National Park Service Started With A Camping Trip

Above, the Eastern Sierras along Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The start of the formation of the national park service began over 100 years ago when a president of the United States camped out with a well-known conservationist.

Quartz reported:

Picture the US president camping under the stars, huddled in blankets, sitting around a fire as a naturalist waxes poetic, explaining that Americans need the wilderness to retain their wonder and humility. But imagine this scene in black and white, or in sepia tone, because it happened long ago. 

In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt camped in the Sierra Nevada mountains with John Muir—father of the US National Park Service. “He met me with a couple of pack mules, as well as with riding mules for himself and myself, and a first-class packer and cook, and I spent a delightful three days and two nights with him,” Roosevelt recalled.

 Sounds like Roosevelt had a bully of a good time with Muir.

To read more, go here.

Westways Magazine Salutes National Park Service Centennial

The January/February 2016 issue of Westways magazine, published by the Automobile Club of Southern California, arrived in the mailbox yesterday and it salutes the centennial of the National Park Service.

I had mentioned in a previous blog post that 2016 marks 100 years since the founding of the National Park Service. It all began when President Theodore Roosevelt and naturalist John Muir paid a joint visit to what is now Yosemite National Park in 1903.

The National Park Service didn't come into being for another thirteen years until the administration of President Woodrow Wilson. But, the Roosevelt-Muir visit to Yosemite was the "springboard" for the National Park Service's creation.

Fittingly, Amber and I will be visiting Yosemite in April.

The issue of Westways is one issue that those who are fans of our national parks should get.

For more on Westways magazine of the Automobile Club of Southern California, go here.