ottawa and Potawatomi.

Click image for larger version.

Addendum: The first bullet above is a quotation from michigan.gov, the “Official State of Michigan Portal.” It should be corrected. It is the equivalent of saying, “Derived from the European word …”

There are no “Indian” words. Indian is not a language.

Aztec Ruins National Monument (New Mexico)

… was established on this date in 1923.

Around 1100 A.D. ancient peoples embarked on an ambitious building project along the Animas River in northwestern New Mexico. Work gangs excavated, filled, and leveled more than two and a half acres of land. Masons laid out sandstone blocks in intricate patterns to form massive stone walls. Wood-workers cut and carried heavy log beams from mountain forests tens of miles away. In less than three decades they built a monumental “great house” three-stories high, longer than a football field, with perhaps 500-rooms including a ceremonial “great kiva” over 41-feet in diameter.

Aztec Ruins

A short trail winds through this massive site offering a surprisingly intimate experience. Along the way visitors discover roofs built 880 years ago, original plaster walls, a reed mat left by the inhabitants, intriguing “T” shaped doorways, provocative north-facing corner doors, and more. The trail culminates with the reconstructed great kiva, a building that inherently inspires contemplation, wonder, and an ancient sense of sacredness.

Aztec Ruins National Monument

Time and Space

Anyone who spends any time on an airliner (and gives the whole thing any thought) will find Air Traffic Safety vs. Capacity interesting. Here’s an excerpt that brings out the key point:

Various entities in aviation are using the complexities found in air traffic control to obscure the basic facts in order to further their agendas. The basic fact I would like to clarify is the finite capacity of a runway. I too have an agenda. My agenda is safety.

Any runway has a finite capacity. The key to understanding this is in understanding time. Only one aircraft is allowed to use the runway at any time. It takes a certain amount of time for a departing aircraft to taxi onto a runway, accelerate to flying speed and lift off. Likewise, it takes a certain amount of time for an arriving aircraft to touch down, slow down and taxi off the runway. The time it takes the typical airliner to do either one — land or takeoff — is roughly one minute.

The math is as simple as it is inescapable. Roughly 60 airliners can use a runway in one hour if conditions are absolutely perfect. It is physically impossible to improve that number. However, it can get a lot worse.

As the author goes on to illustrate, one minute at 180 mph is three miles, the distances airliners must usually maintain on approach (five miles for larger airliners). That means that planes landing in New York, for example, need to have a place in line when they take off from Washington or Boston. Throw in a rain cloud … you get the idea.

White Sands National Monument (New Mexico)

… was established by President Herbert Hoover on this date in 1933.

At the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert lies a mountain ringed valley called the Tularosa Basin. Rising from the heart of this basin is one of the world’s great natural wonders – the glistening white sands of New Mexico.

White Sands

Here, great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert and have created the world’s largest gypsum dune field. The brilliant white dunes are ever changing: growing, cresting, then slumping, but always advancing. Slowly but relentlessly the sand, driven by strong southwest winds, covers everything in its path.

White Sands National Monument

The Grand Canyon

… was first designated for preservation on this date in 1908 when President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the area a national monument. It was designated a national park in 1919.

Grand Canyon

NewMexiKen photo 2006. Click image for larger version.

Sled Town U.S.A.

SILVERTON — Snow-covered vehicles sit neglected on a minus-2-degree morning as Becky Joyce glides past gazebo-size downtown snowbanks and parks her sled outside the Avalanche coffee shop. Five more just like it sit nearby.

“This is such a kick, and it’s so efficient. We rarely drive our cars,” the part-time nurse says as she hops off and joins other sled commuters already inside sipping steamy drinks.

While Coloradans elsewhere might curse the inconvenience of snow-slicked roads, here in what could be called Sled Town U.S.A., hardy residents look forward to the Thanksgiving-to-mid-March snowpacked streets.

Folks glide to work, to the grocery store, to school, to the taverns and to the ice rink, turning this remote San Juan Mountains community into a throwback to a simpler era and a counterpoint to the chic, SUV-clogged resort towns.

The Denver Post

Annual Silverton snowfall: 12½ feet.

Are cellphones dangerous to flight?

Ask the pilot, Patrick Smith answers the question: Are cellphones dangerous to flight? First, he tells us why we have to put other electronics away during takeoffs and landings.

Before getting to cellphones, passengers should know that the restrictions pertaining to computers, iPods and certain other devices have nothing to do with electronic interference at all. For instance, laptops. In theory, a poorly shielded notebook computer can emit harmful energy, but the main reason laptops need to be put away for takeoff and landing is to prevent them from becoming 200-mph projectiles in the event of an impact or sudden deceleration, and to help keep the passageways clear during an evacuation. Your computer is a piece of luggage, and luggage needs to be stowed so it doesn’t kill somebody or get in the way.

In the case of iPods and the like, it has to do with the headphones. During takeoffs and landings, you need to be able to hear and follow instructions if there’s an emergency. That’s hard to do if you’ve got your MP3 player cranked to 11.

Key point: “I would venture to guess that at least half of all cellular phones, whether inadvertently or out of laziness, are left on during flight.”

People power

More than half of the U.S. population (51%) resides in the nine most populated states.

Just about everyone knows that California has the most people of any state (36.55 million, 12% of the whole country).

Can you name the seven other states that have more than 10 million people? And then name the next state (ninth most populated), which has 9.5 million people?

(Based on July 1, 2007, estimates released by the Census Bureau today.)

Well, wood ‘ya look at that

Mesa Verde

Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law Charles Mason rode out on what is now Sun Point in search of lost cattle on this date in 1888 and found Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde. That afternoon, Richard found Spruce Tree House, and the next day, the two men discovered Square Tower House. Al Wetherill, Richard’s brother, saw Cliff Palace sometime the year before, but he did not enter the dwelling, so the credit for “discovering” the dwelling has been given to Richard Wetherill and Charles Mason.

In 1901, Richard Wetherill homesteaded land that included Pueblo Bonito, Pueblo Del Arroyo, and Chetro Ketl in what is now Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Wetherill remained in Chaco Canyon, homesteading and operating a trading post at Pueblo Bonito until his murder in 1910. Chiishch’ilin Biy, charged with the murder, served several years in prison, but was released in 1914 due to poor health. Wetherill is buried in the small cemetery west of Pueblo Bonito.

NewMexiKen took the photo in 2006. Click it for a larger version.

Capitol Reef

… was designated a National Park on this date in 1971. It had been a national monument since 1937.

The Waterpocket Fold, a 100-mile long wrinkle in the earth’s crust known as a monocline, extends from nearby Thousand Lakes Mountain to the Colorado River (now Lake Powell). Capitol Reef National Park was established to protect this grand and colorful geologic feature, as well as the unique natural and cultural history found in the area.

National Park Service

See the Capitol Dome in the reef?

Capitol Reef

[NewMexiKen photo, 2002]