On the Cover
“Race Day” by Diana Roper McDowell, is set against the conifer-covered mountains of Acadia National Park. You can find more of Diana’s paintings at www.roperart.com.
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Find Yourself In The Parks This Spring There’s something special about spring in the National Park System, and it can range from newborn wildlife and wildflower bursts to simply the calm of the season.
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Learning Lessons From North Cascades to the Smoky Mountains, field institutes based in national parks will teach your children well when it comes to the environment and nature’s beauty.
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Rebirth in The Parks Bison calves decked out in fuzzy red fur, eagles incubating nests, even newborn whales are among the wildlife you might spot in the National Park System this spring.
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Small Town Perks West Yellowstone is one of the smaller gateway towns you’ll find in the National Park System, which isn’t such a bad thing.
Helping Hands In The Parks National park friends groups large and small work hard throughout the year to help parks meet ends and to lure newcomers into nature.
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Spring’s Best Park Photo Shoot Looking for great photographs in the parks this spring? Do your homework so you don’t head home disappointed.
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What’s Your National Park IQ? Are you savvy enough to ace the professor’s spring park quiz?
Spring 2014 Editor
Kurt Repanshek Special Projects editor
Patrick Cone art director
Courtney Cooper contributors
Kirby Adams Danny Bernstein Patrick Cone Robert Janiskee Rebecca Latson
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Essential Park Guides are published by National Park Advocates, LLC, to showcase how best to enjoy and explore the National Park System. National Park Advocates, LLC, P.O. Box 980452, Park City, Utah, 84098. © 2014 Essential Park Guide, Spring 2014. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.
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Flocking Home Spring is the time when migratory birds head north for singing, nesting, and chicks. Where in the parks might you find them? Spring in the Parks Whether you prefer hiking mountain trails, smelling desert flowers in bloom, or sighting newborn bear cubs, there’s a spring destination in the National Park System for you.
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Jubilee Pass, Death Valley National Park / NPS
Spring. It’s a fresh, vibrant season in the National Park System, one of renewal, for the parks’ wildlife, vegetation, and even for human visitors. After long, dark months of cold and snow across much of the system, the arrival of March, April, and May provide greater warmth, daylight, and access in the parks. As Patrick Cone explains in Yellowstone Reborn on pages 5-7, this is the season that allows us to watch gangly and wobbly youngsters—elk and bison calves, ducklings, wolf pups and bear cubs, among many others—in places such as Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier national parks. But those parks don’t monopolize the wildlife boom. Black bear cubs are on the loose in Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains national parks, whale calves can be seen at times from Olympic National Park and Point Reyes National Seashore, and sea turtles are nesting, and hatching, at parks and seashores along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The melting of winter snows, and the green-up of the landscape, practically beg us to stretch our legs with a hike away from the parking lots and into the colorful blooms of the season. On pages 12-17 we point out some great early season hikes, some wildflower festivals, and some great early season campgrounds. But spring’s arrival also should serve as a reminder that the National Park System is a fantastic learning center. Helping us learn about nature in the parks are field institutes that stretch from North Cascades National Park in the Pacific Northwest across the country to Prince William
Forest Park in northern Virginia. These nonprofit operations—the North Cascades Institute, NatureBridge, Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, among others—focus largely on introducing youth to nature. There, out in the forests, walking across meadows, or perhaps paddling across lakes or climbing mountains, field institutes instill in their students an appreciation for all things wild and natural, and spark a desire to chart their educational goals so they can have careers in concert with nature. A look at some of these institutes—how they operate, what they accomplish, and how you and your children can benefit from them—can be found on pages 18-21. Seemingly operating in tandem with the field institutes are national park friends groups. While their mission is primarily to help individual parks overcome funding shortages, these groups also play a key role, introducing youth to nature and the parks. Friends of Saguaro National Park, for instance, helped connect about 11,000 kids to Saguaro National Park in 2013. On pages 22-23 Danny Bernstein opens a window on the good deeds these organizations do. Within the covers of Traveler’s Essential Park Guide, Spring 2014, you’ll also find some tips on where to bird during this season, and what to carry when you head out into the parks with your camera. Spring. It’s an inviting season begging you to get a jump-start on your national park explorations for the year!
~ Kurt Repanshek 4
Essential Park Guide | Spring 2014
Grizzly bear sows are out and about with their cubs in Rocky Mountain national parks in spring. Just be sure you admire them from a distance /NPS, Jim Peaco
yellowstone reborn I could just barely see the young grizzlies with the naked eye, but the powerful spotting scope showed the scene perfectly. High above the rushing waters of Soda Butte Creek, under the high ramparts of The Thunderer, the trio frolicked on the north-facing slope’s snowbanks. Fresh out of their confining den the two cubs, under the watchful eye of their mother, climbed up the steep snowbank, turned, sat down, and slid down on their butts, again and again. You could almost hear them laughing. It’s spring once again in Yellowstone.
By Patrick Cone
Newborn pronghorn fawns typically arrive in May / Patrick Cone
Look carefully in the parks this spring and you can see young wildlife in abundance / All photos by Patrick Cone
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Essential Park Guide | Spring 2014
inter had loosened its icy grip on the high country. Faint stirrings from burrows and dens and caves led the young critters into a new world of running water, budding plants, and warm sunshine. Warm weather and life springs abundant. Elk calves, still sticky from their birth in late May, nurse from their mothers. Bison nuzzle their young and begin teaching them the ways of their new world. Moose calves stay close to their mothers. And these bear cubs, playing in the sun, would soon learn how to stalk these young animals. After the winter-killed elk and bison carcasses were picked clean in the meadows, they were on the hunt. In mid- to late-March impatient, and hungry, adult boars leave their dens in search of food, soon followed by female bears without cubs. Later, the mothers would emerge with their young, and you definitely don’t want to be too close when they’re around. They’ll dig up wildflower bulbs, dig up
burrowing rodents, and grab the errant elk calf when they can. The Lamar Valley in northeastern Yellowstone is a spectacle of animals, the Serengeti of America. Large herds of bison flow like molasses across the hills. Roving gangs of wolves patrol for prey. Elk keep a watchful eye as they graze the deep grass. There’s always some sort of action. A few years ago we watched as a male grizzly chased down and caught a young elk calf. Its squeals of terror carried across the valley as its young life was brought to an abrupt end. As we observed the scene, a visitor pleaded with the ranger to stop the carnage. He didn’t say a thing but a look said, “You stop him.” I tonelessly whistled a tune... “today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic.” It’s the natural order of things here, where the animals fight, take flight, or become dinner. Spring is a great time to be in the park. There are young coyotes stalking baby grouse; wolves chasing down newborn bison; antelope grazing with
their twins in the sage flats. While the road from Mammoth to the Northeast Entrance through the Lamar Valley is open year-round, depending on the winter, others open in April or May. There’s drama in every turn. In the Hayden Valley you’ll see grizzlies with their faces covered with the gore from bison carcasses, but make sure you keep an eye all around you: one year we were so intent on watching a bear that another had started to come up from behind us. Remember, they’re hungry and so are their babies. Remember, too, if you’re hiking to make sure you’re in a group of three or more, make some noise on the trail, and keep the bear spray handy, not buried in your pack. South of Yellowstone in Grand Teton National Park roadside animal sightings are common too. At the oxbow bend of the Snake River you may see young swans, antelope, fox, porcupines, the occasional young badger, a family of otters, and plenty of moose.
Of course this spring spectacle is not peculiar to Yellowstone and the West. If you can’t make it to Yellowstone this spring, perhaps you can watch the coastal grizzlies with their young at Katmai, Lake Clark, or Glacier Bay national parks in Alaska. Or head to Shenandoah in Virginia or Great Smoky in North Carolina/Tennessee to watch the black bears and their brood. Visit Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina to spot newborn foals of the seashore’s Banker horses. You can observe bighorn sheep lambs in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, and young desert bighorns in Zion National Park in Utah. Bison calves graze at both Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota and Wind Cave National Park just one state south. If you’re more attuned to the seashore, then visit Cape Hatteras National Seashore (in North Carolina), Canaveral National Seashore (in Florida), Cumberland Island National Seashore (in Georgia), Padre Island
National Seashore (in Texas), or Biscayne National Park (in Florida) to perhaps catch green or loggerhead sea turtles laying their eggs, or for the rush to the surf of the hatchlings when they climb out of their sandy incubators. On the other side of the country in Olympic National Park in Washington, the Whale Trail sign at Kalaloch Lodge will show you where to watch for orca and gray whales, as well as sea lions, porpoise, and sea otters. Point Reyes National Seashore down the coast in California is a reliable spot for spotting gray whales and their newborn calves. Birders, meanwhile, scan the Precipice Cliff area in Acadia National Park in Maine to watch nesting pairs of peregrine falcons. You can even watch the young birds as they stretch their wings in June and take flight. Spring! It’s a time of renewal and rebirth. It’s a great time to visit any unit in the National Park System to view young wildlife in a natural environment without the crowds. It’ll put a spring in your step as well.
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Once the surrounding hillsides and forests dry out from winter, mountain biking is a big lure for West Yellowstone / West Yellowstone Chamber
By Kurt Repanshek
small town perks
West Yellowstone is one of the smaller gateway towns you’ll find in the National Park System, which isn’t such a bad thing. By Kurt Repanshek 8
Essential Park Guide | Spring 2014
Walking the streets of West Yellowstone, I’m not in a hurry to move on into Yellowstone National Park. This Western way station has been around for more than a century, and it continues to intrigue visitors, both first-timers and repeaters. There are bookstores to lose yourself in, art galleries that reflect the Rocky Mountain atmosphere West Yellowstone is steeped in, wildlife on educational display, and history, both of the West in general and the national park specifically.
Bison calf / Pamela Talasco
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f your focus is on Yellowstone’s geysers, West Yellowstone is a sound choice for your base camp. The drive to Old Faithful and its geyser basin is just 30 miles and about 45 minutes, maybe longer if you stop along the way to study bald eagles, elk, or bison, or to wet a line in the Madison River, a renowned trout fishery. Also within easy reach on the ride to Old Faithful is the Firehole Canyon Drive, Fountain Flat Drive, Fountain Paint Pots, the Midway Geyser Basin, and the Upper Geyser Basin along with Biscuit Basin and Black Sand Basin. And that’s without taking any hikes. The Norris Geyser Basin, the hottest thermal area in the park and arguably the most colorful, is also a short drive away from West Yellowstone. Springtime conspires to help you soak in this town, as the season can quickly close the entrance to Yellowstone with a snowstorm. Because one day can be mild and sunny, the next stormy with rain and snow squalls, to make the most out of your spring visit you must be flexible, willing to shrug a shoulder to the weather while pulling your hat down, and know your options. That’s where West Yellowstone, which sidles comfortably up to the national park’s western border, stands ready to help you make the most of your visit. Whether spring snowstorms close the park’s roads, or if you’re just looking to truly experience this corner of the Rocky Mountains, West Yellowstone can help you out. You can see that walking about this town of about 1,200 residents. Sure, the lodgepole forests of Yellowstone stand beckoning at the eastern end of Yellowstone Avenue. But they’re not going anywhere, and if snows close the roads, you’re not heading there, unless on foot. That’s when West Yellowstone’s tourism sector works especially hard to see you return home with great memories. You can start by stopping by the Chamber of Commerce office (30 Yellowstone Avenue) just outside the park entrance and pick up the West of Yellowstone Park brochure. This guide has a map of the area depicting not only the loop of highways that heads north, west, south, and back east to West Yellowstone, but notes where you might see bald eagles, osprey, bison, moose, and perhaps even grizzlies during the spring. For the 64-mile “Around the Block” spring wildlife tour, make sure that your
camera is at the ready for shots of bison (including, possibly, newborn calves in their fuzzy red fur attire and wobbly legs), moose or elk on hillsides, even the chance shot of a mountain goat on the cliffs behind the Quake Lake Visitor Center at Hebgen Lake. Take the 90- to 120-mile roundtrip ride from West Yellowstone to Big Sky and you’ll motor through a 20-mile stretch of the western-most section of Yellowstone National Park. This winding route takes you along portions of the Gallatin River, by the Lee Metcalf Wilderness Area, and into the Gallatin and Beaverhead-Deerlodge national forests. Those forests are great places to spot bears (both black and grizzly), bald eagles, and if you’re lucky and sharp-eyed, otters playing in the river. Of course, you can also settle into West Yellowstone to enjoy the national park’s “Cycle Only Days,” which run, roughly, from April 1-19, weather permitting. This is the perfect time for an out-and-back pedal from town into the park—as far as your legs and the snowplows allow—without worrying about dodging RVs, SUVs, trucks and sedans. At ride’s end, West Yellowstone’s restaurants and lodgings await your return. If you don’t cycle, head to Boundary Street and follow the Riverside Trail into the park and down to the Madison River, keeping an eye out for bison. It’s a great, mostly flat, 3-mile roundtrip trek whether you do it with hiking boots, snowshoes, or cross-country skis, all of which come in handy in spring.
If the weather forces you inside, head to the Yellowstone Historic Center (220 Yellowstone Avenue) to understand how Old Snaggletooth rose to fame, or to learn the history of stagecoach and rail travel to Yellowstone. Or take the family to the Yellowstone Imax Theater (101 South Canyon) to immerse yourself in a movie about Yellowstone’s history and wonders. A great educational stop for young and old is the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center (201 South Canyon Street) that’s home to bears and wolves that might have been put down if this facility didn’t exist. Here they’re on display to help you understand their roles in a healthy park ecosystem. While searching out West Yellowstone in spring might be a necessity before Yellowstone’s lodges are open, the town is a great base camp any month of the year if your focus is the western side of the national park. The town has plenty of accommodations, ranging from motel rooms to charming cabins to houses you can rent. One summer our extended family of seven rented a house in town that allowed us to save money both on lodging costs and by cooking our meals there. Come sundown, we headed for the deck to recount our daily adventures in Yellowstone while the clear skies overhead slowly became crowded with stars. True, West Yellowstone is a small town. But that’s a decided perk when you come to stay.
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Essential Park Guide | Spring 2014
Where The
BIRDS ARE
Look First To The Gulf Coast
By Kirby Adams
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pring is an exciting time for both birds and birders across North America. The colorful songbirds are on their way back to their northern nesting grounds after spending a lazy winter in the tropics. Warblers, with a rainbow of plumages and equally diverse collection of songs, are the most sought-after birds during migration. When the warblers and their fellow migrants fly north from South and Central America, they face a choice in southern Mexico. They can take the short route - a perilous crossing of the Gulf of Mexico - or fly around the west shore of the Gulf through Texas. A birder with good timing can be there to greet them along either route. In April, two of the best spots to view migrants are Padre Island National Seashore in Texas and Gulf Islands National Seashore that spreads across the Gulf shore in Mississippi and Florida. At Padre Island, the birds will be following the coast closely as they skirt the edge of the Gulf. Thousands of songbirds can be seen resting in vegetated areas while tens of thousands of shorebirds cover the beach. The park offers free guided bird tours six days a week through April. The birds that choose to migrate across the Gulf of Mexico face a daunting task. After flying through an entire night and morning, they are running low on fat reserves and desperate to find land and food. The first dry land they see is usually where they drop and immediately search for food. The long barrier islands of Gulf Islands National Seashore provide that life-giving resting and feeding spot. Throughout April, days following nights with favorable south winds will find many thousands of migrants foraging through the vegetation on the islands. The birds will be nearly starved and are not generally concerned with humans. It’s important to not get close enough to stress migration-weary birds. Their energy reserves are often so low that being flushed from a foraging spot can push them over the edge. After refueling, the birds continue northward. By the first two weeks of May, parks all across the eastern United States will be bustling with migrants. At Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, as many as 25 species of warbler can be tallied in a single day at the peak of migration. Most of these are just passing through, with only a handful lingering to nest in the dense deciduous forests and wetlands. The period in May just before the deciduous trees leaf out is ideal for warbler viewing in this region. Once the leaves fill in, it’s much harder to spot the birds. Later in spring, many of the migrants are settling into their nesting territory. This is an exciting time at some northern parks where many of the warblers decide to settle down rather than pushing on into Canada. Pictured Rocks National
A Prairie Warbler and a Chesnut-sided Warbler / Kirby Adams
Lakeshore in Michigan is the nesting warbler champion of the National Park System with 23 species known to call the park their summer home. By late May, they will be building nests, singing through the day, and foraging aggressively. A birder with a good ear for warbler songs will be able to pick out many of the species on any of the popular hikes in the park.  One southern park has recently tied Pictured Rocks for highest number of nesting warbler species. Great Smoky Mountains National Park also has 23 species, though the roll call has a few different names than the northern park, thanks to the diverse elevation in the Great Smokies. Some of the northern warblers, such as the Chestnut-sided, Canada, and Blackburnian, are found in the high fir forests, while the distinctly southern Yellow-throated, Swainson’s, and Hooded warblers are just a few miles away in the hardwood lowlands. Check your local park’s bird checklist and head out there with a field guide and binoculars this spring. Spring migration only happens once a year after all! NationalParksTraveler.com
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SPRING IN THE PARKS By Kurt Repanshek
Saguaro National Park’s Cactus Forest comes to vibrant life in April / Marcelle Shoop 12 Essential Park Guide | Spring 2014
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ittle more than a month after I was dazzled by the yellows and pinks dappling the landscape along the Douglas Spring Trail in Saguaro National Park, the red and orange blossoms throughout Canyonlands and Arches national parks were equally stunning. It was April when we walked the trail at Saguaro, a stroll that led us past ocotillo, their orange-flowered tips glowing like fireplace pokers, and by violet-bloomed Hedgehogs, patches of pink Fairy Dusters, and bluish-petaled Scorpionweed. When I hiked in Canyonlands and Arches in May, red blossoms were sprouting from claret-cup cactus and Desert Indian paintbrush. Orange globemallows and western peppergrass, with their white petals in full bloom, also helped paint the canyon country. But the Southwestern parks claim no monopoly on brightly hued spring landscapes. Acadia National Park in Maine boasts woodlands with Bluebead lilies, which actually have a yellow flower, but deep blue—and poisonous—fruit. Spring in Montana means Glacier lilies poking through the snow at Glacier National Park, while white trilliums, lady slipper orchids, fire pink, jack-in-the-pulpit, and violets are flecking the forests and meadows at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which sprawls across the Tennessee-North Carolina border. Wildflowers are indeed a strong spring calling card for the national parks— festivals blooming with the flowers can be found in both Shenandoah National Park (in early May) and Great Smoky Mountains National Park (in April). And they definitely enhance your hikes. While spring in some parks (mostly those in the Rockies, Sierra, and Pacific Northwest) is rightfully described as “mud season,” there are some great early season hikes—and some wonderful camping—to be found across the National Park System.
Here’s a rundown of some of the highlights:
Northeast Acadia National Park, Maine Late May brings the 16th Annual Acadia Birding Festival to Bar Harbor. With field trips to Sieur de Monts Spring, the Schoodic Peninsula, and even Bass Harbor Marsh, you have ample opportunities to explore and enjoy the national park. Prefer a hike? The Ocean Path that runs along the park’s eastern edge leads past Otter Cliffs, Thunder Hole, and Sand Beach, and in spring it’s not likely to be as crowded as it is in summer. Blackwoods Campground, though the only one open in spring, offers campers more than 300 sites.
Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts Being at sea level helps the national seashore enter spring more easily than, for instance, Glacier National Park. But sea breezes can be chilly, and the water definitely will be cold. But there are some great trails for hiking. The Beech Forest Trail at Provincetown offers a roughly mile-long walk through a remnant Beech forest typical of what once was commonplace in the Province Lands area of Cape Cod. A companion loop wraps around two dunes ponds that nurture red maples, laurels, swamp azaleas, and even tupelo trees. Strolling Race Point, Head of the Meadow, Marconi, Nauset Light, and Coast Guard beaches also provides an opportunity to see what treasures winter storms tossed out of the Atlantic and onto the sands.
Salem Maritime National Historic Site, Massachusetts Though this national historic site covers just 9 acres, it provides a wonderful window into the 1700s and 1800s when Salem was a major port for sea-going ships that plied the oceans to the East Indies and elsewhere in the world. Time your visit to the site’s schedule and you can tour both the Custom House, which dates to 1819 when the U.S. Customs Service collected taxes on cargo, as well as the Friendship of Salem, a replica of the tall ships that once sailed the oceans blue and docked here.
Salem Maritime National Historic Site / NPS
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Mid-Atlantic Assateague Island National Seashore, Virginia/Maryland Like Cape Cod National Seashore, Assateague can be chilly, but also gorgeous, in the spring. Bike paths help you explore this seashore. A paved path along Bayberry Drive in the Maryland section shows off island vegetation, and a similar path in the Virginia portion can take you from Chincoteague to Assateague. Campers have a handful of sites amid the dunes in the Maryland portion of the park to choose from. You’re not permitted, however, to bring in wood from out of state, a prohibition intended to prevent the spread of non-native insects such as the Emerald ash borer, which poses a threat to Maryland’s forests.
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia Winter can linger into spring along Shenandoah’s crooked spine, but the warming days make for great hiking. Wildflowers erupt across the forest floors, some pointing out the locations of old homesteads. The park’s 28th Annual Wildflower Weekend, May 3-4, is a great event to hone your wildflower identification skills while enjoying some great hikes. Birders are not at a loss in Shenandoah, which has been visited by more than 200 species. Show up early in spring and you might be lucky enough to spot a Lapland Longspur before it heads north. Campers have four front-country campgrounds to choose from—Mathews Arm, Big Meadows, Lewis Mountain, and Loft Mountain. Lewis Mountain is the first to open, on April 2.
Southern Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee/North Carolina Spring in the Smokies can be surprising with snow squalls, but usually by the end of March all roads and facilities are open for business. As the season wears on and warms up, wildflowers start their dazzling displays, slowly growing in profusion from the lower elevations like Cades Cove up to the ridgeback of the Appalachians. The 64th Annual Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage is set for April 15-19. These months can produce impressive waterfall displays. Hen Wallow Falls, at the end of a roughly 2.2-mile hike through a beautiful forest of hemlock and rhododendron, falls down a 90foot tall slope. Nine other waterfalls in the park ensure plenty of options for visitors.
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Essential Park Guide | Spring 2014
Stairway to Turret Arch in Arches National Park/ Kurt Repanshek
Campers can choose from 10 front-country campgrounds, including some that are open by mid-March.
Canaveral National Seashore, Florida Midway down the state’s Atlantic coastline, this national seashore occupies 25 miles of
undeveloped barrier island perfect for birding, boating, and simply kicking back on the beach. Fortunate birders might luck out and spy a wood stork, an endangered species. If you prefer marine life, look for West Indian Manatees (also endangered) in Mosquito Lagoon. There are no front-country campgrounds; diehard campers focus on the seashore’s backcountry campsites.
Mid-America Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri Paddlers descend on this unit of the National Park System throughout the year, though spring can be more peaceful than the high summer season that draws campers to the riverbanks. With 134 river miles between the Jacks Fork and Current rivers, you can plan a multi-day trip. The scenic riverways offers seven front-country campgrounds, all accessible from the rivers.
Southwest Saguaro National Park, Arizona April is arguably the peak blooming season at Saguaro. Take in the sweep of colors -- with an emphasis on yellows -- in the Cactus Forest located in the Tucson District. Watch where you step, though, as this area is home to both gila monsters and rattlesnakes and they both can blend into the landscape. There are no front-country campgrounds in the park, though there are backcountry options available, and a number of U.S. Forest Service, state and county parks, and private campgrounds in the area.
Arches and Canyonlands national parks, Utah May brings the reds of claret-cup cactus and Indian paintbrush to life in Arches and Canyonlands. Spectacular wildflower displays can be found along the Elephant Hill Trail that leads to Chesler Park in Canyonlands, as well as along the Primitive Trail found in the Devils Garden area of Arches. Arches has one front-country campground, with sites you can reserve, while Canyonlands has two front-country campgrounds that can be difficult to land a site in due to their first-come, first-served policy. A bonus of visiting in spring is you’ll avoid the high heat of summer! Still, pack plenty of water.
Northern Rockies Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Clockwise: Gila Monster in Saguaro National Park / Kurt Repanshek, Trillium Grandiflorum blooms in the Great Smoky Mountains / NPS, Grand Teton National Park in spring / Patrick Cone
Winter’s snows draped over the Teton Range make it hard to believe spring visits Grand Teton, but stay on the valley floors and you’ll enjoy wildflowers, frolicking wildlife, and mild temperatures while the snow-coated mountains stand high overhead.
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Yellowstone National Park / Patrick Cone
Oxbow Bend on the Snake River near Jackson Lake Junction is guaranteed to produce American white pelicans, green- and bluewinged teals, bald eagles, osprey, and possibly Trumpeter swans. Campers have five front-country campgrounds in Grand Teton, and one in nearby John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway to pitch a tent in.
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado Spring comes slowly, very slowly, to Rocky Mountain, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid it. The eastern side of the park tends to get less snow than the western side. Good spring hikes include the 1.7-mile Arch Rock and Pools (kid-friendly both for its relatively level grade and water features) and the 3.2-mile one way walk to Bridal Veil Falls. Rocky Mountain offers five front-country campgrounds, though some don’t open until late May.
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Essential Park Guide | Spring 2014
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming Plenty of boardwalks make spring days a joy in Yellowstone, where you can wander from geyser basin to geyser basin and walk the planks to view the thermal displays. From mid-March into the middle of April the park’s roads are closed to vehicle traffic, making them ideal for bicycling, jogging, roller blades, and roller skis between the West Entrance and Mammoth Hot Springs as conditions allow. Yellowstone boasts a dozen campgrounds with more than 2,000 sites, though only the Mammoth Campground is open year-round. The others don’t start to open until early May.
West Death Valley National Park, California/Nevada Spring just might be the best season in Death Valley. Temperatures are reasonably mild
(compared to the 100-degree-plus readings of summer), and if the preceding winter and fall seasons have been wet, the wildflower blooms are spectacular. But as spring wears on, you’ll need to go up in elevation to catch the show. From early April into May the favored elevations are between 3,000 and 5,000 feet, and from early May all the way into mid-July you’ll need to range from 5,000 feet all the way up to 11,000 feet. Campers have nine front-country campgrounds to pick from, though a few close in May.
Yosemite National Park, California Though the Tioga Road crossing Yosemite’s roof doesn’t typically open before late May or even June, the Yosemite Valley is open yearround. Time your visit for late spring and you’ll see the valley’s waterfalls at full throttle plummeting out of the high country. Been there, done that? Head to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias near the park’s south entrance where you can walk through a forest of roughly 500 sequoias. There are 13 front-country campgrounds in Yosemite, but only six are open in the spring.
Spring, if it follows a wet fall and winter, just might be the best season in Death Valley National Park / NPS
Joshua Tree National Park, California
Olympic National Park, Washington state
The short walk through Joshua Tree’s Cholla Cactus Garden shows off these thorny cacti (teddybear, silver, pencil, and matted varieties) that seem particularly greenish-yellow in April and May as new spines appear. To time your visit with the blooms, check the park’s website for weekly wildflower updates. Campers have nine front-country campgrounds to choose from, some with sites that can be reserved.
Spring months offer verdant beauty in the Hoh Rain Forest of Olympic. The Hall of Mosses Trail (.8 miles) and the Spruce Nature Trail (1.2 miles) are perfect for both young and old, and showcase the mosses, ferns, and towering Bigleaf maple and vine maple trees in this temperate rain forest. Keep a sharp eye out, though, for Roosevelt elk cows and their newborn calves. These are wild animals, and the cows will defend their young. The park’s beaches, some with camping possibilities, also are popular destinations to enjoy the mild spring weather. Campers have 16 front-country campgrounds, though some don’t open before May.
For more spring adventures in the parks, read NationalParksTraveler.com. Fiddlehead Ferns in Olympic National Park / NPS NationalParksTraveler.com
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Getting up close to glaciers is part of the North Cascades Institute’s Youth Leadership Adventures / Ethan Welty Opposite page: Diablo Lake offers North Cascades Institute’s Youth Leadership Adventure participants a place to get comfortable with paddling / Ethan Welty
Teach YOUR CHILDREN WELL National Parks As Learning Centers By Kurt Repanshek
Climate change. Glaciology. Sustainability.
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hese are not the subjects that leap to mind when you consider sending your kids to summer camp. But blend them with backpacking, canoeing, or a walk in the woods, and the result is a generation with not only a better connection with nature, but perhaps a career path. Such blending occurs at places such as the North Cascades Institute, the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, NatureBridge, the Yellowstone Association Institute, the Grand Canyon Field Institute, and other field schools that work in national park settings. These nonprofit organizations offer programs that last anywhere from a day or two to a week or two, or even more, and in some of the grandest natural settings in the world: Yosemite National Park’s iconic valley, the Inner Gorge of Grand Canyon National Park, the glaciated roof of North Cascades National Park, the tangle of forests in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and North America’s Serengeti, the northern
sweep of Yellowstone National Park. These settings seem to resonate with students’, teachers’, and adults’ innate thirst for nature. Saul Weisberg, who helped found the North Cascades Institute in 1986, has seen students from every walk of life positively affected by their experiences in North Cascades National Park and other public lands that the Institute uses as outdoor classrooms. “Some of the kids who are wealthy come in with the expectation that they’re going to go to college, but they’re not particularly excited. And some of the poor kids are coming with the expectation that they’re not going to make it to college,” said Mr. Weisberg. “But they spend two or three weeks in the field with our graduate students, who are some of the core teachers of our programs, and they get really jazzed and they all come back really excited to do this. And they want to go on. “I think the message is that it’s having these multiple pathways to get engaged with public lands. We do this on park land, we do things on Forest Service
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NatureBridge’s programs bring students into the parks, such as these settings in Yosemite National Park / NatureBridge
(land), we do some of it on state land,” he went on. “But the public lands piece is the real component of it. And the parks, it’s obviously a real dramatic place. These kids are out canoeing on big wild lakes and backpacking, but they’re doing service projects and they’re learning a lot about how to reflect on where they came from and what they’re learning.” And they’re providing a glimmer of hope for future generations. Perhaps the warning Richard Louv gave us with his 2005 book, Last Child in the Woods, Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, wasn’t entirely right in that younger generations care little for nature. “I think kids do care about nature. I think there are a lot of kids who, their world might be electronic screens, but I think when they get out in nature, they love it. And so, they want to come back and share it,” Mr. Weisberg said. “We’ve been doing this work and adding these different programs for 28 years. And, it’s really successful. It really is working,” he continued. “It’s providing these transformative experiences for thousands of people. We’ve been having pretty good success in tracking people over time. That’s true, particularly with our graduate students, who are in some ways our most significant seed. We’re planting out there all over the world, including people who are going on to work with careers in the Park Service and other agencies.” Today, NatureBridge, which started offering programs as the Yosemite Institute back in 1971, works with about 30,000 students and teachers each year in places as diverse as Yosemite and Olympic national parks as well as Joshua Tree National Park and Prince William Forest Park. Attendance might have sagged bit due to the economy, but Marya Carr doesn’t believe disinterest in nature has affected their programs. “Our attendance has not gone down. We’re struggling a little bit because of the economy, and California schools are very, very pinched with the economy the last few years,” said Ms. Carr, who oversees sales and marketing for NatureBridge’s Yosemite programs. “A lot of teachers and administrators have a hard time stomaching leaving the classroom for three days, five days, and missing out on testing time. That’s put a dent in our attendance, but I don’t think it’s been a move away from nature.” If anything, it’s a move into nature. 20
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• North Cascades Institute offers programs that range from youth leadership to Mountain School, an environmental education program that takes kids into the national park to study glaciers, geology, and climate change, as well as the cultural history of the region. • NatureBridge’s programs revolve around four core areas: academics, leadership, stewardship and team building that can be customized based on a teacher’s desires. • The Grand Canyon Field Institute, an arm of the Grand Canyon Association, takes more than 2,000 participants a year on trips ranging from a walk along the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park to running the Colorado River through the park’s basement. • The Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont offers more than 30 programs ranging from photography and a Backcountry Ecological Expedition. This program is for teens who contribute to the All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in Great Smoky Mountains National Park during week-long backcountry trips to a Southern Appalachian Natural Certification program. • The Yellowstone Association Institute has a thick course book with programs as diverse as public lands stewardship, wilderness first aid, and the power of interpretive writing.
NCASCADES.ORG • (360) 854-2599
“I think there are a lot of kids who, their world might be electronic screens, but I think when they get out in nature, they love it.” – Saul Weisberg
“A lot of people who love national parks don’t necessarily know that we exist, don’t know that there’s this opportunity for a classroom of kids, or any other kind of youth group,” said Ms. Carr. “Any kind of group can do a program with us. There are so many people who love national parks or love Yosemite specifically or love Olympic specifically who may not know that that’s a possibility.” It’s definitely summer camp, but with a unique educational twist. For more on field institutes and the programs they offer in national parks, read NationalParksTraveler.com.
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With A Little Help From
FriendsGroups National Parks Benefit From Nonprofit Organizations By Danny Bernstein
“I get by with a little help from my friends,” sang the Beatles. When it comes to national parks, it had better be a lot of help. The National Park Service often struggles with funding. Now, with tighter budgets and more demands, friends groups are proving invaluable in helping out parks. Many units of the National Park System have affiliated friends groups. Some are very strong with many donors. Others are small and local. The Moores Creek National Battlefield Association may be the oldest continually operating friends group in the National Park System. Its forerunner, the Moores Creek Monument Association, was founded in 1899 to protect the Revolutionary War-era Moores Creek battlefield in eastern North Carolina. Most park friends groups are much younger. In Arizona, Friends of Saguaro National Park dates only to 1996. Bob Newtson, the group’s executive director, was hired a decade later. The pride of the friends group is apparent when you discuss its achievements with him. “Last year, we reached 11,000 school kids,” Mr. Newtson said. But even that wasn’t easy, as sometimes the hardest part of showing children their home park is getting them to the park in the first place. To do that, Friends of Saguaro spent $25,000 in 2013 to support school bus transportation for fourth- and fifth-grade students in Tucson. For many children, these buses are their only way to get to the park. “We focus on schools with high percentage of under-served populations. We feel an obligation to get kids here to see 22
Children visiting their ancestral home in Katmai National Park / Alaska Geographic
the park in their backyard,” explained Mr. Newtson. The friends group has even built upon the Park Service’s Junior Ranger program with Cactus Rangers, a program for high school students who have come up through the Junior Ranger program. They help monitor Saguaro cacti as well as the Sonoran Desert Tortoise, which is threatened in most of its range. But the friends group aids the park in more ways than simply getting students
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interested in the national park. Last year Friends of Saguaro supported Saguaro with more than $142,000 in projects. “Is there more pressure on friends groups now?” I asked directly. “I think that we have more pressure. Uncertainty in the park budget is in some sense even worse than poor funding,” replied Mr. Newtson. “The park cannot plan, but it also creates uncertainty in us. If the park doesn’t have the accompanying resources, we can’t go to our donors and say that a particular project will be done. It’s tough to ask donors to support a project that may not get done.” Mr. Newtson is constantly impressed with park staff. “They haven’t had a pay raise in three years. They’ve met all sorts of difficulties including the sequester and budgets problems. Yet they’re dedicated as ever.” In Florida, the South Florida National Parks Trust, under the leadership of Executive Director Don Finefrock, supports Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park, Dry Tortugas National Park, and Big Cypress National Preserve. The Trust’s roots date to a 2002 environmental court case against Carnival Cruise Lines. The state Attorney General was looking for a place to put the money that had been paid out by the cruise line. First, community service payments, as they are called, were awarded to the individual South Florida parks through the National Park Foundation. Now these disbursements, for natural resource protection and restoration, are managed by the Trust. Another project the Trust has been involved with stems from the long-standing need for lodging at Flamingo at the
The Great Smoky Mountains Association is the oldest nonprofit funding partner of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. With revenue generated from seven official national park stores, and through dues from its membership program, the association funnels millions of dollars into the national park for educational, scientific, and preservation efforts, including: • Storage of the park’s artifact collection, $46,000 • Finish historic building survey, $4,123 Friends groups support national parks in many ways. Grand Teton National Park Foundation created the website discovergrandteton.com for the park.
• Seasonal employees to help manage museum collections, $13,000 • Water quality monitoring program, $115,000
southern end of Everglades. Hurricane Wilma clobbered the area in 2005, and there hasn’t been a lodge since then. The Trust stepped in and underwrote a project at the University of Miami to have architecture students design and build a prototype “Eco-Tent.” When Mr. Finefrock described it, I pictured a large tent capable of sleeping many, like a hostel under canvas. Instead, it’s actually one tent available to sleep one family. The tent is put up during the winter and spring and taken down before hurricane season. This demonstration project gives the park management a prototype to show a potential concessionaire. Over 11 years, the Trust has provided more than $5 million for the parks, yet it realizes more is needed. “The Trust feels more pressure to increase our donations because the parks feel squeezed,” says Mr. Finefrock. “We’re a small organization pulled in a lot of different directions. The needs are huge. Most of the programs wouldn’t happen without the Friends. The average individual donation is about $100.” In Alaska, Alaska Geographic supports that state’s national parks, forests, and refuges. “We’re both a friends group and cooperating association,” explained Sarah Warnock, the group’s communications director. “We interact with the park in two different ways.” The Murie Science and Learning Center, located at the entrance to Denali National Park, engages visitors by offer-
ing courses and exhibits. Popular field seminars include wildflowers and the Big Five: Large Animals in the Park. For two to four days, you get to stay in tent cabins, share meals, and explore Denali. In its role as a cooperating association, Alaska Geographic operates 40 bookstores in parks and forests throughout Alaska. Proceeds after expenses are returned to the parks for special projects. In 2012, they funded a trip to Katmai National Park for local youth and their elders. The participants visited their ancestral homes that were lost to volcanic explosions a hundred years before. Back in the Lower 48, the Great Smoky Mountains Association manages seven bookstores in and around Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It also publishes books and maps about the park from its quarterly park newspaper to the authoritative Hiking Trails of the Smokies. In 2011, the Association built a $3 million Oconaluftee Visitor Center at the Cherokee, North Carolina, entrance to the park. The previous visitor center had been a “temporary visitor center” built by the Civilian Conservation Corps more than 60 years earlier. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need friends groups. National parks would be properly funded. However, these days friends groups are more essential than ever to counter federal shortages.
• Protect hemlock trees, $20,000 • Cades Cove field management, $10,000 • Cataloochee field management, $3,000 • Support for 20 resource education SCAs and interns, $68,831 • Planning and design for Elkmont exhibits, $39,000 • Upgrade for the Sugarlands Museum, $15,000 • Restore the Hannah Cabin, $11,700 • Restore the Cades Cove J.C. Cable Corn Crib, $9,200 • Park volunteer recognition, $8,500 • Support two visitor protection SCAs, $10,800 • Backcountry support intern, $4,975 • Two seasonal backcountry rangers, $28,000 Total = $407,120 Since the association was formed in 1953, it has contributed more than $30 million to support worthwhile and necessary projects ongoing in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Photography In The National Parks
Capturing Spring By Rebecca Latson It’s February as I write this article: that in-between period when winter is playing a last-ditch game of tug-o-war with spring. In my part of southeast Texas, this particular time of the year brings a uniform dusty tint to whatever greenery remains, while dead, dry leaves cling to the otherwise bare branches of trees. There’s not much in the way of birdlife at the local national wildlife refuge, although I am noticing that - much like human retirees – some varieties of winged wildlife are beginning their migratory routes back through the state as they return to their northern “summer” homes. Soon enough, the bright colors of wildflowers will dot the currently-browned fields and roadsides within the national parks and I am counting on photographing cactus in bloom when I travel to Big Bend National Park in late April. Spring is right around the bend (no pun intended). In addition to wildflowers, spring in the national parks will see the emergence of sweet little feathered and furred faces peeping above the rims of nests and poking their heads out of dens comprised of sand, dirt, twigs and branches. And the waterfalls in the spring…oh the waterfalls: cascading flows of water rejuvenated from melting snow packs make the ideal subjects for those silky-water shots. All of this spring activity is just what the photographer ordered to cure those winter doldrums!
When to Visit First and foremost, you need to decide upon which national park you want to visit and during which of the spring months (March, April, May or even early June) you will make that visit. Spring doesn’t show its face at the same time in all of the parks. Parks in the lower elevations (Everglades) will see the advent of spring much sooner than parks in higher elevations (Rocky Mountain National Park, for instance). Some parks (Virgin Islands) probably won’t even see much of a change in weather variation at all, with the switch from winter to spring. Prior to your visit, start checking the weather conditions because this will help you decide what to pack, clothing- and gear-wise. The National Park of American Samoa remains warm, humid, and rainy practically the entire year. Acadia National Park sports temperature lows between 20–50 degrees Fahrenheit and highs in the 30s to 60s during that spread of spring months. Once you’ve chosen your location and researched the average spring weather conditions, you’ll have a better idea of what to pack to keep yourself and your camera gear protected and in good working order. Since spring is one of those variable times of year, when (aside from drought conditions), rain is generally a given, here’s a piece of advice from me: even if the weather report calls for sun during your entire stay, you should tote along weather protection for your gear, nonetheless. It’s much better to have that rain gear and not need it, than to need the rain gear and not have it (I write this from experience). And, if you haven’t already deduced, this rain gear for your camera is also good protection against blowing sand if you are traveling to a place like White Sands National Monument.
Know Your Lighting Conditions So You Can Pack The Right Gear Photography in the spring requires an understanding of the lighting conditions you might encounter for a particular national park. Spring rain (no matter where you are) can create an atmosphere of flat-to-dim light. Parks such as Mammoth Cave National Park and Carlsbad Caverns also have their own set of lighting issues regarding photography underground (of course, these parks have the same lighting issues year-round and not just during the spring season). And, let’s not forget about aquatic photography should you opt for a nice little spring break at someplace like Laughing Bird Caye or Biscayne National Park. Underwater photography presents its own interesting lighting challenges: make sure the camera you use has a flash for those underwater photos in order to get the true, brilliant colors of the corals and fish - otherwise, your image will be a canvas of blue-green. So, research those spring lighting variables in addition to the weather and temperature of the national park you intend to explore, because knowing your light will help you choose the right lenses, believe it or not (go onto the Internet and look up the meaning of a “fast” lens).
What Else Should You Pack? Ok, so let’s return to the reasons you enjoy spring photography and figure out what gear to pack for specific subjects. For spring wildflower shots in a national park (regardless of
the lighting), take along your dedicated macro lens or some other alternative, such as a telephoto lens, a point-and-shoot camera with a macro setting, or a close-up lens filter that screws onto an otherwise non-macro lens to magnify the subject of an image. The blooming flowers and sparkling spring water drops on petals and leaves offer myriad opportunities for really neat, close-up shots. For wildlife photos (and all those spring babies), it goes without saying that you should pack along a telephoto lens with the longest focal length you are willing to carry around during a day hike or a backcountry expedition. While many people enjoy seeing a landscape image populated with wildlife (think: bison scattered over the hills at Yellowstone National Park), the real attention-grabbers are those frame-filling visages of (baby) bears, bison and bitterns (to name a few creatures you might see during your spring visit to a national park). For landscape images, be prepared to capture those dramatic spring thunderstorms across broad vistas like Grand Canyon National Park using a wide-angle lens with an attached polarizer and/or graduated neutral density filter. These filters – separate or combined - will give you a great color “pop,” remove most water reflection and glare, temper light variations along a horizon line, and really bring forth the drama and texture of those dark rainclouds.
Flickr In addition to the normal Internet search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo, I utilize a site called Flickr to help me research upcoming trips (no matter what season of the year). Flickr is a photo-sharing site populated by hundreds of thousands (or maybe even millions) of images taken by photographers from all over the world. It’s a perfect pictorial database from which to search for shots of national parks captured during every season of the year, under any lighting condition. Most of the photos on Flickr also detail camera settings, lens data, and photographer commentary, all of which can provide helpful information to aid you in deciding upon your own spring travel plans. To help narrow down your search for national park shots on Flickr, simply surf over to Traveler’s Flickr page which offers nearly 6,000 photos (as of late February) from more than 300 photographers! Now, let’s review class. In summary, for a spring visit to a national park, think about: • The kinds of images you want to capture since that will determine the lenses you pack; • Spring weather conditions and temperatures, since they will determine your clothing and protection for your camera gear; and • Lighting conditions for the season, the park, and the particular location you wish to visit within the park, since that will also determine the lenses you pack.
A little planning and research on your part are the perfect ingredients for an incredible opportunity to photograph spring in a national park.
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Essential Park Guide | Spring 2014
(1) True. The vernal (March) equinox occurs when the noon sun is directly overhead at the equator. On that day every location on earth has the same number of daylight hours – twelve. (2) True. Birding enthusiasts know that Padre Island National Seashore is America’s best hawk migration viewing site. During April and May, thousands of hawks and other raptor species may be seen there in a single day. (3) True. Springtime is the blooming season for the saguaro cactus and most other desert vegetation in Saguaro National Park. (4) True. Ephemeral spring flowers begin growing and blossoming on the forest floor when the warmth of early spring arrives and deciduous trees have not yet leafed-out. The flowers last only a few days before dying back as trees leaf-out and shade the forest floor. (5) True. The red maple is one of the first trees to flower in the spring. In the Smokies it sometimes produces its gorgeous red buds as early as February. (6) True. A brief non-motorized season for bicycles, roller skis, roller blades, etc., begins on certain road segments in Yellowstone National Park when spring plowing commences in late March or early April. This “bicycling season” ends when the park’s roads are opened to motorized vehicles as well as bicycles. (7) False. When properly timed, spring prescribed burning can actually improve nesting habitat for ground nesting forest birds without causing an undue amount of direct mortality. (8) True. By early spring, Redwood visitors can see gray whales migrating north to feed in the rich waters of the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean. The whales are commonly seen in pairs, since many females travel with calves and rest them in nearshore waters. (9) False. The National Cherry Blossom Festival is held during a two-week period in late March – early April. (10) False. At Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, the breakup of Yukon River ice can be expected to occur in early May. Bonus: National Park of American Samoa is located in the Southern Hemisphere, where the seasons are opposite those of the Northern Hemisphere. Consequently, spring arrives there in September instead of March.
True or false? Ephemeral spring flowers growing in the deciduous forests of Buffalo National River are very short-lived. True or false? The saguaro cactus, namesake of Arizona’s Saguaro National Park, blooms in the spring. True or False? During the spring migration season, a birdwatcher desiring to see hawks by the thousands would be more likely to see them in Padre Island National Seashore than in Shenandoah National Park. True or false? On the vernal equinox, which marks the official arrival of spring, Maine’s Acadia National Park has the same number of daylight hours as California’s Pinnacles National Park.
True or false? Spring visitors to California’s Redwood National and State Parks can enjoy watching whales swimming and resting in coastal waters. True or false? The National Park Service no longer practices prescribed burning in forests during the spring months because spring burning adversely impacts ground nesting birds. True or false? Bicycling is permitted on some Yellowstone National Park roads in the spring. True or false? Red maples on the mountainsides of Blue Ridge Parkway produce showy splashes of red during the spring.
Name a unit of the National Park System in which spring arrives in September.
Bonus Question: True or false? The breakup of the Yukon River ice at Alaska’s YukonCharley Rivers National Preserve typically occurs in late March. True or false? The National Cherry Blossom Festival, which is staged each spring in the Tidal Basin and National Mall areas of our nation’s capital, begins during the last weekend in April and continues through the first weekend in May.
How much do you know about the National Park System? by Bob Janiskee
SPRING QUIZ
Parting Shot
Fringed Phacelia blooms along the Porters Creek Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. By Andy Drinnon, Twisted Ridge Photography
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Dinosaur National Monument / Patrick Cone patrickconephotography.com