National Parks Traveler

Higher fees are coming to Joshua Tree National Park in California, from higher entrance fees to higher camping fees.

National Parks. They are places of wonderment. They spark our curiosity, help us relax, and can keep us in shape. They offer thousands of miles of hiking trails, majestic vistas, deep woods, rushing streams, and quite literally an open-air zoo of wildlife that relies on these landscapes to thrive and, in some cases, merely survive.

In a little more than two weeks it will be a bit more expensive to visit Grand Canyon National Park and to spend a night or more in the backcountry, as higher fees are being implemented. At the same time, the park is doing away with its "Frequent Hiker Membership" program.

At first glance, this looks like just another book about rafting in the Grand Canyon and its rapids. It can be, after all, a life-changing experience and people just want feel compelled to write about it. But Gaylord Stavely was not only one of the first people to raft the river; he was there when the entire river-running industry was born, knows all of the history behind the places, and the eccentric people who yearned for the freedom of the river.