World Heritage

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Olympic National Park

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Even though the Hoh Rain Forest is on the far side of the park from Seattle, it’s popular in July, so I watched an otter playing in the water for half an hour while waiting my turn to drive through the gate to look for parking. (A parking map at the gate would save everyone time). The Hall of Mosses Trail above is easily hiked from the visitor center, and it’s impressive and definitely worth the trip. Several of the trees appear to be 1000 years old, and the streams are clear from spring water, where I saw tiny salmon among the bright green watercress.

There are some signs that the increased heat from carbon pollution is damaging some of the mosses, and while the overall annual precipitation has remained the same, it’s more concentrated in heavy downpours and less in the misty fog-drip that these sensitive plants require. The glaciers are also disappearing rapidly and will disappear completely in a few decades or less, severely impacting all the downstream ecosystems. Still, it’s my favorite park for moss.

Of course, Olympic also has mountains, including Hurricane Ridge and Mount Olympus, which feeds the Hoh and Queets Rivers. There’s a Hot Springs resort at Sol Duc and boating at Lake Crescent. The Olympic Peninsula also has Native American Reservations which help manage the coastal wilderness, wildlife refuge and marine sanctuary. For me, their crown jewel is their large temperate rainforest, but the other areas are also stunning. Some artists are painting the glaciers before they melt, but wouldn’t it be better if we all did our part to reduce our carbon footprints?

Glacier National Park

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The horizontal line across the Garden Wall on the other side of the valley is the Going-to-the Sun Road, which I finally drove—3rd time’s the charm. This year the dramatically scenic road opened on 13 June with little ice & snow visible in July. Just over the wall in Many Glacier, old photos show the many large glaciers are now very small, rapidly melting glaciers. My son and I rode horseback up in 2018, and the area should be renamed Many Lakes. Combined with its neighbor across the border, Waterton Glacier International Peace Park is still a UNESCO World Heritage Site, despite the obvious melting problem.

Melting ice and glaciers are one of the tipping points that will flip our Climate Crisis into a catastrophe. Consider the Arctic ice cap. Every year recently, the multi-year ice has been shrinking at an accelerating rate. Eventually, the ice will disappear in summer. Then the same energy that currently raises ocean surface temperatures by 1° will raise it by a multiple of that amount. There are two reasons for that. First, the white ice will no longer reflect the sun. Second, the existing ice will no longer be there to act as a temperature break. When you boil water with ice, it takes something like three times the energy as water without ice, because most of the energy goes into melting the ice first. So, not only is it bad that glacial ice is melting due to flooding and dry rivers in the fall, but once the ice is gone, the surface temperature rise will accelerate much more rapidly. Please, reduce your carbon footprint.

Yellowstone National Park

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Clockwise from top: Morning Glory pool, Daisy, Grand and Old Faithful geysers.

Most of the world’s geysers are here, near the country’s largest high elevation lake and the headwaters of the longest free-flowing river in the lower 48, in a park bigger than some states. For wildlife alone, this is my favorite national park, plus the geysers are my favorite geologic feature in a park. There’s a lot to see and do, but I’m not going to write more about it. Come see for yourself.

Waterton Glacier International Peace Park

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Canada is to the left of the mountain with the historic Prince of Wales chalet on the far left bluff, and to the right is Glacier National Park in the US. This World Heritage Site includes both parks. Waterton village is accessed from Canada, uses Canadian dollars, but is mostly on US soil. Not that it matters. I saw no border officials here, and it indeed very peaceful. There’s a classy old tour boat which runs down into Montana, as well as camping and lots of interesting trails.

Unfortunately, there was a terrible forest fire here in 2017, and the only glacier above is far off in the distance to the right, a shadow of its former self and a reminder that we all must reduce our carbon footprint. I was happy to spend several hours charging my car at the marina’s destination charger, walking the shoreline, eating, trying the local beer and just soaking in the view above. I enjoyed my detour to Alberta’s five world heritage sites very much, and I didn’t have any trouble charging in Canada. The Tesla even converts the speed limit to mph, so you don’t need to do any math.

Dinosaur

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This is the Canadian World Heritage Site in Alberta, not the American Dinosaur National Monument.

Josh guided us into the restricted area, explained how to look for fossils and we sat down on a bone bed to look. I saw something with a pretty pattern, picked it up and showed it to Josh. He confirmed that it was part of a T-Rex—Gorgosaurus libratus—tooth, roughly 75 million years old. I just sat there for a while, stunned to be holding a real fossil like that in my hand after picking it up off the ground.

The park is the most productive dinosaur fossil ground on earth. And it’s also very beautiful, with camping and hiking along the river among the Cottonwood trees, some 200 years old. I saw a family of deer on the trail. Even the Badlands in Canada are nicer than the US.

It’s definitely worth signing up for a guided tour, although there’s also a drive with exhibits and places to look for fossils on your own. The above diorama is in the visitor center. Most of the assembled skeletons are at the Royal Terrell Museum a couple hours drive north, but the field work takes place here, especially in summer. Josh even stopped to mark and protect a new find from another group a week before. Impressive!

Writing-on-Stone

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While hiking the Hoodoo Trail, I turned to a view point above the Milk River on top of the steep cliffs above. I stopped suddenly when I heard native singing, resonating beautifully between the sandstone crevices. Not wanting to disturb the prayers, I stood silently, entranced. Eventually I retreated and continued out to the Battle Scene rock art depiction, one of the highlights of this World Heritage Site in Alberta Canada.

Later I took the guided tour of the restricted area where Blair showed and explained the rock art in this spiritual place of the Blackfoot Tribe. The tour started at 5 pm, perhaps to take advantage of the light as well as coolness. While I disagree with those who look for extraterrestrial interpretations of some of the unusual petroglyphs and pictographs, the details and 2500 years represented here are intriguing and fascinating. Still, for me, I will never forget the living voice I heard echoing among the hoodoos.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

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While the view from cliff trail is impressive, the interpretive center is the best part of this Canadian World Heritage Site. There’s a graphic film depicting a bison hunt and exhibits about the Blackfoot Tribe modern and prehistoric. Tribal records were kept on Winter Count Robes, and a beautiful one is on display. The tribe got its name from walking through the burnt grasses during the hunts. Before they acquired horses from the Shoshone, the tribe used dogs to help carry their belongings (photo). Wonderful place to learn about the fascinating history of Alberta.

Rocky Mountain

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This is the Canadian World Heritage Site, not the American Rocky Mountain National Park. If you don’t like this picture of Emerald Lake, my homepage background photo was also taken in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The site includes many national and provincial parks including Banff, Jasper, Yoho (above), Kootenay, etc. I visited several of the parks with my son a few years ago, before I converted to electric. Maligne Lake in Jasper is a favorite, along with Radium Hot Springs in Kootenay. I also love the dozens of double arched wildlife bridges that allow animals to cross the highways safely.

Near Banff and Lake Louise it gets crowded. Even though I intended to visit Lake Louise to follow my Uncle’s travel log, I had to skip it. One problem is that the Canadian parks reservation system is not foreigner friendly. If you’re Canadian, you simply sign up for the short shuttle ride on a system you’re likely already using. If you don’t have a Canadian bank account, signing up for the shuttle is an overly complex affair involving copious personal information. Of course, if you spend $900 US for a night at the Chalet, then you can visit at your leisure. The other options are equally troublesome, so I chose Emerald Lake instead, which is very similar and maybe slightly larger.

Statue of Liberty National Monument

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My remaining parks are fewer and far between, so starting today I’m posting every other day.

Yes, I took the ferry. No, there is no other way to visit. As a reminder, I have two goals: first to visit the parks without using any carbon fueled vehicles and second to enjoy the parks even if that requires brief carbon vehicle use. So I arrived in NYC by car, walked to Castle Clinton—which is an official Statue of Liberty park office (stamp available)—, and then took the ferry. I wasn’t going to skip it, as it is my favorite iconic park.

I’ve been here before, as a boy, a tourist, with my kids, and now on my own. As usual, some folks visiting from abroad ask me to take their photo, since this World Heritage Site is the highlight of many trips to America. For 62 years immigrants came past the statue on their way to Ellis Island, now a fascinating part of the park. America, an immigrant nation, welcomed them to this huge city in this grand harbor under Lady Liberty’s torch, young and old, rich and poor, from all parts of the globe. Now, together in the city, we share cuisines from around the world, and we learn to overcome the petty ignorance that must never separate us.

“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles.”

Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus”, 1883

All Frank Lloyd Wright World Heritage Sites by EV

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UNESCO chose eight Frank Lloyd Wright sites for World Heritage status, and I visited them all this year by EV. An exhaustive tour of Wright’s designs could visit 100 sites, but the Heritage 8 are sufficient for me. My cross country trip went from Hollywood, to Arizona, Wisconsin, Chicago, Pennsylvania and finally to New York, but it’s easier to understand his life’s work below chronologically.

His home and studio in Oak Park Illinois showcases his various styles, influences and experiments, including his first design: his own home. While this is the one site I visited that is not on the World Heritage list, just walking the neighborhood is worth the trip.

Unity Temple in Oak Park in 1905 is a church built for his mother.

Robie House at University of Chicago in 1910 is my favorite, built for a wealthy client who only lived in it briefly.

Taliesin in Spring Green Wisconsin in 1911, later rebuilt after a dramatic tragedy, used funds from Robie to build a family country home with a school for his acolytes.

Hollyhock House in Hollywood California in 1921, was built for a theatrical oil heiress who fired him for going over budget.

Fallingwater (above) in Mill Run Pennsylvania in 1937, is his most iconic private residence, built for a wealthy department store owner whose son gave it to the park service.

Taliesin West in Scottsdale Arizona in 1937, used funds from Fallingwater to build a winter home with another school for his acolytes.

Jacobs House in Madison Wisconsin in 1937, was built to demonstrate that Wright could design something affordable on a budget.

The Guggenheim in New York City in 1959, was built to display art and to be art, for the future.

I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of 50+ years of the most widely recognized designs from America’s greatest architect.