Park Unit 139-142 Allegheny Portage Railroad NHS, Johnstown Flood NM, Fort Necessity National Battlefield, Friendship Hill NHS

 After months of quarantine, we've been going a little stir crazy so we decided to venture out for our first trip in a long time. We've had to cancel our trip to Washington state and our trip to Washington, DC this summer, but the Covid numbers are low right now so we feel safe venturing into Pennsylvania.

We started our journey with the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site. This was one of those fabulous visitor's centers that taught us so much about history and physics! 

We had no knowledge of this railroad or the challenges of getting a railroad through the mountains before our visit. "The first railroad to circumvent the Allegheny Mountains, the Allegheny Portage Railroad was the finishing piece of the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal. "The Portage" opened in 1834, marking the first time that there was one, direct route between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. All things to all people, it served merchants, passengers, slaves in pursuit of freedom, and soldiers from the Mexican War."

 The displays were an excellent way to learn about the process.

Next we drove to Friendship Hill National Historic Site.  "Tucked away in a wooded spot overlooking the Monongahela River in southwestern Pennsylvania is Friendship Hill National Historic Site, home of Albert Gallatin (1761–1849). Gallatin is best known for serving as Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison." 

We toured the house and beautiful grounds and had a fascinating discussion with the ranger about the politics in the area and how hard it was that he was not in agreement with his friends/family's values. It was a little uncomfortable to even drive around this part of the state.

 

Next we traveled to Johnstown Flood National Memorial. I was very familiar with the story of this tragedy from a book I read in Social Work school, so it was very meaningful to see the actual site. The visitor's center had an amazing recreation of the chaos as seen in this photo:

"The South Fork dam failed on Friday, May 31, 1889 and unleashed 20,000,000 tons of water that devastated Johnstown, PA. The flood killed 2,209 people but it brought the nation and the world together to aid the "Johnstown sufferers." The story of the Johnstown Flood reminds us all, "...that we must leave nothing undone for the preservation and protection of our brother men." We learned a lot from the first-hand accounts of the events and it was a sobering experience. This spurred us on to listen to the Johnstown Flood book by David McCullough. NPS sites are so good at motivating us to learn more!

Finally we drove to the Fort Necessity Memorial Battlefield. "The battle at Fort Necessity in the summer of 1754 was the opening action of the French and Indian War. This war was a clash of British, French and American Indian cultures. It ended with the removal of French power from North America. The stage was set for the American Revolution."

 

The surrounding area was beautiful and we learned a lot from the rangers about the details of the location and people involved. The reconstructed fort was very interesting. We also explored  the Mount Washington Tavern, which was build in the 1830's along the National Road (which we learned about for the first time here!). It was a stopping place for stagecoaches and their travelers.

We also visited the Stone House added by Gallatin in 1823.

 

It was a successful trip that reminded us how important our NPS visits are! Can't wait for Covid to settle down enough to start traveling again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Virtual Visit: Park Unit 138 James A Garfield National Historic Site

This morning we virtually traveled to Ohio to visit the James A. Garfield National Historic Site. The National Park Service has the visitor's center film online, which is a terrific introduction to the life of James Garfield, the 20th president, the politics and political history of the time, as well as a video of a virtual tour of the Garfield House, which in many ways, is better than being there in person because you get close up views of the items in the house as well as excellent explanations from a variety of rangers. Both of these films are terrific and worth watching!


We learned a lot about the family, but also about the architecture of the time (beginnings of modernism and glimmers of art deco and craftsman styles), life style (writing hundreds of letters, playing piano, entertaining visitors), and family life (children, parents, grandparents). I thought, as I always do, that this is a much better way of learning about history than any textbook in school!

Google also has a 3-D view of the house that is quite remarkable. You can walk around and look in the rooms and it really feels like you are exploring the house.

Our virtual visit also spurred us to read more about Garfield's election as a compromise candidate in the republican party, his 6-month presidency, and his assassination. This was an interesting glimpse into the politics of the day and a reminder that political discord and dysfunction are not unique to our current time period. This virtual visit is highly recommended!!

Virtual Visit: Park Unit 137 - Wrangell- St. Elias National Park and Preserve

We woke up early this morning and decided to adventure virtually to Wrangell-St. Elias to continue our Alaskan exploration this week. The NPS website for Wrangell-St. Elias is excellent in that it provides a clear overview of the importance and nature of the park:

Park Superlatives:

• Largest national park in the United States.
• Largest wilderness area in the National Wilderness Preservation System.
• Designated as a World Heritage Site with Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve, the Canadian neighbors Kluane National Park & Reserve and Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park. (Making this the world's largest international protected wilderness.)
• Four major mountain ranges:Wrangell, St. Elias, Chugach, and the eastern part of the Alaskan Range.
• Mt. St. Elias, at 18,008 feet (5.5km), is the second highest peak in the United States.
• Nine of the 16 highest peaks in the United States.
• Mt. Wrangell, at 14,163 feet (4.3km), is one of the largest active volcanoes in North America.
• The Nabesna Glacier, at approximately 53 miles (85km), is the longest valley glacier in North America and the world's longest interior valley glacier.
• The Malaspina Glacier, larger than the state of Rhode Island, is the largest non-polar piedmont glacier in North America.
• The Hubbard Glacier is one of the largest and most active tidewater glaciers in North America.

After reading the park site, we headed to youtube for video adventures and found three terrific films. The first was a professional film from Go Traveler that showed the grandeur and diversity of the park, as well as a personal story of visiting as a child. Very well done.

The second one was a National Park Service video that must have been made as the film for the visitor's center a few decades ago. This was an excellent overview with incredible scenery - about 30 minutes long. It made us feel like we had really visited the park.

The third video was made by a family with two boys who are on a quest to visit all the national parks before their boys turn 18. This video was fun, charming, and more realistic about what it's like to visit, drive, through, lodge, and hike in the park.


All in all, we spent a couple of hours exploring this amazing park - and discussing our plan of attack for visiting the park when we finally get to Alaska in person! In the meantime, this virtual visit was a great win!

Virtual Visit During Quarantine: Park Units 135-136 - Alagnak Wild River and Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve

This morning we relaxed in bed, not needing to get up early and decided to go on a virtual visit. We Alagnak Wild River  

chose two places that are incredibly difficult to get to in Alaska. The first is the
"The headwaters of Alagnak Wild River lie within the rugged Aleutian Range of neighboring Katmai National Park and Preserve. Meandering west towards Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea, the Alagnak traverses the beautiful Alaska Peninsula, providing an unparalleled opportunity to experience the unique wilderness, wildlife, and cultural heritage of southwest Alaska. " This is adjacent to Katmai National Park.

We discovered that this is a fantastic place to go sports fishing and we watched some fabulous videos of groups who did fishing trips along the river.

In all the videos we saw an amazing amount of bears, just chilling out along the water, or walking along the grassy banks. Truly a wild and beautiful land.

Next, we virtually visited Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, continuing our theme of wild rivers this week! "Given its remote location and challenging weather conditions, Aniakchak is one of the most wild and least visited places in the National Park System. This landscape is a vibrant reminder of Alaska's location in the volcanically active "Ring of Fire," as it is home to an impressive six mile (10 km) wide, 2,500 ft (762 m) deep caldera formed during a massive volcanic eruption 3,500 years ago. Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve is a truly primitive landscape with no federally-maintained public facilities."

We watched a video of a group who visited Aniakchak, which gave us a really good feel for the remoteness, wildness, and beauty of the place:


We also viewed aerial shots that show the amazing caldera that remained from the volcanic explosion in 1500. Surprise Lake in the caldera is the head of the Aniakchak River, which as seen in the video above is a great adventure to travel on.

Surprise Lake in the Caldera

 Since Aniakchak is so difficult to get to, we were happy to be able to visit remotely!

Park Unit 134: Great Egg Harbor Wild and Scenic River

In the depths of quarantine, we decided to take a drive to south Jersey to visit Great Egg Harbor Wild and Scenic River. New Jersey has opened some of the parks with the requirement of socially distancing. This is the only park unit in New Jersey that we hadn't yet visited and it was a beautiful spring day - and Mother's Day so it felt good to get out for a little while. The River gradually widens as it picks up the waters of 17 tributaries on its way to Great Egg Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean. Established by Congress in 1992, nearly all of this 129-mile river system rests within the Pinelands National Reserve.

We grabbed our masks and headed south to the Warren F. Fox Nature Center in Estelle Manor. The Nature Center was closed, of course, but we drove past the cemetery (that was surprisingly crowded) to the parking area by the river. We walked to the river and took in the view and then we drove further along to hiking trails. We explored a few different trails, discovering a frightening mound of wasps, and the historic remains of a power plant that used to be on the river's edge in the 1920s.
There was a lovely boardwalk through the swampy area as well. There are many miles of trails here and you could easily spend a whole day exploring.

Some kind of nasty wasp nest. We ran in the other direction as fast as we could!

It felt good to be outside and we saw very few people, thankfully, so we didn't have to wear our masks that much. It felt like home, and like Long Island. As we do so often, we thought about the reputation of New Jersey stemming from the sights by the airport, and that most people wouldn't believe how beautiful it is in other areas!

Virtual Vist During Quarantine: Park Unit 133 - Yellostone National Park

We were really missing the opportunity to travel, so we were so glad to be able to do a virtual visit to Yellowstone National Park.

The website has a graphic map of all their content on the kids' page and you can click on the hyperlinks to visit the different locations and animals in the park. This allowed us to go virtually to all the main areas in the park. We started at the North Entrance with the wonderful Roosevelt Arch built by the CCC.

Next we explored Mammoth Hot Springs. In addition to the photos and information on the NPS website, we also watched some videos that we found on yellowstonepark.com. We were especially interested in the geology of the park, so we clicked on that link next and learned about the geological history and processes that formed the various areas and attractions in the park.

The website also has links to the many types of animals in the park.
 

We learned what a pika is: These small mammals inhabit rocky alpine and sub-alpine areas and feed on the vegetation that fringes their preferred talus (rock) slopes.

• They live in colonies and are active in the daytime.
• They have a high-pitched chirp or call to warn their group of danger.
• They do not hibernate in winter.

Next we visited the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. Scientists continue to develop theories about its formation. After the Yellowstone Caldera eruption, about 630,000 years ago, lava flows and volcanic tuffs buried this area. Hydrothermal gases and hot water weakened the rock. The river eroded this rock, carving a canyon from Tower Fall all the way to the Lower Falls.

Next we went to West Thumb Geyser Basin and learned about the geology of geysers and watched another video on yellowstonepark.com.

The final stops were Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic. We tried hard to figure out why Old Faithful is so regular in its eruption and never quite got the answer, but we learned a lot about how to predict the timing of the next eruption based on the amount of time the geyser takes to erupt.

We also visited the other entrances to the park and marveled at our favorite CCC architecture:


We finished our virtual visit by watching the live webcam. It was surprisingly interesting and meditative to watch the camera slowly change views of the park - which of course was completely empty of people. We watched long enough to see Old Faithful erupt. It was a beautiful and peaceful site!

Virtual Visits during Quarantine: Park Units 128-132: Kenai Fjords, Dry Tortugas, Kawai'i Volcanoes, Carlsbad Caverns, Bryce National Parks

Google Arts & Culture Hidden Worlds of the National Parks

What a terrific resource we found today in our Virtual Visits of National Parks! These Google sites use 3-D panoramas - both still shots and videos that allow you to explore and feel like you are really at the parks!

We started with Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park because I've always been so fascinated by the active volcanoes in Hawai'i - since I was a child. I learned that there were major eruptions in 1959 so perhaps that is why this was a big deal when I was a kid. The views are terrific on this site- allowing you to explore a lava tube, visit the volcanic cliffs, watch a lava flow, and explore an active volcano by flying over it in 3-D views with a drone. We also viewed the videos of the 2018 eruption of Kilauea and learned about the geology. This is one of the top destinations on our bucket list for the future!

Bryce Canyon

Out next virtual stop was Bryce Canyon. This was my favorite national park visit as a child and I really enjoyed seeing all the photos - and especially a video of riding down into the canyon on a horse trail - which Janet and I did as children. Catherine was thrilled at how much it looked like Cedar Breaks that we visited on our return cross country trip from California. Another fabulous 3-D screen includes the night sky - amazing!! We wondered what it was like for ancient people who had that view every night. There's an interesting video about how hoodoos are formed in the park, and a 3-D view of the bottom of the park. The view are just stunning:

Carlsbad Cavern National Park

I was happy to visit Carlsbad virtually since neither one of us are really comfortable in caves. The best part of the 3-D views and videos is that you can virtually visit sections of the cave that we wouldn't normally see like trekking through the lower cave. We were able to fly with bats and feel what echolocation is like in the dark cave. You can examine the cave texture with 3-D videos as well. You get a good feel for the geology of the cave formations. From the website: High ancient sea ledges, deep rocky canyons, flowering cactus, and desert wildlife—treasures above the ground in the Chihuahuan Desert. Hidden beneath the surface are more than 119 caves—formed when sulfuric acid dissolved limestone leaving behind caverns of all sizes.

Kenai Fjords National Park

Catherine and I regularly discuss the challenges of getting to see the national parks in Alaska, so we appreciated being able to virtually visit without taking a seaplane! There are no words to really describe the grandeur and beauty of Alaska - and the 3-D videos and photos let you explore on your own. You can climb into a crevasse, watch a glacier melt and kayak through icebergs. We watched a video of a whale breach,  listened to icebergs underwater, and watched a glacier calve into the sea. This virtual visit made us want to go even more - and soon before the glaciers are gone.

Dry Tortugas National Park

The highlight of this virtual visit was swimming through a coral
reef and being able to look around and explore. This 100-square mile park is mostly water with seven small islands.  We dove through a shipwreck and explored Fort Jefferson, which is much like other forts of this time period. The beauty is the colors and clarity of the water. Simply beautiful and relaxing!


Here are the Virtual Stamps for our visits tonight:

Virtual Visit During Quarantine - Park 127 Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site

Tonight, from the comfort of our couches, we traveled to Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. We explored their virtual museum which has information about his early life, his various jobs, career, many awards and notoriety, and details about the home he lived in that is on this site.

My favorite part of this visit was learning about his folk songs and hearing him play them along with guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHd_XPBsTeA I sang many of these as a child in school music class! 

The site has selections of Sandburg's poetry which provide a great overview to get to know his works - or to enjoy favorites: The poems about child labor were particularly impressive and horrifying, giving a vivid understanding of that time period. 


The website also has activities for kids and Catherine and I made a poem in the style of Sandburg to finish off our visit: 
Here they are:

The Dirt

The dirt is dark chocolate

It looks like crumbled brownies

It smells like honesty

It feels like the weight of my ancestors

It tastes like hard work

It makes me feel hope

- Muriel 

Daffodils

Daffodils are Grandma’s favorite.

They look like sun shining up from the grass.

They smell like Spring itself, knocking at your door.

The sound like bike spokes turning an d children laughing.

The feel like breathe-easy memories of better times come to life again

They taste like the salt of sweat on your lip and the sweet of fresh fruit, juice running down your wrist.

Daffodils make me feel like I’m home again.

 -Catherine

This visit was nicely interactive and we learned a lot that inspired us to watch another video interview with Carl Sandburg on youtube. That is the best that a NPS site can do!!