National Parks Traveler Podcast

Most, if not all of us, have bucket lists. Places we want to visit…but don't always get the opportunity.   This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at the National Parks Traveler. One of the destinations on my bucket list is Gates of Arctic National Park and Preserve and the Noatak River that runs through it. A week or two floating the river sounds pretty ideal to me.   While it's debatable whether I'll...

Change happens…and sometimes it doesn't.   Change certainly is underway in Washington, where the incoming Trump administration is putting its players in position with promises of changing, or maybe upsetting, the status quo.    Against that, the National Park Service continues to face long-standing problems with not enough staff or funding, compounded by National Park System damage from hurricanes...

As the calendar runs down on the current session of Congress, there are a number of pieces of legislation that would involve or possibly impact the National Park System if they find their way into an omnibus lands bill that gains passage before the session adjourns.   While we haven't seen exactly what might find their way into an omnibus lands bill, among the candidates are legislation that would...

The vulnerable red-cockaded woodpecker is known to be found in national park units throughout the southeast.  Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park in Florida, Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee are just a few of the parks that either are, or once were, home to the woodpecker. Recently the U.S. Fish and Wildlife...

Humans like to play, right? We play cards, we play baseball and basketball, we go fishing or take a hike into the mountains. It's our play time, time to recharge, refocus, relax.   Did you know animals like to play, too? And many times, our playgrounds infringe on wildlife habitat. But how does that affect their behavior? Does it affect their behavior? Today's guest, Dr. Joel Berger, a wildlife bi...

Whether this is your first listen of our weekly podcast or number 299, welcome and thank you for listening. We hope you find these episodes interesting and present information or a side to the parks that you previously didn't know about. Frankly, that's the approach that we try to take at the Traveler. Not only to provide newsworthy information, such as National Park Service funding for hurricane...

The Natchez Trace Parkway is a scenic byway that rolls 440 miles through Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. A unit of the National Park Service,  the trace winds its way through lush landscapes, diverse ecosystems and interesting historical sites.    Originally the trace was a foot path for Native Americans and later used by early pioneers and traders. Today it's popular for motorists, cyclists a...

The National Trail System in the United States spans many thousands of miles of foot trail. The crown jewels of that system, of course, are the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail. While the adventurous might look at those long trails and set their sights on hiking one end from end, not all manage to complete the journey. Many become disillu...

Crime happens, even in national parks, national forests, and other public lands. There are murders, thefts, robberies and all sorts of crime that we'd hope to escape by heading into the kingdom of public lands.   It can be hard to accept that national parks are not immune from criminals and crimes. Just this past Fourth of July there was a horrific incident in Yellowstone National Park when a conc...

Who could have predicted that Hurricane Helene would carry her fury from the Gulf of Mexico and the coast of Florida hundreds of miles north into Appalachia? While there were forecasts calling for the hurricane to be downgraded to a tropical storm and drop quite a bit of rain in the region, the extent of damage in western North Carolina has been breathtaking. Jacqueline Harp had her hands full whe...

The coastal town of Rodanthe, North Carolina is just a small spot on the map, but it's a big place in the hearts of the people who live, own property, and vacation there. Located along Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Rodanthe has been in the national spotlight because of a succession of houses that have fallen into the Atlantic Ocean due to beach erosion. There have been ten houses affected in th...

Concessions are the backbone of the National Park System. True, the National Park Service manages the parks and the wildlife and the visitors, but the concessionaires provide you with a bed, or campsite, to sleep in, restaurants to dine in, and gift shops to browse in. Xanterra Parks and Resorts is one of the key players in the national park concessions industry. They operate lodges in Yellowstone...

The National Park System is an incredible reservoir of wildlife, from charismatic animals such as grizzly bears, bison and wolves, to animals such as moose, and pronghorn and sea turtles that, while not usually labeled as charismatic, are indeed just that.   Wolves certainly fall under the charismatic megafauna classification. They're majestic and mystifying, and perhaps even lend some romanticism...

It was back in 1967 when the Congress chartered the National Park Foundation to serve as the official charity of the National Park Service, and over the decades it has raised millions of dollars for the parks.   The Foundation is in the midst of its Campaign for National Parks, a billion-dollar campaign that has already raised $815 million. A big chunk of that total came from a recent $100 million...

Have you ever been to Mammoth Cave National Park? It's really not that impressive, is it. Sure, it's more than 425 miles long, but only about 10 miles are open to the public. Mammoth Cave is indeed a big, dark hole in the ground. And apparently there are a fair number of visitors to the national park in Kentucky who are not impressed with the cave and its underground artworks created by dripstones...

From Maine to Florida, coastal units of the National Park System are being impacted in various ways by the changing climate. Some of the impacts affect wildlife, some natural resources, and some the human populations who either live in or come to visit these beautiful areas. At the National Parks Traveler. We've been working on a series of stories looking at these changes that are showing up. In r...

When you hear the word volcano, where in the world do you think of? Mount Vesuvious in Italy? Mount Fuji in Japan? Maybe Cotopaxi in Ecuador? Do you ever think of Lassen Peak?   The National Park System is full of volcanoes. Some active, some dormant, some extinct. They all have fascinating stories to tell.    There was a series of eruptions of Lassen Peak in Northern California between 1914 and 1...

It's hard to believe, but it's been four years since Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act and President Trump signed it into law. Under that legislation, the National Park Service has been receiving $1.3 billion a year to pay for tackling the National Park System's maintenance backlog. When the Great American Outdoors Act was passed, it was given a five-year life. That means it will hav...

Manatees are some of the most unusual looking wildlife creatures that you'll find in coastal units of the National Park System, places like Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park and Cumberland Island National Seashore.    They are huge – the largest on record reportedly tipped the scales at 3500 pounds and was 13 feet long – and rather bulbous looking.    But manatees are also an endang...

What is it about grizzly bears that intrigues us, or scares us? They are magnificent apex predators that long have been vilified by some while admired by others. Enter the National Park System and you often will find yourself in a landscape with bears. In the East you'll find black bears in Great Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah, and Acadia national parks, just to name three destinations with the bruin...

One of the most troublesome aspects of heading out into national parks, national forests, and other federal lands for camping, paddling, or climbing – as well as many other recreational pursuits – is the rising tide of fees to do so.  There are reservation fees, cancellation fees, fees to change the date of your trip, even fees to gain a priority position to pay a fee for a permit.  Are these fees...

Along 1,600 miles of the Eastern Seaboard, from Maine to Florida, sea level rise, subsidence, and more potent storms are challenging the National Park Service to figure out how best to protect wildlife and their habitats, as well as historic structures, archaeological sites, modern infrastructure, landscapes, and, of course, visitors. In the coming months, the National Parks Traveler will be exami...

There is never a shortage of stories to follow across the National Park System, whether you're in the West at Olympic National Park, the Northeast at Acadia National Park, or the Southwest at Grand Canyon National Park.   This week, Contributing Editor Kim O'Connell is down in North Carolina to spend a few days at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which has no shortage of news to report on, whether...

In the remote wilderness of the Brooks Mountain Range in Alaska, where untamed rivers wind through vast expanses of tundra and towering mountains, a peculiar and alarming phenomenon is taking place. Since 2017 at least 75 pristine waterways, which once shimmered with crystalline clarity, have taken on a haunting hue of orange and now contain very concerning toxic metals and minerals. As speculatio...

Have you ever wanted to scratch beneath the surface of a national park and gain a better understanding of the issues the National Park Service is challenged with? Or to see what research is being conducted, or understand what goals are being chased? The staff at Grand Teton National Park just released their 2024 Grand Glimpse of the Park and the many issues and challenges park staff, and even visi...