I’m guessing that a trip to Alaska is on your life list. It’s one of the few places left on earth where you can go deep into the wilderness and wander among bear, caribou, moose, Dall sheep, and other animals in their mostly untouched natural habitat. As we enter the temperate summer travel season, now is the ideal time to head north and get a glimpse of the many wonders my home state has to offer.

I’ve lived and worked in the Land of the Midnight Sun for more than three decades and love to introduce both new and experienced travelers to its beauty and history. Despite some common misconceptions, getting off the beaten path and exploring Alaska’s backcountry is relatively easy and it’ll take you where the geology is breathtaking and varied, the cultural history is fascinating, and the opportunities for adventure are limitless. Here are a few of my favorite trip ideas, with a few tips on getting the most out of your experience.

1. Marvel at mountains and mining history in the country’s largest national park. One of my favorite Alaska drives is heading east out of Palmer on the Glenn Highway to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve. As you travel alongside the Matanuska River and the Chugach Mountains, stop at the Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Site for a great overview of the glacier and a short hike to stretch your legs. The further east you travel, the more the mountains of Wrangell-St. Elias will emerge from the horizon, so you’ll want your camera fully charged before you start this drive!

The highway stops in Glennallen and you have to turn. Head south towards Valdez and start looking for the signs to McCarthy, the “party town” (think whiskey and women) for miners who worked at the Kennecott Copper Mine until it shut down in 1938. For almost 60 years it sat idle until the National Park Service began restoring and interpreting the mine in the late 1990s. Before you turn off for McCarthy, stop at the Park Service visitor center for an introduction to both the cultures and natural wonders of America’s largest national park; Wrangell-St. Elias is six times the size of Yellowstone!

Both the mine itself and McCarthy are must-see destinations for anyone visiting the park. I took my mom here a few years ago on one of her many trips to Alaska, and we stayed at the Kennecott Glacier Lodge where we enjoyed sharing our meals with visitors from around the world in their family-style dining room. For those who don’t want to stay by the mine, the McCarthy Lodge and the Ma Johnson Hotel offer food and lodging on McCarthy’s rustic main street. Regardless of where you stay, be sure to give yourself enough time to explore the mining history, walk on a glacier, and enjoy a “flightseeing” adventure with one of the local air taxi services.

2. Take an unforgettable boat tour of Glacier Bay. Another of my mom’s favorite national park lodges is Glacier Bay Lodge—the only accommodations available inside Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve. Built during the 50th anniversary of the National Park Service in the 1960s, Glacier Bay Lodge is one of Alaska’s undiscovered gems. You’ll need to get yourself to the small town of Gustavus by either state ferry or airplane and the lodge will pick you up for the 11-mile drive to the park. The majesty of Glacier Bay is unveiled every day from the deck of the lodge’s day boat—the must-do trip for every visitor. You spend all day exploring the park’s tidewater glaciers and keeping your eyes peeled for sea otters, sea lions, puffins, mountain goats, humpback and orca whales, and, if you are lucky, a brown bear feeding along the coastline.

3. Get up-close with Alaska’s coastal brown bears. If you want to spend time up close and personal with brown bears, I can’t recommend enough taking a trip to either Katmai or Lake Clark National Park & Preserve. Flying to Katmai from Homer to spend a day with one of that city’s seasoned bear guides involves a float plane ride over Cook Inlet. Mom went with me on an early summer trip before the salmon started running and we watched brown bears in coastal tidal flats feeding on grass (which made me think of cows). You land in the ocean, wade ashore (they provide the hip-waders), and spend the day watching all kinds of bear behavior (warning: this is also mating season!). Later in the summer, you’ll land on small lakes near salmon streams and spend the day watching bears fish and eat—and eat, and eat! If you have more time and want to spend several days watching bears, try one of the lodges at Silver Salmon Creek in Lake Clark National Park & Preserve.

4. Go wild, with a guide. I mention hiring a guide to see brown bears. Don’t be shy about hiring someone to show you the sights, sounds, and smells of Alaska (yes, rotting fish is pretty smelly!). Guides know where the best wildlife viewing is, they know the most efficient way to get there, and from a safety perspective, there’s nothing like traveling in Alaska with someone who’s been there before. This is especially true if you want even more of a wilderness experience in one of Alaska’s more remote parks, like Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve, the park system’s premier wilderness park. Here you can run rivers, hike along alpine ridges, and even do some climbing. If backcountry travel is on your bucket list, there are several companies that provide guided trips to Gates. Be sure to take plenty of mosquito repellant and don’t be surprised if the sun never goes away!

Planning your trip to Alaska can be a daunting task. Here are a couple more resources, whether you’re looking for a backcountry experience or seeking out lodges and day trips. Either way, a trip to the Last Frontier will provide you with a lifetime of memories.

If you liked this story, you might also like

• Alaska: Reflections from a Guest in the Wilderness (August 23, 2012)
• Friday Photos: Happy Anniversary ANILCA (December 14, 2012)
• Getting Close to Katmai’s Bears in the Hopes of Protecting Them (July 31, 2012)

I love spring! You see more and more people getting outside enjoying our parks. I have a few things to help get you outdoors this week, including tips for your next trip to Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park, an excuse to take the kids out, and a new perspective of some of the trails in Sequoia National Park.

1. Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park has a new FREE audio tour app! This app is a self-guided walking tour that is intended to educate visitors of the history, geology, and social and cultural importance of this park. Did you know the Great Falls pours roughly two billion gallons of water into the canyon each day?
2. What animal do you think you’ll cross paths with when hiking the trails of our national parks? Bison? Elk? Fox? Birds? Alligators? Everglades National Park offers a unique wildlife experience where this is just an everyday occurrence. Photo courtesy of Everglades National Park Facebook page.
   
   
3. Our national parks are starting to bloom. It is National Wildflower Week and beautiful images of our national parks’ flowers are popping up on Pinterest. Here is a beautiful image of Desert Tissue Spring Flowers found in Joshua Tree National Park, CA. What park is your favorite to watch bloom?
4. The granola gurus at Nature Valley have shown their commitment to our parks  over the last four years by funding exciting projects with their Preserve the Parks campaign (including numerous restoration work days around the country in partnership with NPCA). A really innovative extension of this campaign is “Nature Valley Trail View” where their staff have set out to create a 360-degree “street view” of some of our national park trails. The newest addition are trails from Sequoia National Park. Check it out!
5. May 18th is National Kids to Parks Day, organized by National Park Trust. More than 100,000 people have already pledged to take kids to a park. Make your pledge today! This campaign’s mascot is “Buddy Bison” and we love his quote: “Explore outdoors, the parks are yours!” So get outside and enjoy our national parks!

Find something fun about national parks on the ’net? Let me know!

-Megan Cantrell, Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement

Imagine boating to paradise and then—without meaning to—causing it harm. Thanks to more than a decade of work in the Virgin Islands, a national park visit by boat is now gentler on the marine environment.

The spectacular coastal scenery, crystal clear waters, reliable winds, and beautiful bays of Virgin Islands National Park and the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument have made them popular destinations for boaters. In the past, these visitors had to use anchors to secure their vessels, causing considerable, albeit unintentional, damage to sea grass beds, coral reefs, and other  benthic (seabed or seafloor) resources. To combat this problem, the park embarked on a mooring program to provide a safe and reliable alternative to anchoring with the long-term goal of creating an anchorless park.

Moorings are permanent installations that allow boats to stay in one place without using anchors. In our case we drive heavy-duty augur-like devices about 15 feet into the seabed and then connect a line to a buoy on the surface (see a diagram of how this works). Boats attach to the buoy and are secure. Anchors are a more temporary solution, disturbing the seabed every time they are dropped and then retrieved. Just imagine the damage that could be done by 50 boats dropping anchors and then pulling them up day after day.

Park leadership and the Friends of Virgin Islands National Park finally achieved our long-held goal of an anchorless park in February 2013. Since the beginning of the program, the Friends group has installed 340 moorings and invested more than $663,000 in this program.

Starting back in 1999, the Friends installed 180 moorings for overnight use in ten bays around St. John. These white mooring balls along the north and south shores of St. John have played a significant role in protecting coral reefs, allowing the recovery of sea grass and protecting other benthic resources. The sea grass beds had been seriously depleted due to anchoring, but now if you snorkel in the mooring fields you will see a rich carpet of sea grass–much to the delight (and survival) of the myriad of marine creatures that make the sea grass their home.

In 2004, the Friends embarked on a program to install moorings in the recently designated Coral Reef National Monument. As a marine protected area, anchoring was prohibited within the monument. But, while we supported the conservation policies of the monument, we felt that the prohibition on anchoring precluded many of the traditional uses of the monument’s waters.  Installing moorings was the perfect answer and a “win-win” for both the users and the environment: allowing users to continue to enjoy this unique marine environment while providing needed protection to the natural resources. In this case, the Friends installed two dive moorings at popular dive sites in the monument, six moorings for blue runner fishing, and 125 storm-mooring berths and 11 day-use moorings in Hurricane Hole, a traditional refuge here for vessels during tropical storms. These moorings were installed in four phases between 2004 and 2008.

All of the moorings mentioned above were for boats up to a maximum of 60 feet in length. Vessels larger than that still had to anchor. Earlier this year, we installed 14 moorings for boats between 60 and 100 feet in six bays, finally making the park anchorless.

The protection of the park’s marine resources was obviously the principal objective of the mooring installations. However, the moorings also have a significant impact on the visiting boaters’ experience by providing a safe and convenient means of securing their boats while enjoying Virgin Islands National Park and the Coral Reef National Monument.

This year’s Most Endangered Rivers report from American Rivers makes one thing clear: It is not sustainable for a single river to support 36 million people.

That’s the situation today for the Colorado River. Though millions use its water, it is already so over-tapped that it now dries up to a trickle before reaching the sea. Climate change and population growth have the potential to make the situation worse. The Bureau of Reclamation’s own report (Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study, December 2012) stresses that there is not enough water to meet current demands across the basin, let alone support future demand increases. Scientists predict climate change will reduce the Colorado River’s flow by 10 to 30 percent by 2050. We can’t stay on the path we’re on now if we want this iconic river and its surrounding parks and communities to remain healthy.

That’s why, now more than ever, it’s time to talk about how best to conserve the river while ensuring our protected lands remain unimpaired for future generations.

Images of this iconic river are entwined with the majestic national parks it travels through, from the meadows and rich valleys of Rocky Mountain to the dramatic vistas of the Grand Canyon. A Park Service brochure of the region captures so much of it so well for me:

The national parks of the Colorado River basin set aside the best of the river corridor’s most scenic, natural, and cultural wonders to serve the country’s heart and spirit … Dinosaur National Monument’s cathedral-like canyons where the Green and Yampa Rivers meet … Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park’s steep, narrow gash through some of the hardest rock on Earth … Curecanti National Recreation Area’s vast blue shimmer in the Colorado high country … Canyonlands National Park’s meandering gulches in the heart of Utah’s red rock country … the stark meeting of big water and big desert in Glen Canyon and Lake Mead National Recreation Area … more than 2,000 sandstone arches at Arches National Park … and the breathtaking, mile-deep descent into geologic time that is Grand Canyon National Park.

These parks and recreation areas depend on the river for their health and vitality, and in turn create economic boons for surrounding communities throughout the basin. Yet, it is a nearly impossible challenge for the National Park Service to fulfill its mandate to conserve resources in these parks due to ongoing water management issues. The various federal agencies managing the river have aimed to provide a reliable supply of water to this rapidly growing region of the country but haven’t significantly considered how to incorporate the protection of parklands. Americans recognize the special character of these wild places and protect them for present and future generations. It is now my turn, and yours, to speak up on behalf of national parks to ensure these southwestern jewels remain for our children and theirs.

In their report, American Rivers points to the need for Congress to fund programs that will encourage better water management of the Colorado River for the 21st century. NPCA couldn’t agree more. All concerned agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the National Park Service must be involved in the development of a long-term, basin-wide framework to proactively manage water flows to address the needs of surrounding cities, agriculture, hydropower, recreation, and environmental resources. Full participation with an open, transparent process and adequate funding are both crucial to the future of this great American waterway.

NPCA’s Colorado River program is working to incorporate healthy river flows and healthy national parklands into the land- and water-management discussions more fully. These protected natural areas are part of larger landscapes and ecosystems that require collaboration among disparate stakeholders to protect. We work with federal, state, and local agencies to promote proactive measures for long-term restoration and protection of these public lands and waters. We believe that by highlighting the profound impact river management and continued diversion has on our national parks—places that are both beloved for their beauty and valued for their economic leverage—we can engage a diverse network of voices that will advocate to save the Colorado River.

For more information, see our recent press statement on American Rivers’ Most Endangered River and learn more about NPCA’s Colorado River program. You can take action for the Colorado River on the American Rivers website, and learn more by reading the Most Endangered Rivers report and watching the video below.

1. Grand Teton National Park hosts its own March Madness competition with wildlife that is found in the park. This year’s Grand Teton March Mania Winner is…
2. Endangered peregrine falcons return to Acadia National Park. These falcons have begun defending their nesting territories, prompting park officials to close areas surrounding Precipice and Valley Cove Cliffs. Be sure to click the photo to see a larger image of these adorable chicks. Did you know: The peregrine falcons were reintroduced to Acadia in the 1980s. Since their reintroduction, more than 100 chicks have fledged on Mount Desert Island.
3. Washington, DC’s cherry blossoms have finally bloomed! Check out this really neat article: Gorgeous “Light Paintings” Show D.C. Cherry Blossoms at Night. Capturing the blossoms at night can be difficult, but this photographer has a very unique approach.
4. Mark Deklin shares with @NPCA his #MyParkStory of how his father’s Parkinson’s temporarily gave way while visiting Badlands National Park. We were touched by this beautiful tweet.
5. The beloved Muppet Kermit the Frog is documented traveling the world. This week we discovered “Kermit on Tour” and his trip to Joshua Tree National Park. If Kermit is having that much fun in the sun, it’s a great reminder for the rest of us to go out and enjoy the warm weather in the parks, too:

Have you seen a fun national park story online? Let me know!

-Megan Cantrell, Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement

Each month, NPCA puts together a slideshow like the one below exploring one of the 401 amazing places in our National Park System. To get the featured park delivered to your inbox each month, sign up for Park Lines, NPCA’s newsletter, at www.npca.org/join.

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

Some readers may remember that a small team of NPCA employees put together a Peep diorama last year modeled after one of our nation’s most iconic parks–”Mount Peepmore.” The piece was selected as a semifinalist and displayed among the year’s best entries in a month-long annual art exhibit known as Artomatic. A number of NPCA staff proudly attended the opening reception and saw our interpretation of these four iconic presidential faces memorialized with beaks and bunny ears. It was moving.

This year, an even larger team contributed to another innovative theme, commemorating 2013 as the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as well as the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. “By the Peeple. For the Peeple. All Peeps Created Equal,” the piece reads, framed in red, white, and blue. Nick Lund, Lance Speidell, Elizabeth Anderson, Brynne Mason, Christina Kamrath, Madeline Morales, Krissy Conway, Megan Cantrell, Michael Whybrew, Madeleine Starkey, Ed Stierli, Emily Brown, Sara Conner, Jeffery Billington, Jennifer Cole, and Liz Ackley all helped in putting the ambitious project together.

Sadly, the diorama was not selected as a winner this year–but the great theme of pink, yellow, green, blue, and purple bunnies and chicks standing side by side as equals is a timeless one worth sharing!

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

The Japanese government gave more than three thousand flowering cherry trees to the people of the United States as a gift of friendship back in 1912, and the annual blossoming of pink petals is one of the city’s biggest tourist attractions. Some 1,800 trees line the Tidal Basin of the Potomac River, with more than a thousand other trees in eleven different varieties standing proudly at the White House and nearby East Potomac Park. The delicate flowers symbolize the transience of life, and area residents come to understand the appeal of this fleeting magic. The trees seem to go from peak bloom to piles of petals on the ground in the blink of an eye, and I know all too well how easy it is to miss the showy display. 

This year, planners project the trees will reach peak bloom next week. To celebrate, a popular local blog, the Capital Weather Gang, recently shared historic photos of these majestic blooms from the Library of Congress, including one of my favorites below, of Peggy Townsend, the Cherry Blossom Queen of 1939.

Don’t try this pose nowadays, though—climbing in the trees could harm them and prevent robust future blooms. If you’re caught in the branches, you could even get a warning from a guy in a beaver costume.

More than a hundred years later, I’m happy to report these blooms are still a stunning part of our park system. Though you may need to fight through a crowd of a million people to get a glimpse of them, it’s worth it for a chance to see the timeless beauty of transience up-close and perfectly pink. For more information, visit http://www.nps.gov/cherry/index.htm.

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

Several years ago, I was driving along a snaking bend of State Highway 22 that bisects Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and encountered the body of massive bull elk hanging from a fence that paralleled the road, its back legs hamstrung by four unyielding strands of barbed wire. His antlers were partially buried in a deep, windswept trough of snow and his lifeless eyes fixed on some distant point on the horizon. I wondered how long he had been hanging there.

Since that time, I have become more aware of man’s heavy hand on the landscape, and a deep desire has grown in my heart to change things—really fix the problems, beyond the ebb and flow of politics. Last year, Nature Valley generously granted my wish.

In partnership with Nature Valley, Grand Teton National Park, the Pinto Ranch, and the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation, NPCA embarked on an ambitious fence-modification project to allow pronghorn, bison, and elk safe passage into the park. The eastern boundary of Grand Teton was historically used for cattle grazing since the late 1800s, and many of these fences still stand in various stages of disrepair and pose a serious hazard to migrating animals. Often, the park simply does not have the budget to remove them. That’s why NPCA works so hard to provide support to parks like Grand Teton, whose maintenance backlog is nearing $900 million, and why we also work literally on the ground with partners like Nature Valley to help preserve the large landscapes that sustain so many wildlife species.

Grand Teton still permits some cattle grazing in the park—a grandfathered use from its historic ranching past. The fences in the North Elk Ranch allotment have been kept in good condition, but still block wildlife movement in the northern part of the park, where many species of animals migrate through. In the spring, we met with the manager of the Pinto Ranch to discuss how to make the fences in this area safer for wildlife, while still providing a reliable enclosure for his cows. We collectively agreed upon a modification of a five-mile fence that would raise the bottom wire to allow pronghorn to crawl under it, and then add a top rail to prevent wildlife from becoming ensnared as they jumped the fence.  In the fall, 25 dedicated volunteers headed out to the problem fence, armed with an arsenal of tools. Together we broke the hold of those tenacious hooked strands and restrung the fence, as bison and pronghorn grazed nearby. The bison, being the curious creatures that they are, couldn’t resist a closer look and came to survey the unusual activity on their range.

Our volunteers ranged from 20 to 70 years old, men and women alike, led by our fearless leaders Greg and Gretchen, whose vigilance and efficiency helped keep us moving forward. Volunteers flanked the fence and pulled hard to remove wire and retrieve staples from tenacious old wood posts. As I surveyed our group toiling under the blazing sun, we more closely resembled a chain gang than a bunch of environmental do-gooders. It struck me that these people weren’t policy makers or activists; they were just regular folks out there trying to do something—or, more accurately, fix something. We fixed a lot of fence that day, and as the sun waned, we stood admiring our handiwork: the same sturdy posts, but now, without the harmful bottom wire.

Just as we were ready to hang up our gloves for the day, hauling big unwieldy loops of barbed wire into the back of the pick-up, I noticed a single pronghorn buck approach to within fifteen feet of where I stood. He sauntered over to the fence, contemplating what had changed, and nervously paced back and forth. In one sudden movement, he ducked his graceful horns in the newly cleared space, slipped under the fence, and headed to the nearby irrigation ditch for a drink. It took this intelligent creature less than ten minutes to realize that the obstacle that had been in place for decades was now gone, and to take advantage of our work.

There are some things in life that go beyond words, and I took this as a thank you of the highest order.

Scientists estimate that rats are responsible for half of bird and reptile extinctions worldwide, and island wildlife populations are particularly vulnerable. The Channel Islands provide critical habitat and nesting grounds for a variety of land and shore birds, including the threatened Scripps’s murrelet. In 2001 and 2002, seven governmental and nonprofit organizations collaborated on an innovative invasive species removal program as part of a larger effort to protect and restore biodiversity on the islands.

A new Park Service video describes some of the efforts conservationists made to remove the rats, and some of the hopeful results, including a four-fold increase in Scripps’s murrelet nests, an increase in the Scripps’s murrelets’ hatching rates from 30 to 85 percent, a wider habitat range for Cassin’s auklets, and strong improvements for other animal populations, including native lizards and mice. The researchers also recorded ashy storm-petrels nesting on the island—for the first time ever.

Park officials and their partners will release a report on their findings later this year, but in the meantime, the video summarizes the good news while capturing some of the scenic vistas that make this part of the world so special.

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

Learn more

• See more photos of park wildlife and learn more about these stunning islands by watching NPCA’s recent slideshow on this park.
• Read about the recent recovery of the island night lizard at Channel Islands National Park.