Valentines the AJP way.

Looks like its time for another lesson on the Geology of Mammoth Cave!!!!

What?

Why aren’t you excited? You are? You love rock talk! Well it’s too bad. These research blogs are time consuming, so I need some time between them to goof off, also work on the upcoming J.R.I.C. manuscripts, keep up with coffee chronicles, etc etc. So, what am I going to do?

Wait! Didn’t I write recently that I liked Valentines? Yes!

Lucky you! And Lazy/Lucky Me.

Instead of an educational entry about Mammoth Cave geologic History, I had a different idea! In honor of the holiday. What if I talked, not about love, but about the parks I loved most?

So that’s what this is. A short, brief, insy weensy blog talking about 3 of my favorite national parks.

A couple Rules apply. #1. It cant be a park I have already turned into a J.R.I.C. book, or am in the process of turning into a J.R.I.C. book. Dry Tortugas has already gotten a lot of my time energy and recognition, and you can expect more Mammoth Cave Geology coming soon. (Also some non-rock related Mammoth Cave articles.) And I don’t want to give away my upcoming plans. #2. It has to be a park I have picture of, which does limit the playing field a bit. As much as I would love to write a love letter to American Samoa National Park, I have never been. So that will have to be a future article. This rule probably isn’t a necessity, but I have fun pock marking these blogs with photos.

Blah, Blah, Blah. (Disclaimer: I have lots of favorite National Parks, and this is just a sample of the many parks I love best.) Without further adieu:

In honor of the holiday, a love letter to 3 of my favorite parks.

Park #1

If you couldn’t recognize this photo, that’s because I couldn’t get the best angle.  That’s Wizard Island inside Crater Lake National Park! Why is it one of my favorite national parks. Well, too be honest. I feel in love with this National Park years before I was ever able to visit. My dad’s first book was written for a series about national parks called Story Behind the Scenes. He wrote it about Biscayne National Park. One of the perks to writing it, was that he got a copy about every other national park in the series. The book about Crater Lake was my favorite. The idea of a Cinder Cone Island, inside mega-deep lake, inside a massive caldera was awesome! What’s not to love about a lake in a volcano? Also it’s pretty.

Park #2

Glacier National Park. When I was going to primary school in Kissimmee, Florida, I would look across the road every now and then to see a hazy forest. I thought to myself, (back then,) that the scenery looked more like something out of a painting than anything real. This was probably just pollution captured by the muggy air of an asphalt dystopia which should have been a swamp, but the lingering appreciation for the photogenic potential of nature stuck with me. And I don’t think I have ever seen a park more otherworldly photogenic than Glacier National Park. You’ll have to forgive me for doing two parks with lakes and mountains in a row. You’ll also have to trust me that both of these places have very different feels. Just driving through Glacier is a scenic experience and hiking was fun and awesome!

Park #3

Ok. I’m cheating. Not because National Monuments cannot count as National Parks. They totally can and are. It’s not cheating because Wupatki is 1/3 of a trio of parks in the Flagstaff Region often grouped together. It’s cheating, because this was my first park, ever. But that’s not why I like it. (Although you could, perhaps, make the case that it shaped the way that I now appreciate parks.) The reason I appreciate Wupatki, (other than the fact that I was born here,*) is because it is an example of several aspects of the national park system: The effort to preserve, and protect not just natural beauty, but also the history and culture of a place. The flaws in the park system as well, as these efforts haven’t always been successful, and are never perfect. The evolution of of the park system as it changes and adapts with our knowledge and understanding. The goal to educate and inform as well as to protect, (evidenced by the signs in these photos.) Ok. I could have mentioned all of those for any park. The True reason I love Wupatki is because it was my first national park, and my earliest memory of them. It both set me up for what to expect and also created my understanding of what our parks could be: things I am trying to share with the Junior Rangers Club Novels. Also its a desert park with a fascinatingly rich history, so it’s got the looks and the lore.

In fact, I’m not sure that one paragraph does it justice. Perhaps I will, for no particular reason, write more about Wupatki next week. But for now, this is enough. Valentines are supposed to be short. And if elementary school taught me anything I’m supposed to hand a lot of them out. The only reason I’m sticking to 3 is because I don’t want to overstuff this one blog with tons of photos. So there were 3 of the many top rated national parks I have visited. I might mention them more in the future. Who knows, maybe, eventually, Justin, Lucy, Rudy, and the group will hike to the top of wizard island, over the scree trails at Glacier, or explore the ruins in Wupatki. For now, I simply wanted to give these three parks a shoutout. And ask if they would be my Valentines!

That’s how this works, right?

*(I was born in a hospital. My family simply lived in Wupatki at the time. In a really cool house with a lot of history, but that is a story for another day.)