National Parks Traveler Podcast

Alaska is a big state, and within that big state are 17 units of the National Park System spanning more than 100 million acres. Denali, Glacier Bay, Kenai Fjords, Katmai, Wrangell-St. Elias are just some of those units. But if you want to visit the parks in Alaska, how do you decide which ones to explore? Contributing editor Kim O'Connell recently spent 10 days in Alaska with her family, and is he...

On the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park, in an opening in the piney forest, stands a fire lookout built in the 1930s. The Shadow Mountain Lookout is the only lookout remaining in the park. During a recent visit to Rocky Mountain, I followed the 5-mile-long trail to the lookout, where I ran into Barbara and John Varian and discussed both the hike and the lookout with them.

Climate change is materializing in various ways across the National Park System. Houses have been falling into the Atlantic at Cape Hatteras National Seashore as a result of sea level rise and shifting of the barrier island, wildfires have been raging through Sequoia, Yosemite, and Lassen Volcanic national parks, just to name three units impacted by fire, and flooding has unexpectedly become a maj...

If you're interested in volcanoes, you need not go further than our national parks to get your fill. Eighty-four units of the National Park System have volcanic resources. These parks run the gamut of having very active volcanic features to those where volcanoes formed the landscape and contribute to the geodiversity of the park. The most active volcano in our park system is Kīlauea in Hawai'i Vol...

Homestead National Historical Park near Beatrice, Nebraska, isn't that big, just 211 acres, but as the saying goes, it plays much, much bigger. Here you'll find the National Museum on Homesteading, historic buildings including the Palmer-Epard log cabin that despite its small size – just 14 feet by 16 feet – was home to a family of 12, along with agricultural equipment, genealogy research opportun...

The beauty of the National Park System is that there are more than 400 units that you can choose to visit, and each has a unique perspective showcasing the United States' history, natural beauty, or cultural richness. Fort Larned is the best-preserved Civil War-era fort in the National Park System and has more than a few stories held in the stone walls of its barracks, officers' quarters, commissa...

Though Nancy Hershberger might be dismissed by "traditional" quilters, her patchwork designs capture a setting deserving a spot in an art gallery, or a wall in your home. True, her quilts won't cover your bed or keep you physically warm on a cold night. But they likely will bring a knowing smile to your face and possibly remind you of a place in time from your wanderings through the National Park...

There are 423 units in the National Park System, but a surprising number of people focus on about two dozen parks. Last year, when roughly 300 million visited the park system, just 25 units – the Yellowstones, Grand Canyon's, Zions, Cape Cods, Blue Ridge Parkways – got 50 percent of the traffic. There are so many overlooked units in the National Park System worthy of a visit. They might not be you...

The Oregon Trail stretched roughly 2,170 miles from Missouri to Oregon's Willamette Valley. It rambled across prairie, sagebrush desert and mountains. From the 1840s into the 1880s, hundreds of thousands of immigrants made the challenging journey, and not all survived. Today more than 120 historic sites, auto tour routes, and markers show us where the Oregon Trail traveled. One of the choke points...

There really are few days that aren't great for paddling on Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park, whether you're in a canoe or a sea kayak. During a short getaway in early June my wife and I did just that. Embed the picture that accompanies this post in your mind, then listen as I paddle the lake and describe the setting.

NPT Ep 176 Spot List - Run Time - 41:40 :02 National Parks Traveler introduction :12 Episode Intro with Lynn Riddick :34 The Road Scholar - Bill Mize - The Spirit of South Dakota :44 Eastern National Passport 1:27 Interior Federal Credit Union 1:45 Washington's National Park Fund 2:18 Wild Tribute 2:39 Great Smoky Mountains Association 3:04 Kurt's Travels with Lynn Riddick 28:33 Black Woods - Natu...

The impact of the Covid shutdown in the National Park System is well-known, and we regret that many park-related businesses in the gateway communities may not have made it. The National Parks Traveler circled back to one particular business that we had featured in an article in May 2020 –- Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides. -- to see how it has fared ever since.

Waking up in the middle of the night in the backcountry of a national park can often be an interesting, or even unnerving, experience. What was it that caused you to wakeup? Fourteen years ago, deep in the interior of Yellowstone National Park it was the howling of a wolf that woke me, and when I think about it, it still seems like it was just yesterday. The melodic howl hung in the air, seesawing...

The natural and wild environments of our national parks offer the unsurpassed protection and diverse ecosystems that birds need to thrive. And that makes our parks equally great places for you to see birds. This week the  Traveler's   Lynn Riddick  talks to birding expert Nicholas Lund of Maine Audubon, who believes that whether you consider yourself a full-fledged birder or just someone who simpl...

Memorial Day Weekend is the official kickoff to summer. There's no doubt that many of us have already been to a unit of the National Park System in 2022, but this weekend is the traditional kickoff to venturing into the park system. If you don't know where to go, or what to do, I've invited Kim O'Connell, a contributing writer at the Traveler, and Lynn Riddick, our masterful podcaster, to help sor...

National Parks probably have never been entirely immune from political influences, whether they came out of Washington, D.C., or close to a park's boundaries. But there's an argument that can be made, one backed up by evidence, that the past 50 years have seen the most attempts to subvert the mission of the National Park Service to preserve and protect natural resources unimpaired for the enjoymen...

A new figure -- $21.8 billion -- has been attached to the National Park System's maintenance backlog. How will Congress react to that figure just a couple years after being told the number was around $13 billion?

National parks inspire a lot of things, from great adventures and beautiful landscape paintings to the names of cars and trucks to even music. In this week's podcast we invite you to tap your feet to the music as Lynn Riddick shares the stories of two vbands whose monikers and tunes are inspired by the national parks: National Park Radio, and the National Parks.

Everglades National Park  very easily can be viewed as the poster child for invasive species. It's infested with non-native Burmese pythons, Argentine black and white tegus are making inroads, there is invasive vegetation like Melaleuca and Brazilian pepper, and nonnative fish are making their way into the park's ecosystems. Kurt Repanshek, editor of the National Parks Traveler, recently had a cha...

One trail you must take when you visit Everglades National Park is the Anhinga Trail at Royal Palm. You'll find a short boardwalk that takes you out over the waters of Taylor Slough and quickly discover that the mangroves and other trees that rise above the water are popular with anhingas, one of the park's most popular birds.

Lake Powell long has been the shimmering heart of  Glen Canyon National Recreation Area  in Utah and Arizona, but it's not the only asset of the NRA that covers 1.25 million acres.  This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at the  National Parks Traveler . Last year I had the good fortune to visit Glen Canyon NRA twice –- once in May to kayak Lake Powell -- and then in July when I backpacked into the par...

A great way to experience Everglades National Park is to go on a "slough slog" into a cypress dome. Ranger Yvette Cano led National Parks Traveler Editor Kurt Repanshek on such a wet hike in search of a gator hole.

  Lyndon Baines Johnson had a staggering impact on the United States during his time as president. Much of his approach to government was instilled during his early life in Texas. In this, part two of her podcast on the  Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park , the  Traveler's  Lynn Riddick visits the president's boyhood home and ranch. The LBJ Ranch was where he was born, lived, died, and was...

Those who have ascended to the presidency of the United States are products of the environments in which they were born, raised, and educated. Their early experiences usually have a significant effect on how they manage their presidency and the subsequent policy and programs developed under their watch.  Lyndon Baines Johnson is a fitting example of that.  His presidency was guided in full measure...

Some 615,000 visitors a year flock to the hard-packed gray sands of Padre Island National Seashore along the Gulf Coast of Texas. This undeveloped national seashore boasts an abundance of natural wonders in its tidal flats, dunes and grasslands. Ample solitude can be found on it 65-mile stretch of beach, including 60 miles that are only accessible by four-wheel drive. The Traveler's Lynn Riddick t...