Candy Harrington, a journalist who traveled the National Park System to see how accessible lodges and trails in the parks really are, discusses her new book on accessibility in the parks. And Cory MacNulty and Erika Pollard from the National Parks Conservation Association’s Southwest Regional Office discuss the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s plans for managing the greatly reduced in size Bears Ears and Grand Staircase monuments, and the roughly 2 million acres that were pulled out of the monuments so they could be opened to mining, grazing, and other resource-impacting activities.
By Kurt Repanshek - February 9th, 2020
:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
:12 Episode introduction with Kurt Repanshek
1:40 Conversation with author Candy Harrington about accessibility in the National Park System
12:36 National Parks Traveler promotion
12:52 Grand Teton National Park Foundation promotion
13:23 Washington's National Park Fund promotion
14:00 RVShare.com promotion
14:34 Accessible parks conversation with Candy Harrington continues
27:30 Friends of Acadia promotion
28:00 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation promotion
28:25 North Cascades Institute promotion
28:47 Yankee Freedom promotion
29:28 How is the Bureau of Land Management managing Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah.
39:40 Episode closing
40:15 Orange Tree Productions
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With the summer vacation season not too far off, no doubt many National Park Service Superintendents are trying to figure out how to manage the crowds and avoid impacts to natural resources in the park system.
Smokies Life, which most of you who closely follow Great Smoky Mountains National Park know was previously known as the Great Smoky Mountains Association, produces educational and informational materials for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This week we’re joined by Laurel Rematore, the chief executive officer of Smokies Life, to discuss the name change as well as how her organization lends a big hand to the Park Service staff at Great Smoky.
Have you ever closely inspected the landscape when you’re touring the National Park System, particularly in the West? You never know what you might find.
Back in 2010 a 7-year-old attending a Junior Ranger program at Badlands National Park spied a partially exposed fossil that turned out to be the skull of a 32-million-year-old saber-toothed cat.
If you’ve ever visited Petrified Forest National Park you’ve no doubt marveled over the colorful fossilized tree trunks. There are also fossilized trees on the northern range of Yellowstone National Park, but nowhere near as colorful.
Wolverines, the largest land-dwelling members of the weasel family, once roamed across the northern tier of the United States, and as far south as New Mexico in the Rockies and southern California in the Sierra Nevada range. But after more than a century of trapping and habitat loss, wolverines in the lower 48 today exist only as small, fragmented populations in Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, and northeast Oregon.
Spur a discussion about traveling to a national park for a vacation and odds are that it will revolve around getting out into nature, looking for wildlife, perhaps honing your photography skills, or marveling at incredible vistas.
Will the discussion include destinations that portray aspects of the country’s history, or cultural melting pot?
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The Essential RVing Guide
The National Parks RVing Guide, aka the Essential RVing Guide To The National Parks, is the definitive guide for RVers seeking information on campgrounds in the National Park System where they can park their rigs. It's available for free for both iPhones and Android models.
This app is packed with RVing specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 parks.
You'll also find stories about RVing in the parks, some tips if you've just recently turned into an RVer, and some planning suggestions. A bonus that wasn't in the previous eBook or PDF versions of this guide are feeds of Traveler content: you'll find our latest stories as well as our most recent podcasts just a click away.
So whether you have an iPhone or an Android, download this app and start exploring the campgrounds in the National Park System where you can park your rig.
Comments
I just listened to Cindy's podcast and felt compelled to leave a comment. She sound like a delightful lady with good intentions!
I feel that I'm adequately prepared to comment as: I've applied commonsense and ADA standards to parks for 30 years, have a degree in architecture, and am a full-time wheelchair user.
I'm glad she fulfilled her five year dream and sensed that she enjoyed that experience. It sounded like the book contains some useful information and hope the sales of the book will help her partially cover the expenses.
But my advise is, DON'T BUY THIS BOOK! Many accessibility problems stem from well intended people who sent the wrong messages to compliance representatives and the disabled public.
She was obviously not prepared to represent people with disabilities for several reasons. First and foremost, she isn't disabled! If she was, she would have used the basic tool, the tape measure! A 1/2"-1" difference will often time dictate if someone in a wheelchair can use a wash basin, safely transfer onto a shower bench or bed... Besides safety issues a tape measure can alleviate frustrations associated with adequate turning radius, door openings and other pinch points. The size differentials of wheelchair and other mobility devices vary greatly. And that's just a few of her notable shortcomings. I also didn't hear about parking, accessible routes, door hardware & pull weight, front counter accessibility.
While I'm glad she perused her dream, It's obvious that she was ill equipped for the serious job of helping people with disabilities. I'm also saddened that your fine podcast helped propel this misinformation! Sorry if this stiff critique falls to side of negativity, but it was difficult to listen to.
She was obviously not prepared to represent people with disabilities for several reasons. First and foremost, she isn't disabled! If she was, she would have used the basic tool, the tape measure! A 1/2"-1" difference will often time dictate if someone in a wheelchair can use a wash basin, safely transfer onto a shower bench or bed... Besides safety issues a tape measure can alleviate frustrations associated with adequate turning radius, door openings and other pinch points. The size differentials of wheelchair and other mobility devices vary greatly. And that's just a few of her notable shortcomings. I also didn't hear about parking, accessible routes, door hardware & pull weight, front counter accessibility. - Yeap, your right!
Amazing a good deal of beneficial information