America's Best Idea

I've been watching Ken Burns' film on the National Parks recently.  Today, I just finished episode 5 of the six that make up the series.  It is a very interesting series that goes through the history of the National Parks in the U.S. and I would highly recommend it for anyone, particularly if they have a great love of the outdoors.  The photography in the series is top notch and it's fun to watch and see if you can guess which park the photo was taken.


Growing up we did a lot of camping in National Parks.  Our first trip, in the summer when I was four years old was taken to Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks.  I remember very little of that first trip save the after the fact memories preserved in many of my dad's slide.  I do remember my parents getting mules for us to ride on and go around the valley floor.  We did most of the touristy things you did in Yosemite, including a stop in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias to visit the Wawona Tree.


My dad used to tell us a story of his mom showing him a picture book of national parks with one photo of the Wawona Tree, a hollowed out tree that you could drive your car through.  He said his mom, my grandmother, used to tell him that she was going to go see that tree after she retired.  Unfortunately, she never did and I'm convinced that my dad made a pilgrimage for his mother that first summer after we'd moved out to California.

One of the souvenirs we brought back from this first camping trip was a Viewmaster and three disks of photos of Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park.  You could put a disk in the Viewmaster and view 3D images of the park.  It was almost like being there every time you looked at the photos. 


The following years, we ended up at many of the major national parks in the western United States.  One summer it was Lassen, Crater Lake, Mt. Rainier and Olympic National Parks.  We camped right at the base of Mt. Rainier and never saw the mountain as it was shrouded in clouds and very cold and we had nothing but rain for three days.  The ranger told us that if it got much colder it might snow, so we pulled up camp and headed over to Olympic rain forest where it didn't rain on us at all.

We went to Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Wind Cave National Parks, with a stop at Mt. Rushmore.  Another summer, we went to the Grand Canyon.  One spring, we spent a week at the Stovepipe Wells campground located below sea level in Death Valley National monument.


Every so often, we'd head back to Yosemite, mainly because we loved it so much.  The scenery there is incomparable, the vistas breathtaking.  There are crowds, but we've learned over the course of the years that all you really have to do is get on a trail and hike for ten minutes and you pretty much have the trail and the area to yourselves.  Most people stay near the roads.


I have many fond memories of the National Parks and I also hoped that my children have good memories too.  As they were growing up, we went camping in many parks too.  This summer, my youngest and I will venture to Yosemite, providing we can get a camping reservation there.  If not, then our alternate plan is to visit Cedar Breaks National Monument, Bryce Canyon, Zion and Capital Reef National Parks in southern Utah.  We've been to all of these areas before and that's OK.  We know we will enjoy them again.


Photos taken at Cedar Breaks National Monument, North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park.