NPS

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.

Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area

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The choice is either to start at the dam in Montana and go up the canyon by boat or to start in Wyoming and take in the views from the rim. It was a long way for me to dodge power boats without easy stopping points, and the water level is obviously artificial. So, I chose to admire the views from above, passing through the wild horse refuge area and finding Devils Canyon Overlook above. I didn’t see any horses, but a turkey vulture flew right by my head so close the loud whoosh and sudden breeze startled me. Maybe he was hoping I’d fall over the extremely steep edge.

The topography of the area is disconcerting, as you see mountains & high ground and assume the Bighorn River would run south, but for all the uplift, the river has just carved its way deeper through the partially flooded canyon. Far upriver further south, it does the same thing, but there it’s called Wind River and cuts through Wind River Canyon. Ultimately, the basins and lesser mountain ranges in Wyoming matter far less to the river direction than the Rocky Mountains, which on this side of the Continental Divide cause the rivers like the Shoshone and Bighorn to flow east and north, joining here before flowing into the Yellowstone River on its way to the Missouri River. In the photo above, that flow is from the upper right to lower left, below the large shadow on the cliff across the canyon. The stretch of water in the upper middle, below the fans is Devil’s Canyon, partly filled by the dam’s backwash and sometimes fed by Porcupine Creek. The foreboding names match the inhospitable scenery. This is a rough and remote area, but it’s also starkly beautiful and dramatic.

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.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway

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The parkway runs along the Snake River (above) connecting Grand Teton and Yellowstone, but the park includes a 24,000 acre land & river corridor for wildlife, without which we couldn’t enjoy seeing as many migratory animals in the two famous parks. The Rockefellers were instrumental in a number of national parks, including Acadia, Smoky and Marsh-Billings. Despite opposition from local ranchers, they purchased huge tracts of ranch lands and donated them to us. Laurance Rockefeller later donated his family’s 1,000 acre ranch to become part of Grand Teton, and his Preserve Center there near Phelps Lake is the best place to get in tune with their legacy. Considering the damage being done every day by burning the oil that created their fortune, it’s really the least they could have done.

”How we treat our land, how we build upon it,
how we act toward our air and water,
will in the long run tell what kind of people we really are.”

Laurance Rockefeller

Grand Teton National Park

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Oxbow Bend (above) is popular at sunrise as wildlife gathers in the coils of the Snake River and the light hits the Teton Range high on the right. Owls, a bald eagle, beaver and bugling elk all appeared out of the mist. Elsewhere in the park, pelicans, geese, ducks, osprey and many different small birds, then foxes and a large herd of bison wandered into view. Black bears foraging for hawthorn berries forced a trail detour, but I only saw scat.

Pronghorn migrate from here in Wyoming as far as New Mexico, and the headwaters from the nearby Continental Divide eventually reach the Pacific. This is an important park, ecologically, more than just a great photo stop. Still, the many lakes provide lots of flat hikes with steep mountain backgrounds, and lots of mountain hikes with water vistas. Or you could take the Jenny Lake boat across for even more views. Kayaking is a hassle with the permit & inspection process, and the views are wonderful on scenic drives and trails. Jackson Hole is crowded and expensive now, so look elsewhere for a place to stay.

The Old Spanish Trails

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This post covers five national historic trails in the southwest. I hope they inspire your travels.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Road of the Interior, followed ancient Native American trading routes to connect the northern colonies of New Spain with the Aztec capital conquered by Cortés in 1521. In 1598, Juan de Oñate brought a colony of settlers north from Mexico City to the pueblos around Santa Fe, near Taos, Bandelier and Pecos. The trail crosses El Paso, past the Salinas Pueblo and past the Petroglyphs in Albuquerque. In 1680, 2,000 Spanish missionaries, settlers and soldiers fled south on this road after the Pueblo Revolt, before returning 12 years later. Santa Fe New Mexico became the crossroad of international trade in North America.

El Camino Real de Los Tejas, the Royal Road of the Friends, runs from the Mexican border near Laredo, through the San Antonio missions, into Louisiana near Cane River Creole. Tejas is a Spanish version of a native Caddo word for ‘friend’ and became the name of the state of Texas. The Spanish established missions at the east end of the trail in the 1690s, withdrew after conflict with the Caddo, and then returned in the 1710s to establish the capital of their Texas colony in Louisiana. Due to conflict with the French in Louisiana, they relocated the missions to San Antonio, after negotiating peace with the Apache, and eventually moved their provincial capital there. Unfortunately for the Spanish, the trail encouraged many American settlers to move in, and they fomented a revolt leading to the US annexation of Texas.

In 1775, Juan Bautista de Anza led another colony of Spanish settlers north from Mexico to establish San Francisco. The 1,200 mile trail is named for him, and it passes roughly through the following park sites in Arizona and California.

The Old Spanish Trail was also built on ancient native trade routes expanded by Spanish, Mexican and American explorers, including Kit Carson. It connects Santa Fe with Los Angeles, via a few alternate branches through Colorado, Utah, Arizona & Nevada, and the branches pass roughly through the following park sites.

After Mexican Independence in 1821, Americans found that they could travel to New Mexico without fear of being arrested and jailed in Mexico City. The Santa Fe Trail connects to St Louis, passing roughly through the following park units. Today, the Santa Fe & Old Spanish trails roughly parallel the BNSF Railroad and Route 66.

Curecanti National Recreation Area

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The 700’ granite spire above that rises out of the Gunnison River at the confluence of Blue & Curecanti Creeks is the Curecanti Needle, formed by an earthquake fault running straight across the canyon. The half dozen turkey vultures in the foreground below it are drying out after a brief rain shower.

There are much more difficult ways to get here than driving to Pioneer Point Overlook, including climbing down hundreds of steps with gear and paddling down the river (and then back up), but I took the easy way. If someone is nice enough to build an overlook, then it’s best not to waste it.

Upriver from the Black Canyon, there are several dams and large basins with powerboats, and a very small, but pretty hike through the Cottonwoods along the riverside Neversink trail before the town of Gunnison. I skipped the artificial reservoirs and didn’t see any wildlife on the hike, but driving through colorful Colorado in early fall is always a pleasure.

Colorado National Monument

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Have you ever wished that someone would build a road up along the canyon rim with cool tunnels and overlooks, so you could see the features up close and hike out on the points? Well, then this is the park for you! A man named John Otto began building that road over 100 years ago, including his trail out to view the point above.

The winding, tunneled scenic canyon rim road now has bicyclists and antique cannonball rally motorcycles. Besides the enviable promontory pictured, there are several 500’ deep steep canyons to explore along Rim Rock Drive: Ute, Red, Monument and more. Watch out for Bighorn Sheep—I saw one—and raptors—second time this week that one whooshed past my head as I stood on a cliff. I saw a flash of bright yellow, so I think this was a peregrine falcon. Watch your step along the cliff edge!

The Gunnison River runs from the Black Canyon past the monument and the scenic Dominguez-Escalante and McInnis Canyons conservation areas, making for a scenic drive.

Rainbow Bridge National Monument

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Luckily Lake Powell is high enough for the boat tour, which cost $145 and took 7 hours, including an hour hike, 30 minutes at the bridge above (see people bottom right for scale) and a beautiful song sung at the site by our Navajo guide. That’s far better than hiking overland for at least two days. At least Zane Grey (below left) had the sense to ride a horse. This is my favorite park to follow in his footsteps. The boat trip alone is marvelous, as Glen Canyon just gets more stunning the deeper you explore into Utah. But the canyon up to the monument is a delight too, with wildflowers, echoing cliffs & alcoves and a spring, allowing you a glimpse of a glen before the dam tragically flooded most of them. Before our Navajo captain navigated the twisting channel for the return trip, a brief shower brought at least half a dozen waterfalls down the towering rock walls. Spectacular!

Whiskeytown National Recreation Area

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The 220’ three-tiered Whiskeytown Falls were a local secret known only to loggers and a few others until rediscovered by the park service staff in 2004. The ‘strenuous’ trail opened in 2006, and, since the shaded trail is in the 3% of the park not completely burned by the 230,000 acre Carr Fire in 2018, I decided to hike it earlier this summer, rather than broil on the water in my kayak.

But then these folks from Cal-Fire Bully Choop & Sugar Pine CC #9 passed me on my way up. Rather than complain, I gave them a bit of applause and thanked them for their heroism. They were taking turns cooling off in the 50° water. Of course, it’s not fair to expect these young people to risk their lives to protect our forests and property from the Climate Crisis we are all guilty of making worse, so they deserve our thanks all the more.

Shasta, Trinity and Whiskeytown Lakes are all National Recreation areas in the Shasta Trinity National Forest, with the first two managed by the US Forest Service and the latter by the National Park Service. Shasta is the largest, and you may have driven over it on I-5 in northern California. Whiskeytown is the smallest, but all three suffer from lower snowpacks and longer droughts due to climate change.

At the Whiskeytown visitor center, I noticed that they are using an underwater curtain to block the warm surface water from continuing downstream from the dam. This innovation helps keep the water temperature low enough for Chinook salmon eggs and fry in the Sacramento River. I’m not sure how long it will work given the Climate Crisis, but it’s the least we can do after damming Clear Creek. Maybe we could ban gas-powered boats too?

I was disappointed to read the park newsletter with three long articles about the fire and zero mention of the Climate Crisis. I expect my tax dollars to be used more wisely. Denying the crisis only gives us less time to act.