Ciao to the Western Leg of the Driven by History Road Trip through our Parks

Over the last five weeks, I went west. I drove almost 7,000 miles through ten states and visited twenty-three NPS units. I went to places whose natural beauty took my breath away and to sites of troubled conscience. I drove to parks which leveraged our pasts like fulcrums, and I met people who lived through historic events. I heard stories about local heritage and about our lands, both inside and outside the parks. I had a busy itinerary which I recount at the end of this blog.  

I drove a lot, and still I sadly had to bypass museums, historic sites, even NPS units without stopping. At first, I blamed my tight travel schedule, but as I passed some sites, I grew to know myself better and what drives me. My dad, Paul Hunner, drove to drive. Even in his 60s, he took the wheel and drove through the night on a trip from Albuquerque to California while I slept. So this drive that I have to drive, I got from Dad. It makes for some sleepless nights, but I like the drive.

Here are some less personal observations and conclusions from the western leg of the Driven by History Road Trip.

First, the public loves our national parks. I saw thousands of people find their parks at Arches National Park (NP), Yosemite NP, and the Grand Canyon NP. I saw good crowds at lesser known units like Manzanar National Historic Site (NHS) and Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (NHP). And even at the least known sites like Minidoka NHS in rural Idaho, people had made it a destination visit on Memorial Day weekend.

A crowd watching the sunset on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (Photo by Hunner)

Second, every day I met interesting people. NPS staff provided essential information at visitors’ centers and kiosks. Park rangers gave interesting tours and talks, both to groups as well as fielding my many questions. Often, we had thoughtful conversations about history, the public, and the NPS. Traveling alone for days on end, I became a chatty guy with strangers. At RV parks, gas stations, restaurants, and the parks, I chatted with touring families, with foreign travelers, with wait people, in truth with anyone who would listen. Most people were friendly, even engaging, and when I mentioned I was a historian, they often told stories of their heritage, of their land, and of their beliefs. I met a lot of good people.

Quote from a store front at Grand Canyon (Photo by Hunner)

Third, the parks are in danger. Their popularity threatens them since Congress does not adequately fund them. The NPS estimates that they have a $12,000,000,000 backlog in deferred maintenance at their 410 units. Every year, new parks are added without increases in the NPS budget. NPS staffing is asked to do more with less. This has consequences. For example, at the end of June, the Grand Canyon declared a level 2 water emergency. The Transcanyon Pipeline and a pump at Indian Gardens had failed, and water couldn’t get up to the South Rim. I heard that if the two week supply of stored water ran out, a Level 3 water emergency would close the park. Imagine, the Grand Canyon closed at the height of the tourist season celebrating the NPS’s centennial because of its aging equipment. Fortunately, the pipeline and pump are back working, and the Grand Canyon remains open.

A different threat to the NPS exists. Waterfront parks like Jamestown at Colonial NHP in Virginia, Rose the Riveter/World War II Homefront NHP in California, and the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island National Memorial (NM) in New York could go under water as oceans rise. A multi-year drought has killed millions of evergreen trees in the Sierra Nevadas. These trees could catch fire and sweep through the groves of the big trees at Yosemite and Sequoia. In reply to my concerns about forest fires sweeping through parks, a  ranger at Kings Canyon NP said that maybe we are the last generation that will see the giant sequoias. Her comment still shocks and haunts me. Could we be the last to see the biggest living things on earth. As environmental historian William Tweed asks: what will happen if there are no Joshua Trees at Joshua Tree NP? What happens when there are no glaciers at Glacier NP?

Dead evergreen trees seen on the floor of Yosemite Valley between El Capitan and Bridal Veil Falls show the effects of the multi-year drought in California. (Photo by Hunner)

Fourth, despite these challenges of climate chaos and chaotic funding, the NPS has many things going well for it. Incredible people work at the parks who are friendly, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, engaged, and dedicated. People like Alisa Lynch at Manzanar NHS who took an hour out of her morning to talk to me and then included other visitors who came into our discussions. People like Lance Gambrel, who took me on a special tour of the south rim of the Grand Canyon after he got off work so we could watch the sun set at Hermit’s Rest. Since he was still wearing the Ranger uniform and hat, he fielded questions from kids who were thirsty for information. 

Grand Canyon Ranger Lance Gambrel fielding questions from a family (Photo by Hunner)

I met many people who volunteered at the parks-- people like Tom Wilson at Fort Clatsop and Dennis Torresdal, John Prutsman, and Betty Meeks  at Fort Vancouver. Without a dedicated corps of volunteers like these and thousands of others, visitors to the parks would miss the interactions and recreations that enrich their experiences.

I experienced two very popular programs run by the parks. The first is the Junior Ranger program, where children and teens race around the exhibits and answer questions about that particular park. For Lance, quizzing the Junior Rangers is a favorite part of his job. I witnessed two older teenagers doing a hip-hop version of the Banana Slug dance at Redwoods NP. I met the Rich family from Georgia as their two boys tore around the Death Valley visitors’ center filling out a question sheet and doing activities. Over the years, the family had visited 200 parks where the boys have earned their Junior Rangers’ badges and certificates. Here's their Facebook page: Fall Back in Love with America. I saw a lot of young people high on history at the parks.

Junior Ranger gear at a Gift Shop in Grand Canyon (Photo by Hunner)

For adults the NPS passport book also proved popular. At each park, and sometimes at multiple places in bigger parks, I filled my blue passport book with stamps which stated the place and date of the visit. I often had to wait in line as others did the same. I heard that some people even stamped their real passports. I saw a lot of people excited and high on our national parks.

My last observation is that I am a lucky man to be able to do this. Lucky to have the time and resources to take this road trip through the parks, lucky to be able to write about it, lucky to follow this dream of driving through history. Thanks for joining me.

Here’s a summary of the west coast trip. On May 12, I shot out of Las Cruces and followed El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and the Santa Fe National Historic Trail (NHT) up the spine of New Mexico. Once in Colorado, I visited Bent’s Old Fort NHS and Sand Creek Massacre NHS, and then Fort LarnedNHS in Kansas. After a quick return to New Mexico, on May 25 I headed out again and hiked Arches NP, smelled the coal fired locomotive at Golden Spike NHS, ate dust at the Minidoka NHS which had interned American citizens during World War II, followed the Oregon Trail and the Lewis and Clark NHTs, stopped at the radioactive Manhattan Project NHP at Hanford, Washington, visited the Klondike NHS in Seattle, and spent a morning at Fort Vancouver NHS across the river from Portland. For several days, I toured the mouth of the Columbia River looking for Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery. I then drove south down the Pacific Coast with visits at Redwoods NP and Fort Ross California State Park. In the San Francisco, I enjoyed the San Francisco Maritime NHS at Fisherman’s Wharf and Fort Point under the Golden Gate Bridge. I met two women welders from World War II at the Rosie the Riveter NHS and spent more time with big trees at the Muir Woods NM. Over Father’s Day weekend, I communed with nature and John Muir at Yosemite NP and hugged some more giant trees, this time sequoias at Kings Canyon NP. Then swinging around the south end of the Sierra Nevadas, I went to Manzanar NHS, through Death Valley NP, and over to Grand Canyon NP.  I ended the trip with a visit to First Mesa on the Hopi Indian Reservation. So far, I have blogged about half of these places and plan on catching up over the next month before I bolt out of here and head east.

By August, I will be back on the road heading east on Route 66 NHT and into the past. I will continue to visit pre-Contact Native American sites like Hopewell Mounds NHP, colonial sites like Castillo de San Marcos NM in Florida, Revolutionary parks like the Adams NHP in Boston, and battlefields like Cowpens National Battlefield (NB) in South Carolina, Civil War sites all over, and industrial units like Lowell NHP and New Bedford NHP both in Massachusetts. I also will go to civil rights sites like Women’s Rights NHP at Seneca Falls, New York, Frederick Douglas NHS in D.C., and the Selma to Montgomery NHT in Alabama. As I drive to these and many other parks in the east and south, let me know if I am going to your favorite park.

This is a damn big country, and I’ve only gone to a third of it. I better get driving.

Have a happy Fourth of July.

My rig for touring the parks (Photo by Hunner)