Category: Places & Travel

Yosemite’s Natural State Commands a High Price

From The Washington Post:

After decades of debate, Yosemite is embarking on a $440 million plan to limit or change human activity around the glorious but beleaguered park. Some campsites will be eliminated or moved, roads and trails will be refigured, and many visitors will eventually have to roam the valley in shuttle buses instead of their cars — all to better protect the park’s natural wonders without ruining public access.

Striking that delicate balance has become the crucible of national parks across the country — from Yellowstone’s struggle with snowmobiles to conflicts over motorized boating on the Colorado River inside the Grand Canyon.

New population pressures and recreational pastimes that keep pushing deeper into pristine wilderness are laying siege to many national parks, and some of them are at a loss for solutions. Yosemite believes it has found its remedy.

Read more.

Photo.

Where are the cherries?

NewMexiKen reads that the cherry blossoms around Washington’s Tidal Basin are about to explode. Truly it is spectacular, though the “peak” bloom seems an altogether too brief moment in time each year.

I have long thought that the cherry blossoms are the perfect metaphor for so much of what happens in the nation’s capital. There is a tremendous amount of prediction and talk and hype, often beginning weeks in advance of the actual event. When the blossoms do arrive so do the crowds, driving, cycling or walking around and around, oohing and ahhing.

Much hype, much show, much motion, much talk.

And not one damn cherry.

America’s Favorite Cities 2004

From Travel + Leisure Magazine and AOL Travel:

CITIES WITH THE FRIENDLIEST PEOPLE
1) Nashville
2) Honolulu
3) San Antonio
LEAST: Los Angeles

TOP CITIES FOR HONEYMOONS
1) Honolulu
2) San Juan, Puerto Rico
3) San Francisco
WORST: Houston

TOP CITIES FOR PEOPLE-WATCHING
1) Las Vegas
2) New Orleans
3) New York
WORST: Houston

CITIES WITH THE MOST ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE
1) San Diego
2) Honolulu
3) San Francisco
LEAST: Philadelphia

CITIES WITH THE MOST STYLISH PEOPLE
1) New York
2) San Francisco
3) Las Vegas
LEAST: Philadelphia

TOP CITIES FOR SHOPPING
1) New York
2) Chicago
3) San Francisco
WORST: Austin

TOP CITIES FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
1) Portland
2) Washington, DC
3) San Francisco
WORST: Houston

TOP CITIES TO VISIT IN SPRING
1) San Diego
2) Washington, DC
3) San Antonio
WORST: Houston

TOP CITIES FOR DINING OUT
1) New Orleans
2) San Francisco
3) New York
WORST: Austin

TOP CITIES FOR CLEANLINESS
1) Minneapolis/St. Paul
2) Honolulu
3) Portland
LEAST: New Orleans

TOP CITIES FOR PEACE + QUIET
1) Santa Fe
2) Portland
3) Minneapolis/St. Paul
WORST: New York

TOP CITIES FOR HISTORICAL SITES + MONUMENTS
1) Washington, DC
2) Boston
3) Philadelphia
WORST: Las Vegas

Interior memo told park heads to spin cuts

From The Salt Lake Tribune:

… a Feb. 20 e-mail to park superintendents in the northeastern United States that outlined potentially controversial cuts by Park Service Deputy Director Randy Jones. Among the cutbacks: reducing the number of lifeguards on beaches, eliminating all ranger-guided tours, not cutting lawns, privatizing campgrounds and closing parks “every Sunday and Monday” this summer season. The memo told superintendents that Jones said to refrain from issuing news releases about the cuts.

“He suggested that if you feel you must inform the public through a press release on this year’s hours or days of operation, for example, that you state what the park’s plans are and not to directly indicate that ‘this is a cut’ in comparison to last year’s operation,” reads the e-mail, apparently written by Northeastern Deputy Regional Director Sandy Walters. If pressed, “use the terminology of ‘service level adjustment’ due to fiscal constraints” to describe the cuts, the memo said.

Read more.

Petrified Forest expansion in danger

The Arizona Republic reports:

For nearly a decade, some of the state’s largest ranchers have waited patiently to strike a deal with the federal government to enlarge Petrified Forest National Park and protect the area’s geological and archaeological treasures.

But time appears to be running out as development pressures increase and the ongoing drought makes the cattle industry less viable.

Meanwhile, bills seeking the park’s expansion by 97,000 acres, doubling its size, languish in U.S. House and Senate subcommittees with no hearing dates scheduled. And the state, which has been a latecomer in endorsing the expansion, still faces a laborious process in determining the value of State Land Department property that would be involved in the process.

Read more.

Great Sand Dunes update

Rocky Mountain News reports:

The Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve is one step closer to doubling in size and becoming Colorado’s fourth national park.

Money to buy the Baca Ranch property adjacent to the existing monument, which features the tallest sand dunes in North America, was officially placed in escrow Friday at a California title company.

Read more.

The Day Cinderella Vanished

Good article on the Yellowstone wolf pack from the Los Angeles Times. It begins:

A grim chorus of howls shattered the predawn stillness. As darkness gave way to dim light, a wolf emerged in a clearing.

He was charcoal gray, with a splash of black fur marking his snout and eyes. He sat up tall, his head thrown back in a long, desolate moan. His hot breath froze when it hit the air, leaving shards of ice dangling from his muzzle.

Two miles to the southwest, two other wolves howled excitedly from the crest of 9,000-foot Specimen Ridge. Their calls were answered by another group whose voices echoed from the direction of Tower Junction, near the Yellowstone River.

“There are three packs out there,” said wildlife biologist Greg Wright as he watched the animals through a high-powered lens. “You don’t usually hear this much howling. It could be a territorial dispute, but I’m not sure what’s going on.”

Soon, it would be clear. The gray lady — the Cinderella wolf — was missing.

A Californian’s Conception of the Continental United States

The blog etherfarm: whither whatever has posted a great description of U.S. geography from the California point of view.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite toys was a wooden puzzle of the United States. Each piece, painted in a single bright color, corresponded to one of our 50 states. I’d generally go from east to west, placing Maine first—a ritual which I think imbued me with a fascination for that state, then Florida—because that’s where my grandparents lived at the time, then fill in the rest piece by piece. I often wonder if that puzzle still exists in my parents’ basement; it’s the kind of toy I’d love to give to my children someday….

Apparently the U.S. puzzle I played with as a child was never marketed in California. When I talk to Californians about my many road trips, I’m always totally amazed by the comments and questions I get just in response to my comments about geography. I’ve compiled these reactions and synthesized a map of the United States which corresponds to the twisted geographic perception most Californians possess…

A few prefatory words. Maps are fundamentally about shapes. I assume that Californians are aware of the basic shape of the U.S. I also assume that Californians know that there are 50 states and that Alaska and Hawaii are generally not considered part of the continental United States.

Legend

  1. California. Unsurprisingly, California remains intact.
  2. This is the state of Reno, which is easy to spot because it’s just outside the “Tahoe Region”.
  3. The state of Vegas.
  4. All Californians know that their neighbor to the north is Oregon. They know this because Oregon is where Chai was invented.
  5. This is the state of Seattle unless you’re really wealthy, in which case it’s the state of Puget Sound. This is where Starbucks comes from. You’ll note that both Oregon and Seattle span the space between the west coastline and the I-5 corridor.
  6. This is Death Valley. It’s hot here. Except in the winter, when it’s cold.
  7. This is the state of Aspen. From the state of Aspen, you can ski straight into state #9
  8. This state has two names for Californians. If you’re from Northern California, it’s known as “That Bastard of a President’s Ranch”. If you’re from Southern California, it’s called “The Alamo”.
  9. The Midwest. It’s a huge state, as you can see, and for Californians, Midwest inhabitants on both sides of the Mississippi live on a strict diet of iceberg lettuce and Budweiser, which is why they have such big hair.
  10. The blue vertical line is the Mississippi River. Californians don’t actually know where it is, they just know it’s in the middle of the country and that it runs “up and down”.
  11. 11 points to the state of Chicago, which is a convenient home to the city of Chicago. [I can’t begin to tell you how many Californians think Chicago is a state].
  12. This is Florida. It’s home to Disney World (which is just like Disneyland) and a lot of Cubans, like that Ricky Martin.
  13. This is Back East, colloquially known as New England. It contains most of the 50 states because the Pilgrims thought small. That’s why they’re so rude Back East, you know. They don’t have room enough to spread out their yoga mats and become one with the universe.
  14. New York, where the official state animal is the bagel.

In closing, I’d like to remind Californians of the phrase “tongue in cheek“. C’mon, Californians! Learn to laugh at yourselves, and you’ll find that everyone else is laughing with you, not at you. Because we all take the governor of California very seriously.

Take a look at the whole essay and the comments.

Link via pandagon.net.

Around the world in 10 days

From CNN Around the world in economy class:

We decided to take this one step further: And do the trip in Economy Class. Our Star Alliance round-the-world ticket cost around $2,500 for 29,000 miles around the globe.

Our route would be London to Frankfurt to Singapore to Sydney to Honolulu to San Fransisco to London. All in 10 days. And all in economy!

What follows is a diary to show how we did it, how we survived and whether we were able to do any business in our destinations, or forgive the blunt language, were we too knackered.

Who wants to go — albeit with more time and more places along the way?

Link via The Coyote’s Bark…..

Grand Teton National Park…

was so designated 75 years ago yesterday (February 26, 1929).

The photo and the following history are from the Grand Teton National Park web site.

The original Grand Teton National Park, set aside by an act of Congress in 1929, included only the Teton Range and six glacial lakes at the base of the mountains.

The Jackson Hole National Monument, decreed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt through presidential proclamation in 1943, combined Teton National Forest acreage, other federal properties including Jackson Lake and a generous 35,000-acre donation by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The Rockefeller lands continued to be privately held until December 16, 1949 when impasse for addition to the national park was resolved.

On September 14, 1950, the original 1929 Park and the 1943 National Monument (including Rockefeller’s donation) were united into a “New” Grand Teton National Park, creating present-day boundaries.

Vrooming Into Yellowstone

Nicholas Kristof thinks “humans trump the bison and moose.” Two excerpts from his op-ed piece in The New York Times:

Yellowstone National Park, a wonderland at any time of year, is particularly dazzling in winter, when the geysers shoot out of snowfields and the elk wear mantles of frost. I took one of my sons to visit last year and learned two things that I don’t believe most environmentalists realize.

First, in winter Yellowstone is virtually inaccessible except by snowmobile. Cars are banned (except for one small part of the park), and Yellowstone is so big that snowshoeing and cross-country skiing offer access only to the hardiest backpackers, who can camp in snow and brutal cold for days at a time.

Second, a new generation of snowmobiles is available with four-stroke engines, not two-stroke. These machines cut hydrocarbon emissions by 90 percent — and noise by 50 percent. …

As an avid backpacker who loves the outdoors, I think the environmental movement should be trying to get more people out into the wild. That’s why I’d like to see the Bush administration’s compromise upheld, so Americans can continue to enjoy Yellowstone in winter. Cross-country skiers and snowshoers would, of course, still have all of backcountry Yellowstone for themselves, with no machines for many miles around.

Granted, snowmobiles are an intrusion. But so are cars. In the summer, we accept a trade-off: we admitted about 965,000 people last July to Yellowstone, with all the noise, garbage, public toilets and disruption that entailed, knowing that the park would be less pristine but that more people would get a chance to enjoy it. That seems a fair trade.

The philosophical question is the purpose of conservation: Do we preserve nature for its sake, or ours?

My bias is to put our interests on top. Thus I’m willing to encroach on wilderness to give Americans more of a chance to get into the wild. That’s why we build trails, for example — or why we build roads into Yellowstone.

National Park Service

NewMexiKen apologizes for any difficulty you may have in loading this page. In a fit of disregard for the public, the National Park Service has taken its web server down today for system maintenance — on a Saturday — in the middle of the day — for 12 hours (8 a.m. to 8 p.m.).

The difficulty for NewMexiKen readers is that links from NewMexiKen to Park Service photos and sites will not work.

Oregon…

was admitted to the Union as the 33rd state on this date in 1859.

Oregon has the distinction of being the only state in the union whose flag has a different pattern on the reverse side. The flag’s reverse side depicts a beaver.