05.21.08
Here’s a Reason to go to Prince William Forest Park
Every time we go to Quantico National Cemetery to visit Dad’s grave we pass by the entrance to Prince William Forest Park. It’s a national park with a visitor center and a muffin stamp, but personally I’ve never felt a compelling reason to go there. If you have to do something there to earn the muffin stamp, what is there to do? I have always felt like it was sort of a nature trail park.
(Not so! They have a large concentration of CCC cabins that were originally built to house underprivileged kids from D.C. and Virginia during summer camps, but were used during WWII to train intelligence operatives, placing them on the National Historic Register. You can rent these cabins for camping! You can bike or hike to the remains of a pyrite mine; enjoy bird watching; go fishing; go on that nature walk or even get a backcountry permit to camp at a primitive campsite.)
Well, what else? On May 31st and June 1st, 2008, they are having 1930s Heritage Days to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the New Deal. They are going to have Great Depression era music, crafts and exhibits. Some of them sound really interesting, like a blacksmith demonstrating 1930s era blacksmithing, restoration of a one of the Civilian Conservation Corps cabins that are on site, hand-hewn logmaking, a general store selling Depression theme-related items, an exhibit of 1930s radios, antique cars, and more.
It sounds really unique and you have to wonder when such an event is going to happen again. If it is successful, maybe they will make an effort to hold it every year.
I wish I was there to check it out, but now I also wish I was back in the D.C. area so that I could spend the day in Prince William Forest Park. It sounds underrated and overlooked!
05.20.08
We Traveled a Part of the Old Spanish Trail (In Reverse)
At the Arches National Park visitor center a little sign at the Passport stamp cancellation station informed us that Arches was a site along the Old Spanish Trail and that we could ask a ranger for a special stamp.
Naturally, we got the attention of the nearest park ranger and asked for the stamp. Lo and behold! She removed it from a drawer behind the desk and we happily added another stamp to our books.
The Old Spanish Trail is a pack mule trail that extended approximately 1200 miles long and connected Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Los Angeles, California. In an annual trek, woven Mexican products were transported to Los Angeles, where they were traded for horses and mules.
We journeyed along the Trail between Moab and La Sal Junction; a distance of only about 22 miles, or 1.83% of the trip. Furthermore, we weren’t carrying any bartered goods of benefit to the people of Santa Fe.
For more information on the Old Spanish Trail, visit the Old Spanish Trail Association.
Update: Passing through Monticello we potentially blew our chance to get a second Old Spanish NHT stamp at the Bureau of Land Management Monticello Field Office. Of course, we did pass through town on a Sunday.
05.16.08
Hovenweep is a Secluded Little Gem
Tucked down in the Four Corners area of southeastern Utah; seemingly out in the middle of nowhere, is Hovenweep National Monument. The name “Hovenweep” is a Paiute/Ute Indian word meaning “Deserted Valley” and is quite appropriate.
Seeing the few structures that have survived the centuries, and walking through the harsh, windswept desert, it was hard to imagine that anybody would have ventured to this remote canyon in the first place, let alone decide to eke out a living from the spring or seep that trickled out from the top of the canyon.
Yet, estimates place the number of people living at Hovenweep in the late 1200s at 2,500. They planted and harvested crops in the rich soil of the mesa top and also had gardens in the canyon. Archaeologists did find corn in some of the other structures, suggesting that they served as granaries.
Other structures were clearly housing units.
Really? With one of the houses we saw, I think I could fit the entire thing into my dining room. They were smurf houses; they were really small, with rooms maybe big enough to lie down in. If I wanted to play “Hovenweep” at home tonight, I could do so by sleeping in my closet.
The purpose of some buildings is disputed, though. They could be celestial observatories, defensive structures, granaries, homes or meeting places. The debate continues.
The park has a small–but modern–visitors facility, with a nearby campground and picnic tables. Mom asked the park ranger how many visitors they got and he estimated about 100 visitors per day, mostly in the spring and fall. How does that compare to nearby (45 miles) Mesa Verde?
Overall, the isolation of Hovenweep really left you with your thoughts, which tend to focus on the site’s seclusion and wonder at what this thriving community was like over 700 years ago.
05.11.08
Springtime in the Desert
Mom and I visited southeastern Utah for Mother’s Day weekend. In addition to the cooler temperatures, we had the pleasure to see wildflowers in bloom.
At the Balanced Rock trail in Arches National Park.
Near Courthouse Towers in Arches NP.
A blooming prickly pear cactus at Hovenweep National Monument.
In the Needles District of Canyonlands NP at the Pothole Point Overlook trail.
05.04.08
Journey Through Hallowed Ground is a go
Country road – Spring
Photo credit: Ken Garrett, on the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership website
I got an e-mail announcing that the House passed the legislation for the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area on Tuesday (the Senate had passed it on April 10). If you’re not familiar with the JTHG, it’s a 175-mile corridor stretching across four states, from Gettysburg, PA, to Monticello outside of Charlottesville, VA.
Or, as the bill itself says: “The Heritage Area shall consist of the 175-mile region generally following the Route 15 corridor and surrounding areas from Adams County, Pennsylvania, through Frederick County, Maryland, including the Heart of the Civil War Maryland State Heritage Area, looping through Brunswick, Maryland, to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, back through Loudoun County, Virginia, to the Route 15 corridor and surrounding areas encompassing portions of Loudoun and Prince William Counties, Virginia, then Fauquier County, Virginia, portions of Spotsylvania and Madison Counties, Virginia, and Culpepper [sic], Rappahannock, Orange, and Albemarle Counties, Virginia.”
Got it? Maybe this will help, from the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, the folks who advocated for the corridor:
“The natural and cultural heritage within the proposed boundaries are unparalleled,” U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-VA-10), who introduced the initial bill two years ago, said in a statement. “In addition to 13 national park units, the corridor is also home to 14 national historic landmarks, two World Heritage areas and more than 1 million acres of land already listed on the National Register.
“America’s history can literally be traced along this corridor,” Wolf continued. “The Monroe Doctrine, the Marshall Plan and the Camp David Accords were penned right here in our backyard.”
This is great stuff. Now it’s on to the president for his signature!
In case you’re interested, the bill that passed is the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008, which included the previously-introduced legislation for the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area.
Twelve of the thirteen national park units that Rep. Wolf mentioned are (I think):
Pennsylvania
- Gettysburg National Military Park
- Soldiers National Cemetary at Gettysburg
- Eisenhower National Historic Site
Maryland
West Virginia
Virginia
- Manassas National Battlefield Park
- Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park
- Brandy Station Battlefield
- Cedar Mountain Battlefield
I’m not sure what the thirteenth one is, unless somehow it’s the Bristoe Station Battlefield in Prince William County; the JTHG Partnership folks link to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP website about the battle. However, as the latter folks also mention, it’s in private hands and not public.
Finally, if all this has whetted your appetite, check out the new National Geographic Society book Journey Through Hallowed Ground: Birthplace of the American Ideal, with text by Andrew Cockburn and photographs by National Geographic photographer Kenneth Garrett. This and other titles also available from the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership here. (We’re not at all affiliated.)
Now that all this is done–on to preserving Natural Bridge!
Book Review: Fodor’s Complete Guide to the National Parks of the West–Part I
When considering a travel guide, I look for a book that covers the place of interest to a better extent than its competition. It is not hard to give the details and a recommendation for seeing Old Faithful erupt at Yellowstone National Park, but what if I want to know the best ways to improve my chances to see grizzly bear, bison or wolves? Or, what about other local attractions, events, and hidden gems?
In preparation for my little mini-vacation with Mom to southeast Utah, where we may potentially see Arches NP, parts of Canyonlands NP, Hovenweep NM, Natural Bridges NM, a slice of Glen Canyon NRA, and Capitol Reef NP, I purchased Fodor’s The Complete Guide to the National Parks of the West, 1st edition, 2007.
Since I haven’t put it to use yet, what follows are just some initial impressions.
This is a hefty book. It is 896 pages and covers every national park (NP) west of and including Big Bend National Park in Texas. If you looked on a map, you could draw a line extending north-south from the eastern border of Colorado and everything to the west of it is considered for this book. That being said, it does not include Alaska, Hawaii or any U.S. Territories in the Pacific, but it strangely includes Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta, Canada. One important clue to what it does not cover is present in the book’s title: National Monuments, National Historic Sites, National Battlefield Parks, National Recreation Areas are not given in-depth coverage, but might be included as a nearby attraction to a local National Park.
Therefore, in Utah alone, Cedar Breaks NM, Dinosaur NM, Glen Canyon NRA (only covering 1.2 million acres), Hovenweep NM, Golden Spike NHS, Natural Bridges NP, Rainbow Bridge NM and Timpanogos Cave NM are not covered except as excursions. In nearby Idaho, Craters of the Moon NM & Preserve and City of Rocks Reserve–both of which I wanted to visit soon–are not covered. Some of these places are hard to miss on a map and are popular destinations that deserve attention. Why do none of these places want to be the definitive guide?
At the moment, I think that this book could easily be divided into 3 books that could arguably attain the same size by becoming more in-depth and including other NPS units: Nevada-Utah-Colorado-Arizona-New Mexico-Texas; Wyoming-South Dakota-North Dakota-Montana-Idaho-Alberta (since they’ve already done the work on Banff and Jasper); California-Oregon-Washington.
I am taking the book with me and will try to put it to the test.
