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A goat on a hillside near Logan Pass, at Glacier National Park, by Kurt Repanshek

With nearly 430 units in the National Park System, of which 63 are National Parks, we all probably could use a little help in planning our adventures into the park system. But do you simply visit a park’s website to plan your trip? Find an online guidebook? Buy a hardcover guidebook? Or simply wing it when you reach your destination?

This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at the National Parks Traveler. I must confess, I’ve taken all three approaches, and I’ve even written a guidebook to the parks, and there’s probably a fair amount of guidebook material on the Traveler.

Today we’re reaching out to two writers who make their living writing national park guidebooks. Becky Lomax is the author of “USA National Parks: The Complete Guide to All 63 National Parks” from Moon Travel Guides, as well as her latest titles “Best of Glacier, Banff and Jasper: Make the Most of One to Three Days in the Parks”, which she co-wrote with Andrew Hempstead, and “Glacier National Park: Hiking, Camping, Lakes, and Peaks”.

Michael Oswald is the author of “Your Guide to the National Parks”, “National Park Maps: An Atlas of United States National Parks”, and “The Day Hiker’s Guide to the National Parks”.

0:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
0:12 Episode Intro with Kurt Repanshek
1:19 Sieur de Monts - Nature’s Symphony - The Sounds of Acadia
1:34 Interior Federal Credit Union
2:00 Smokies Life
2:26 Episode 264 - National Park Guidebooks
27:33 Flamingo - Tim Heintz - The Sounds of the Everglades
27:50 NPT Promo
28:01 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
28:24 Episode 264 - National Park Guidebooks Continues
44:54 Almost Home - Randy Petersen - The Sounds of the Great Smoky Mountains
45:49 Episode Closing
46:03 Orange Tree Productions
46:36 Splitbeard Productions
46:47 National Parks Traveler footer

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National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 321 | National Park Science At Risk

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National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 320 | George Wright Society

George Melendez Wright was a brilliant young scientist with the National Park Service back in the 1920s and 1930s. You could say he was ahead of his time, in that he wanted the Park Service to take a holistic role in how wildlife in the parks was managed.

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