Archive for February 2014
On May 24, 1969, the BLM dedicated nearly 30,000 acres of public land west of Lone Pine, CA, as the Alabama Hills Recreation Area. Management plans are being considered that will eventually include a scenic trail system that people may walk and enjoy this geologic phenomena at a leisurely pace. The Bureau of Land Management and the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group care for this area with the goal of preserving the hills in as close as natural state as possible for the enjoyment of future generations. This area hosts numerous and varied types of recreation. Motor touring, photography, rock climbing, exploring natural arches and viewing the swaths of wildflowers that bloom every spring are just a few of the over 40 activities that take place here. Photo: Cliff LaPlant. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 2/16/14.
From the Aroostook National Wildlife Reserve. Photo: Sharon Wallace/USFWS. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 2/13/14.
Where Is It: Nearly 500 miles northwest of Denver, and just south of Yellowstone National Park.
The Birth: From NationalParksTraveler.com:
Say what you will about corporate altruism, whether it’s self-serving or truly benevolent, but in the case of Grand Teton, without it the park would be a shell of its present form.
When President Calvin Coolidge created the park in 1929, the legislation called for preservation of just 96,000 acres, acres that encompassed little more than the jagged roof of the Teton Range and the six glacial lakes that sprawl at the bottom of the mountains’ eastern flanks.
No doubt, this 96,000-acre preserve was stunning, and the initial legislation would see that it would indeed be protected for the enjoyment of future generations. But without the intervention of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., working through his Snake River Land Company to buy up thousands of acres that extended beyond that initial allotment, it’s very possible, and highly likely, that the view we have today of the park would be filled with a foreground of development, not rolling sagebrush fields, timbered plateaus, and the uncluttered and beautifully meandering braids of the Snake River.
Size: 310,000 acres
# Visitors: 2,688,794 in 2013. July had peak attendance; November was the least attended.
Plants: From Wikipedia.com:
Grand Teton National Park and the surrounding region host over 1000 species of vascular plants. With an altitude variance of over 7,000 ft (2,100 m), the park has a number of different ecological zones including alpine tundra, the Rock Mountains subalpine zone where spruce-fir forests are dominant, and the valley floor, where a mixed conifer and deciduous forest zone occupies regions with better soils intermixed with sagebrush plains atop alluvial deposits.
Animals: From Wikipedia.com:
Sixty-one species of mammals have been recorded in Grand Teton National Park. This includes the gray wolf, which had been extirpated from the region by the early 1900s but migrated into the Grand Teton National Park from adjacent Yellowstone National Park after the species had been reintroduced there. The re-establishment of the wolves has ensured that every indigenous mammal species now exists in the park. In addition to gray wolves, another 17 species of carnivores reside within Grand Teton National Park including grizzlies and the more commonly seen American black bear. Relatively common sightings of coyote, river otter, marten and badger and occasional sightings of mountain lion, lynx and wolverine are reported annually. A number of rodent species exist including yellow-bellied marmot, least chipmunk, muskrat, beaver, Uinta ground squirrel, pika, snowshoe hare, porcupine, and six species of bats.
Choices: For a suggested 7-day itinerary, visiting both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, check out National Geographic expeditions, here.
Fees: $25 for a 7 day pass, good for both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. A winter day pass, offered mid-December – April 30, is $5.
Contact Info:
P.O. Drawer 170
Moose, WY 83012-0170
(307) 739-3300
Current Issues: From SFGate.com:
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The State Board of Land Commisioners has endorsed a proposal that would transfer ownership of 1,280 acres of state school trust land in Grand Teton National Park to the federal government.
The board voted 4-1 Thursday to accept federal land and mineral rights elsewhere in Wyoming in exchange for the land. The agreement still needs legislative approval.
The new agreement was necessary because the federal government couldn’t meet a Jan. 5 deadline to buy one of the sections for $45 million as specified in a previous agreement.
Don’t Miss This: Tri’s Totally Teton, a site dedicated to hiking in this Park, shares a video that’s a great intro to the Park. See it, here.
Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 10/28/13.
Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 12/02/13.
Photo and caption by Glen Hush/National Geographic Photo Contest –
http://www.ngphotocontest.com) I had been in Teton National Park for 5 days and hadn’t yet seen the tops of the Teton Range due to non stop storm systems moving through. October can be like that in this majestic part of America. Large herds of bison roam free in this park as well as in Yellowstone, just to the north. It is an awe inspiring sight indeed. After taking pictures of this herd, I felt that I had been “shut out” as the mountain peaks had still not been revealed to me. It wasn’t until I looked at the pictures on my computer that I realized that in a few frames, the peaks had been revealed. What a great surprise.
Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 12/09/13.
Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 7/16/13
A lovely day for a stroll through Grand Teton National Park. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 10/22/13.
Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 4/22/13.
A grizzly bear crossing the Snake River at sunrise. Photo: Donald Higgs. Posted on Tumblr on 1/15/14.
From the Park’s Facebook page.
“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says ‘Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.'” -Lewis Carroll. Photo by J. Stetson, taken Dec. 2012. From the Park’s Facebook page.
From the Park’s Facebook page.
The least chipmunk, the smallest of three chipmunk species in the park, weighs only 1.5 to 1.8oz, or about the same as 8-10 U.S. nickels. Photo credit: D. Lombardi. From the Park’s Facebook page.
Bull elk. From the Park’s Facebook page.
From the Park’s Facebook page.
Great Gray Owls are the largest owls in North America measuring about 32” in height. Since they are mostly nonmigratory we will be seeing these gray giants swooping down on prey throughout the upcoming winter. From the Park’s Facebook page.
Bison. From the Park’s Facebook page.
Pronghorn. From the Park’s Facebook page.
Taggart Lake. Photo: A. Yu. From the Park’s Facebook page.
From the Park’s website.
From the Park’s website.
From the Park’s website.
From the Park’s website.
From the Park’s website.
From the Park’s website.
From the Park’s website.
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National Park Service: Grand Teton National Park
Tri’s Totally Teton
Backpacker.com: Hiking and Backpacking Trips
Jason’s Travels: Visiting Yellowstone And The Grand Tetons
TerraGalleria.com: Grand Teton National Park
The Monday Pod: Yellowstone and Grand Teton Pt 3 – The Photographic Experience
EnjoyYourParks.com: Grand Teton National Park
I like my nature photography … natural. It’s difficult to know how “real” photos are these days.
This probably says something about me being old.
These days, it is so easy to adjust photos. Apps like Instagram make it so easy … it seems weird if you’re not adjusting your pictures to look like something they’re not.
Photography magazines are filled with software packages that promise to turn any photographic model into a super model. You can smooth imperfections, adjust color balances, thin faces, straighten noses … all with one click. That sounds great, but we sacrifice a little bit of humanity when we change the look of a face to get closer to some idealized sense of beauty.
Nature photography has the same sort of tools available, and if your touch is just a bit off, you end up with a photo that’s just a bit too colorful, a bit too perfect.
A bit too unreal. The colors get so hot, the picture is just cooked. To some, it’s beauty. That’s OK. To each his own.
A rugged, whitewater river flowing northward through deep canyons, the New River in West Virginia is among the oldest rivers on the continent. The park encompasses over 70,000 acres of land along the New River, is rich in cultural and natural history, and offers an abundance of scenic and recreational opportunities. Photo: Adam Jewell. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 2/11/14.
Hummingbird sage is a lush California native. It can thrive in dry clay, under oak trees or even in more moist, shady conditions (a rare thing this year).
We planted our first one two years ago, and added a second last spring. They spread via rhizomes … but we’re yet to see any real ground cover from the two plants we started with, though the oldest one has definitely begun to spread. Colonies, apparently can grow to about 4′ in diameter.
Now if the hummingbirds would just find them….
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Hummingbird Sage: Salvia Spathacea
These river otters in Squaw Creek National Wildlife Reserve clearly don’t mind the cold! Posted by the US Department of the Interior, 2/10/14.
Snow is a great insulator. So is fur— something this red fox certainly must appreciate! This fox was photographed on the The Alaska Peninsula and Becharof National Wildlife Refuges, which were established to conserve fish and wildlife populations and habitats in their natural diversity, including brown bears, the Alaska Peninsula caribou herds, moose, sea otters and other marine mammals, salmon, shore birds and other migratory birds, and raptors, including bald eagles and peregrine falcons. Photo: Bob Dreeszen. Posted by the US Department of the Interior on Tumblr, 2/6/14.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed to remove the Oregon chub from the list of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife under the Endangered Species Act. If finalized, the chub would be the first fish delisted due to recovery. The Oregon chub, a small minnow found only in the Willamette River Basin in floodplain habitats with little or no water flow, was listed as endangered in 1993 and reclassified as threatened in 2010. The primary factors that threatened Oregon chub were loss of habitat and predation by nonnative fishes. These threats have been lessened over the last 20 years through collaborative partnerships to restore and acquire habitat, promote natural water flows, and conduct education and outreach to local landowners and residents; efforts that were accompanied by the reintroduction of chub into historical habitat. Posted by the US Department of the Interior on 2/4/14.
A Grizzly Bear crossing the Snake River at sunrise in the Grand Teton National Park. Photo: Donald Higgs. Posted by the US Department of the Interior on Tumblr, 1/15/14.
This shot by Steven Gifford is amazing because bobcats – Lynx rufus – are elusive, nocturnal, mostly solitary – and rarely seen by people. They first appeared about 1.8 million years ago. Today, the beautiful cat – about twice as big as an average housecat – is still found in most of its historic range from southern Canada to northern Mexico. Like most cats, the bobcat is territorial. Gifford took this photo at Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge, Indiana. Posted by the US Department of the Interior, 1/8/14. ________________________________________
Snow brings a special quiet to Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. Photo credit: Cindy Souders. Posted by the US Department of the Interior, 12/30/13.
When temperatures Yellowstone National Park dropped below freezing last week, this bison woke up with a frost blanket. The bison’s heavy fur is perfectly adapted to winter conditions. Photo: Tim Townsend. Posted by the US Department of the Interior, 11/15/13.
Another stunning fall photo from America’s great outdoors. A Cottonwood tree and sandhill cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. Photo: Robert Dunn. Posted by the US Department of the Interior, 11/3/13.
Where Is It: The Park is in western North Dakota. It’s 558 miles west and north of Minneapolis, or about 150 miles from the Canadian border.
The Birth: National Park Information Page:
When Theodore Roosevelt stepped off the train in the Dakota Territory for the first time, he was in search of adventure. The date was 08 Sep 1883, and the town that slept at 2:00 am was Little Missouri, a shoddy collection of buildings on the west bank of the river. The 24-year-old Roosevelt was bursting with anticipation about shooting a bison. A feat the took him 10 days to accomplish. Before returning to New York, just two weeks after he arrived, he entered into a partnership to raise cattle on the Maltese Cross Ranch. The next year he returned to the badlands and started a second open-range ranch, the Elkhorn. Theodore Roosevelt returned again over the next few years to live the life of a cowboy, explore, invigorate his body and to have the Little Missouri Badlands renew his spirit. Theodore Roosevelt wrote: “I would not have been President, had it not been for my experience in North Dakota.”
Today, the colorful North Dakota badlands provides the scenic backdrop to the park which memorializes the 26th president for his enduring contributions to the conservation of our nation’s resources. The area was first established as a Memorial Park in 1947. It gained National Park status in 1978.
It Happened Here: From NationalParksTraveler.com:
Theodore Roosevelt exiled himself to this landscape in 1884 after the death of both his wife, Alice, two days after giving birth to their daughter, and his mother on the same day, Valentine’s Day 1884. Claiming a parcel along the Little Missouri River some 35 miles north of Medora, Roosevelt based his Elkhorn Ranch there to serve as the headquarters for his modest ranching operations.
Size: 70,448 acres
# Visitors: 563,407 visitors in 2011.
Plants: From Wikipedia:
The scenery changes constantly in relationship with the seasons. The brown, dormant grass dominates from late summer through the winter, but explodes into green color in the early summer along with hundreds of species of flowering plants. Winter can be a beautiful scene as snow covers the sharp terrain of the badlands and locks the park into what Theodore Roosevelt called “an abode of iron desolation.”
Animals: From Wikipedia:
One of the most popular attractions is wildlife viewing. The park is home to a wide variety of Great Plains wildlife including bison, feral horses, elk, bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer and mule deer, prairie dogs, and at least 186 species of birds including golden eagles, sharp-tailed grouse, and wild turkeys. Bison may be dangerous and visitors are advised to view them from a distance. Bison, elk, and bighorn sheep have been successfully reintroduced to the park.
Choices: From NationalParksTraveler.com:
Like all national parks, Theodore Roosevelt National Park is open year-round. That said, choose wisely when you want to visit the park. The height of summer can be brutally hot, and the middle of winter can be brutally cold.
Summers are warm with average high temperatures in the 70s and 80s May through September. Winters are cold with average lows in the single digits December through February. Wind is considerable year-round. Conditions can change quickly.
The park receives an average of 15 inches of precipitation per year, which includes an average of 30 inches of snow during winter months. Travelers should be aware of the potential for violent thunderstorms in the summer and the possibility of blizzard conditions in the winter.
Fees: $10 per vehicle for a 7 day pass.
Contact Info:
Headquarters/South Unit
Box 7
315 Second Avenue
Medora, ND 58645-0007
Phone: 701-623-4466
North Unit
208 Scenic Drive
Watford City, ND 58854
Phone: 701-842-6828
Current Issues: From the LA Times:
But the night skies around the former president’s Elkhorn Ranch, referred to as the “cradle of conservation” by environmentalists and historians, now glow orange. From some of the highest points in what is now Theodore Roosevelt National Park, dozens of natural gas flares are visible not far away. They’re the product of an oil boom using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, in a speech Thursday outlining the administration’s conservation goals, cited Theodore Roosevelt National Park as an example of what some see as the quintessential issue for the department: striking the right balance between development and conservation.
“The purpose of the park is to provide for future generations,” said Winthrop Roosevelt, a great-great-grandson of the late president. The ability to do so is compromised, he said, if developers expose the parks to that type of drilling “without having a really good knowledge of the long-term effects it may have.”
From Wikipedia.
More
National Park Service: Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Wild Horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Eastern Screech Owls (Megascops asio) are the smallest resident birds of prey in Shenandoah National Park, weighing only about 5-8 oz. (that’s a couple of candy bars). They are active all winter, leaving their cozy tree-cavity nests at night in search of food. In winter, there is usually an abundance of mice and shrews, but other mainstay dinner items are hiding out until spring: frogs, salamanders, small snakes, lizards, moths, caterpillars and other insects. Wiley Screech Owls have been observed on frosty autumn mornings walking around farm fields, picking off inert grasshoppers like grapes. Posted by the US Department of the Interior on Tumblr, 2/9/14.
Another cross-country business trip … and another opportunity to really dive into my iPod. What did I discover? That my playlist designed to make me relax really did the job.
The tracks ranged from a couple from my favorite album in high school to one track from last year. Bottom line: this is a great playlist for me.
Humbly submitted for your consideration: Relax. Please tell me what I need to add, and what you can’t believe is on the list!
| Track |
Artist |
Genre |
Date |
| Away Down the River |
Alison Krauss |
Country |
2007 |
| Ventura Highway |
America |
Rock |
1972 |
| I Can’t Make You Love Me |
Bonnie Raitt |
Rock |
1991 |
| Baby I’m a Want You |
Bread |
Pop 70s |
1972 |
| Diary |
Bread |
Pop 70s |
1972 |
| So Far Away |
Carole King |
Pop 70s |
1971 |
| You’ve Got A Friend |
Carole King |
Pop 70s |
1971 |
| No One to Sing for Me |
Cherryholmes |
Bluegrass |
2005 |
| Colour My World |
Chicago |
Pop 70s |
1971 |
| Wishing You Were Here |
Chicago |
Pop 70s |
1974 |
| The One You Love |
Glenn Frey |
Pop 80s |
1982 |
| What a Wonderful World / Over the Rainbow (Medley) |
Israel Kamakawiwo’ole |
Hawaii |
1993 |
| Carolina on My Mind |
James Taylor |
Pop 70s |
2003 |
| Fire and Rain |
James Taylor |
Pop 70s |
2003 |
| Handy Man |
James Taylor |
Pop 70s |
2003 |
| How Sweet It Is… |
James Taylor |
Pop 70s |
1975 |
| Sweet Baby James |
James Taylor |
Pop 70s |
1971 |
| Imagine |
John Lennon |
Pop 70s |
1971 |
| Pacific Time |
Kenny & Amanda Smith Band |
Bluegrass |
2005 |
| Lindy |
Kenny Chesney |
Country |
2013 |
| Carnival Town |
Norah Jones |
Pop |
2004 |
| Come Away with Me |
Norah Jones |
Jazz |
2002 |
| Don’t Miss You At All |
Norah Jones |
Pop |
2004 |
| Feelin’ the Same Way |
Norah Jones |
Jazz |
2002 |
| Feels Like Home |
Norah Jones |
Pop |
2004 |
| Love Me (The Little Willies) |
Norah Jones |
Pop 10s |
2010 |
| Nightingale |
Norah Jones |
Jazz |
2002 |
| Rosie’s Lullaby |
Norah Jones |
Jazz |
2007 |
| Ruler of My Heart (Dirty Dozen Brass Band Featuring Norah Jones and Robert Randolph) |
Norah Jones |
Pop 10s |
2010 |
| The Prettiest Thing |
Norah Jones |
Pop |
2004 |
| The Sun Doesn’t Like You |
Norah Jones |
Jazz |
2007 |
| Until the End |
Norah Jones |
Jazz |
2007 |
| What Am I To You? |
Norah Jones |
Pop |
2004 |
| You Can’t Take It with You When You Go |
Rhonda Vincent |
Bluegrass |
2003 |
| Your Love Is King |
Sade |
Pop 80s |
1985 |
| Aja |
Steely Dan |
Pop 70s |
1977 |
| On and On |
Stephen Bishop |
Pop 70s |
1977 |
| Takin’ Our Own Sweet Time |
The Kinleys |
Country |
|
| All the Stars |
The Wailin’ Jennys |
Folk |
2011 |
| Apocalypse |
The Wailin’ Jennys |
Folk |
|
| Beautiful Dawn |
The Wailin’ Jennys |
Pop 00s |
2004 |
| Bird Song |
The Wailin’ Jennys |
Folk |
2011 |
| Come All You Sailors |
The Wailin’ Jennys |
Pop 00s |
2004 |
| Old Man |
The Wailin’ Jennys |
Pop 00s |
2004 |
| Prairie Town |
The Wailin’ Jennys |
Folk |
|
| Swing Low Sail High |
The Wailin’ Jennys |
Folk |
2011 |
| Stardust |
Willie Nelson |
Country |
1978 |
| Free |
Zac Brown Band |
Country |
2008 |
More
Sobbing On An Airplane
Where Is It: 55 miles southwest of Little Rock, AR, or 286 miles northeast of Dallas, TX.
The Birth: From Arkansas.com:
The rare natural features of Hot Springs National Park were first protected when Congress declared the area a “reservation” in 1832, some 40 years before Yellowstone became the world’s first national park. From prehistoric natives forward, people have been using the hot springs for therapeutic baths for millennia. To replace earlier wooden structures susceptible to fire, a row of luxurious stone and masonry bathhouses was constructed in the early 1900s along Central Avenue of Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Now, the Bathhouse Row structures are part of a National Historic Landmark District and represent the grandest collection of such bathhouses in North America. While preserving an array of 47 hot springs and their watershed, the park provides hiking trails, scenic drives, camping and picnic areas.
It Happened Here: From NationalGeographic.com:
The park calls itself the “oldest area in the national park system” because in 1832, 40 years before Yellowstone became the first national park, President Andrew Jackson set aside the hot springs as a special reservation. The federal land became a national park in 1921. By then Hot Springs had long been famous as a spa where people “took the waters,” seeking relief from bunions, rheumatism, and other afflictions.
Size: 5,550 acres
# Visitors: 1,325,719 in 2013. Peak attendance was in July; January was the least attended.
Plants: From the Park’s website:
Hot Springs National Park is primarily forested hills and valleys. The oak-hickory-pine forest type includes many other tree and shrub species. Wildflowers and blooming trees are especially beautiful in spring, while autumn brings many bright colors of leaves.
Fees: There is no entrance fee for the Park.
Staying There: Primitive sites are $10/night; full hookups are $24/night.
Contact Info:
101 Reserve St.
Hot Springs AR 71901
Visitor Center: 501-620-6715
More
National Park Service: Hot Springs National Park
National Parks Traveler: New Leases….
