National Park Quarters - Mount Hood National Forest

This is the next quarter due out in the National Park Quarters series.

Lost Lake and Mount Hood in Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon.

You can read all about this quarter here: Mount Hood National Forest Quarter. 

National Park Quarters - Grand Canyon National Park

The 4th quarter due out this year in the National Park Quarter series is this one:

Marble Canyon within Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

There are some really interesting things about this scene, which you can read here: Grand Canyon National Park Quarter.

National Park Quarters - Yosemite

Here's the 2nd National Park Quarter due out later this year. 

El Capitan in Yosemite National Park

You can read all about this quarter here: Yosemite National Park Quarter

National Park Quarters - Hot Springs National Park

This will actually be the 1st National Parks Quarter released.  Even though Yellowstone was the 1st national park, Hot Springs was actually a National Reservation long before. 

You can read all about this quarter here: Hot Spring National Park Quarter

National Park Quarters - Yellowstone

Following the success of the 50 states quarters, a new series will be starting this spring.  Called "America the Beautiful Quarters, it's commonly known as  "National Park Quarters".  The first few quarter designs were recently released, and over the next couple of weeks I'll post an image of each.  They look amazing.   I can't wait to see them all.  Each quarter will be released  the order in which the parks, all 56 of them, came into existence.

Here's the 1st:

Old Faithful in Yellowsotne National Park - the world's first. 

You can read all about this quarter here: Yellowstone National Park Quarter.

2009 in Review

So 2009 is already complete and in the past by nearly a quarter of a year.  It was a pretty good year for us, despite a few hiccups.

We began looking for a house - then stopped when decades of mismanagement by idiot politicians in NJ finally caught up with the state and as a result the governor took away promised raises and then essentially gave us paycuts by requiring us to take unpaid furlough days.   After a while we began looking again - and then stopped when the new republican governor was elected on a slash-and-burn campaign and I wasn't sure how long I'd still have a job.  That roller coaster has repeated itself again, but in 2010, so I wont go there. 

Sarah got pregnant again. 

Jackson had a big year:   He started the year looking like this:

And soon after began eating solid food, then crawling, and eventually walking and running.  He made his first trip to Cabela's, and his first trip out of the country - to Costa Rica!  Of course he had his 1st birthday and gets cuter and more fun every day.  By the end of the year, he looked like this:

 We didn't go too many places this year, but the trips we did take were great.  Our week-long camping trip around PA in May was wonderful. 

We didn't go to as many national parks as we would have liked either.  Well, I say that, but maybe we went to more than I'm remembrimg.  Let's see:
Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
Steamtown National Historic Site
Friendship Hill National Historic Site
Fort Necessity national Historic Site
Fire Island National Seashore
Denali National Park
Horseshoe Bend National Military Park

So 8 parks isn't bad.  Sarah and I are up to nearly 14% and 15% of the parks, respectively.  Jackson is up to 3%.  We have a long way to go.  We also visited Katmai National Park, but I don't think I can count it because the park is so huge and we saw such a tiny part of it.  Plus, that park was originally founded to protect the "Valley of 10,000 Smokes", which we didn't see.

2009 was a great year, and so far 2010 is looking good too.

Reminder about the National Parks Special

I just wanted to remind people about the National Parks special beginning this Sunday evening on PBS. It will be in 6 parts - 2 hours/night each night this week. It has been getting a ton of huge press lately. Here's an interview with Ken Burns on NPR from this past Friday. Click on the link to hear the interview and see some beautiful pictures: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113201245

He was also on the Colbert Report on Friday, and I love that show, but it doesn't offer anything substantial, so I won't post it.


On an unrelated note, Smithsonian Magazine's most recent issue had a story on the Red Knot -a bird I highlight in the limate change exhibit I curated at the NJSM. This bird makes the longest migration of any species on the planet each year and is on the verge of extinction. Here is an audio slide show they provide

National Parks Documentary

Sarah and I are going to be gone for a while, and I don't know if we'll be able to post anything for a couple of weeks or so (we're going to visit Josh in Alaska, so we'll have plenty to write about when we get back). So, I thought I'd post something long and important (well, to me, anyway).

As you know, this blog is about our goings-on, but it is also dedicated to our travels through the national parks and NP-related news. Well, in September (the 27th to be exact) there will be a new documentary on America's National Park system by Ken Burns. If you've never heard of Ken Burns before, then just know this - Ken Burns is one of, if not the best documentarian ever. I really believe that is not an exaggeration. Everything he's done is amazing. He's set the standard for documentaries today. He became famous for his documentary on the Civil War in the early 90's (I believe), then worked on many other things, like films on Jazz, baseball, and the Lewis & Clark expedition, which is one of my all time favorites. Anyway, the documentary in September will be fantastic - I guarantee it - so don't miss it. Below are a few preview video clips PBS used to promote the show.


The first one is commercial to promote the show - it's only ~35 seconds long.

The second is about the making of the documentary and is <5>

This last video is a ~27 minute long preview of the movie shown by PBS a few weeks ago. Don't worry - it won't give much away - it is just a teaser.

Here's the NPS' website about the documentary, also with a video.

Check them out and let me know what you think. Enjoy!

National Parks in the News

Since this blog is dedicated, at least in part, to the National Park system, I thought these items would be pertinent. Here's a video clip from CNN.

Here's a link to a story on CNN.com/travel website about 4 of the less crowded National Parks

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/getaways/07/17/visit.national.parks/index.html