Who was first to reach the top of 13,770-foot Grand Teton in Wyoming? Was it Yellowstone National Park’s first superintendent, Nathaniel Langford, who said he did it in 1872? Or a group of climbers who documented their ascent later, in 1898? No one will ever know for sure, but the Park Service did not take […]
Recreation
Posted inAugust 31, 1998: Excavating Ecotopia
How the Canyon Became Grand
Stephen Pyne, who is best known as an historian of fire, has written an audacious book which shows how, for a few wonderful decades in the 19th century, the Grand Canyon stood near the center of the intellectual development of the Western world. During those years, the Canyon was, all in one, the Hubble Telescope, […]
Posted inAugust 17, 1998: Living out the trailer dream
Grand planning at the canyon
Some major environmental groups are taking the Forest Service to task for not thinking bigger and greener when it comes to planning a new town just outside Grand Canyon. In July, the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona released a supplement to its 1997 draft Tusayan Growth Environmental Impact Statement with a preferred alternative: 900 lodging […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Blasting through a cathedral
When Congress established Petroglyph National Monument in 1990, on the edge of Albuquerque, N.M., its rationale was straightforward: “to protect the cultural and natural resources of the area from urbanization and vandalism.” Just a few years later another threat to the monument emerged. To accommodate the desire of developers, the New Mexico delegation backed a […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Blind Descent
I don’t even like it when the elevator door closes, but I like the feisty and fictional Anna Pigeon so much that I gritted my teeth and followed her down into Lechuguilla Cave. Nevada Barr’s newest mystery, Blind Descent, takes park ranger Anna Pigeon a thousand feet under southern New Mexico, into the deepest and, […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Congress drags its feet on Baca Ranch deal
If there is one property that ought to be bought and preserved as public land for all Americans, say Forest Service officials, it’s the 95,000-acre Baca Ranch – most of the Valles Caldera – a place almost completely surrounded by the Santa Fe National Forest. So this summer, Forest Service staffer Denise McCaig has been […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Extinct volcano is up for grabs
From space, northern New Mexico’s Valles Caldera, also known as the Baca Ranch, looks vaguely like the cast of a bear paw print. Small lava-formed mountains rise like inverted claw marks in front of massive Redondo Peak, all nestled within the rim of the world’s largest extinct volcano. From the ground, what most impresses visitors […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
In the footsteps of Muir
Would John Muir recognize the Yosemite of today? What would he think of his beloved “hospitable, Godful wilderness,” where he roamed freely, built campfires anywhere he pleased and traveled with his unleashed dog, Carlo? To explore questions like that, writer Geraldine Vale and geographer Thomas Vale retraced the route that Muir described over a century […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
Whitewater boating groups
Whitewater boating groups are invited to eddy out in July and apply for a $500 to $2,500 grant to promote river access or conservation projects. Nonprofit groups within the Rocky Mountain region may apply by July 15. Contact the Colorado Whitewater Association Grant Committee, c/o Jay P.K. Kenney, 1675 Larimer St., Suite 725, Denver, CO […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
Glacier’s road is going to the dogs
WEST GLACIER, Mont. – The first director of the National Park Service, Stephen T. Mather, saw the Going-to-the-Sun road as a way to hold Glacier National Park together. Mather proposed building the road in the early 1920s to lure a “great flow of tourist gold” to remote northern Montana, and to convince miners and loggers […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
But trouble the Mountaineers
Mount Rainier National Park bypassed public discussion and sprang a surprise fee on backcountry visitors recently, drawing a protest letter from the Mountaineers, the Seattle-based conservation group. The Mountaineers says the new hierarchy of fees is too steep, especially for short visits. Two visitors might pay $10 to enter the park, $20 to camp in […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Motorizing Montana’s trails
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the U.S. Forest Service give motorized trail projects the go-ahead without scrutiny, according to The Montana State Trails Program: Motorizing Montana’s National Forest Trails, a 13-page report by the Predator Project in Bozeman. Widening trails significantly damages habitat, but agencies dismiss it as “repair and maintenance,” […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks
Winter recreation is a hot topic at Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks as well as at the five-mile John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway that connects them. To involve the public in an upcoming environmental impact statement, open houses have begun in Idaho, with more meetings set for Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Minnesota and Washington, […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
In search of Mount Rainier’s power
What is it like to become obsessed with a mountain? In The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier, Bruce Barcott describes how he circled the mountain on foot and interviewed mountaineers, climbing guides, priests, historians and scientists before he and his father attempted to scale the country’s highest volcano. Barcott, a […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
A lively memoir out of the National Park Service
For a variety of reasons, I have been reading about the National Park Service – reports, histories, and bilious (but also far-seeing) polemics like Alston Chase’s Playing God in Yellowstone. They’re useful but tend to be lifeless. Now we have a restorative potion to go with the reports and histories: a book that breathes life […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Colorado Fourteeners Initiative
The yearly number of hikers attempting a 14,000-ft. peak has tripled in 10 years, to 200,000, says the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative. And that is why the coalition of five nonprofit groups seeks volunteers to restore heavily eroded trails. Those interested in high-altitude work on Huron Peak and Humboldt Peak can contact Kristen Sauer, Colorado Fourteeners […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Capulin Volcano National Monument
How should a “recent extinct volcano” greet visitors in the future? The National Park Service invites the public to help plan the management of Capulin Volcano National Monument in northeast New Mexico. To comment or to receive a newsletter, contact the National Park Service, Capulin Volcano National Monument, P.O. Box 40, Capulin, NM 88414 (505/278-2201 […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Feds sue a Utah county for building a road in a national park
Garfield County in Utah has yet to prove historical use of the Burr Trail road through Capitol Reef National Park, a federal judge said in April. With the ruling, U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins rejected the county’s motion for summary judgment, and now a trial will likely begin this summer. An attorney defending Garfield County […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Land swap splits conservationists
Saguaro National Park officials and Tucson environmentalists are praising a recent land exchange that adds 632 acres of prime wildlife habitat to the park’s holdings. They say the expansion helps to protect the cactus forest from urban sprawl, but others are wondering if too much was sacrificed in the process. The Tucson Mountains acreage, owned […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Ruckus on a recreation river
Each summer, thousands of rafters and kayakers head for central Idaho’s Middle Fork of the Salmon River, considered by many the nation’s premier wilderness river trip. During the week-long, 100-mile journey, floaters play volleyball on the beach, fly fish for native trout, surf the rapids and cook up Dutch oven feasts – all in the […]