You can't get your picture taken with a geyser or do a rubbing of moose tracks at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. But this corner of the French Quarter, a part of Louis Armstrong Park, celebrates the legacy of jazz in the US through exhibits and concerts, some even led by specially trained, musically gifted park rangers.
The park was established in 1994 to honor the melting pot of French, Creole and African cultures that combined in the city's dance halls; its visitor center is a former Masonic temple.
The Treme Brass Band, named for a neighborhood known historically for its population of free blacks, holds jazz workshops for kids every Saturday. Other events in the park include trombone soloists and a standing Wednesday ragtime series.
National Park travel is one of our favorite topics around here, but unfortunately the most recent news isn't about a new park, secret location or exciting tour. It's about those looking to return to nature in the parks by taking their own lives.
This year alone, 18 people have wandered into parks across America with no intention of going home. The Everglades, Cape Cod and Olympic National Parks have all been home to recent suicides.
Although it's a little morbid to say, there's really no place better to once again join the earth. Al Nash, a spokesman for Yellowstone, agrees:
There are some individuals who feel it's important to have that kind of connection in those final moments.
Some suicides are more violent than others, but some people simply wander off into the wilderness. Many park rangers have been trained in suicide prevention and are even instructed to look for notes taped to steering wheels as clues. The most popular place for suicides? Grand Canyon National Park, where 10 people have killed themselves since 2004.
Two hikers missing in Alaska since Thursday were found thanks to a still-kicking cell phone battery: Abby Flantz and Erica Nelson were helicoptered out of the tundra after air and ground searches failed to find the twentysomething hikers in Denali National Park.
Though rescuers couldn't find them, Nelson was able to pick up a cell phone signal to contact her mother.
The women, who are working for the summer at the nearby Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge, were scheduled to take a quick overnight hike near Mount Healy but failed to show up for work on Saturday. The pair had a wilderness permit for Denali, but were actually discovered outside park boundaries.
Nothing screams summer fun like a national park, but who wants to visit Yellowstone again?
Located just outside of Baker, Nevada is Great Basin National Park. Just like some of the other parks we've featured recently, the park is somewhat out of the way. The National Park Service even warns in bold to plan ahead due to limited services! That must be why fewer than 100,000 people visited last year.
Nothing screams summer fun like a national park, but who wants to visit Yellowstone again? This week, we're bringing you some secret spots to enjoy.
Although small, Congaree National Park is the largest remnant of old-growth floodplain forest left in North America. Sounds thrilling, right? It actually is: The park offers some of the tallest trees in the US and they create one of the highest natural canopies in the world.
Unlike some of the other spots we've featured this week, accessing Congaree is fairly straight forward. It's about a 20-minute ride outside Columbia, South Carolina and is easily accessible via I-77. You'll arrive at the Harry Hampton Visitor Center and then set out for hiking, camping, canoeing or just wandering around the acres of hardwood and pine forest.
Nothing screams summer fun like a national park, but who wants to visit Yellowstone again? This week, we're bringing you some secret spots to enjoy.
No offense to fans of the Great Lakes State, but the first thing that comes to mind when we hear Michigan is not "national park." And that's what makes Isle Royale National Park somewhat of a secret. Located in the northwest corner of Lake Superior, the park gets its name from the Isle Royale greenstone that is found in abundance here.
The island keeps true to its wilderness roots by offering no roads in the backcountry and allowing no motorized vehicles on the island. You'll arrive by either ferry or seaplane. The Ranger III ferry is based in Houghton this season, and it can get you there.
Nothing screams summer fun like a national park, but who wants to visit Yellowstone again? This week, we're bringing you some secret spots to enjoy.
It's a shame that this park would be mentioned as a secret. With about 60,000 visitors last year, Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve really needs some marketing behind it--maybe a mascot?
Wrangell is the country's largest national park, and it's about the size of six Yellowstones. That makes it about as big as Costa Rica.
To get there, fly into Anchorage and take either Highway 1 or Highway 4 to the park. Like the other spots we've covered, a chartered aircraft is also a good way to get there, if a little pricey.
Nothing screams summer fun like a national park, but who wants to visit Yellowstone again? This week, we're bringing you some secret spots to enjoy.
If you're feeling a little homesick on your next journey to the South Pacific, then just swing by the US Territory of American Samoa--it's on the way! Here you'll find the second of our secret national parks, the National Park of American Samoa.
You'll likely reach the park by taking a flight into Pagu Pagu International Airport, which is served by two flights a week from Honolulu. If that doesn't jive with your schedule, you can fly into Upolo, Samoa. Either way, you'll still have to take some sort of plane to get to island of Tutulia--that's where the action is.
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by egw
