#44 BEST OF THE NATIONAL PARKS
As we finish out 2021 and our first year writing on Substack each week, we are going to do a BEST OF series on various places and will include opinions from all of the Jacobs family. Over the next few weeks, we will do a BEST OF FOOD AND RESTAURANTS, BEST OF THE NATIONAL PARKS, BEST OF THE BEACHES, BEST OF UNIVERSAL, and BEST OF VIRGINIA.
This week we are remembering and recommending the BEST OF THE NATIONAL PARKS. Every time we get in the car or on a plane to travel, we immediately look to see if we will pass by any National Park sites. They are our “go to” for adding joy, discovery, and wonder to our journeys.
The Yellowstone National Park Act of 1872 established the first true national park and was authorized by Ulysses S. Grant. Then, in 1906, Teddy Roosevelt stepped up in a big way and signed the Antiquities Act which put into protection about 25 percent of the natural areas and sites currently part of the National Parks system. Ten years later, the Organic Act signed by President Woodrow Wilson created the National Park Service to manage all the established parks in various states under one agency. (www.now.gov)
Today, there are over 400 National Parks Service places to visit including parks, memorials, battlefields, historic sites, parkways, and preserves. A lifetime goal of ours is to visit every location. We will likely never achieve this goal but I can promise you, we will try! Every site we have ever been to has been educational, inspiring, and has filled us with wonder and American pride. All of the sites tell our stories, both tragedies and victories, and capture so many human and animal perspectives. Yes, the National Parks include breathtaking natural wonders and views but they contain so much more.
The National Parks are sometimes called America’s best idea. We would agree! Get yourself a National Parks Passport and start exploring. Here are some of our favorites. We hope you will enjoy our recommendations and get out there to discover your favorites, too. You will not be disappointed.
Chris
Some of the best National Park Service sites are the smallest and least frequently visited. Our greatest joy often comes from driving the extra miles to get to a site to find we are one of only a few people there besides the Park Rangers. Having a National Park site to yourself is a gift and a blessing. We purposely get to the sites as soon as they open, or an hour before they close, so we can enjoy them with a sparse crowd.
George Washington’s birthplace is one of my favorite off the beaten track sites as is Stonewall Jackson’s shrine. Visiting the Little Big Horn Battlefield site in Montana and going on a tour led by a member of the Crow nation was something I will never forget.
Walking up the steps of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas where the battle for the integration of public schools was ongoing during the 1950s was pretty incredible. Learning that the high school is still in operation today with a very diverse student body was a wonderful surprise.
But of all the National Parks sites we have visited, I was most profoundly affected by our visit to the Harriet Tubman Historical Site in Maryland.
Learning about Harriet’s story, which I thought I knew, where parts of her story actually took place, I can only describe as a near spiritual experience. I was moved at that site. I was pained. I teared up. I laughed. I experienced the full gamut of human emotions. And when I thought my learning was over, I went outside to the natural pathways around her site and saw this…a floating leaf. A leaf being blown by the wind for several minutes that would not touch the ground.
I knew there had to be a scientific explanation of it (there was…it was connected to the tree by an almost invisible spider web) but for a moment I believed it was Harriet’s spirit trying to reach out to me. I was struggling so hard to find the strength and motivation to teach for four more years after the craziness of the pandemic. Seeing that floating leaf and hearing her story, I felt like she was telling me…”Come on son, buck up. Think of my journeys. Yes, you’ve done much to help so far but you can still do more. You can’t help them all but you can go back home and reach a few more. You can do it.”
And….so, I got back in the car, with a little more steel in my spine, and determined to finish my career strong as a classroom teacher. Doing what’s right, what’s tough, and what is sometimes heroic not for the glory of a crowd but for the simple difference that it will make in the life of one or two people, and in my own.
Michelle
In our travels, we always seek the natural world and find beautiful places miraculously preserved by the National Park Service. While I am moved by the amazing wonders I have seen in nature, I have also been astounded by some of the man-made structures we have visited. Some of these sites have also been developed and preserved through the National Park Service. One of my favorites is the Golden Gate National Recreation Area which offers a National Park experience in an urban environment and supports the majestic views and landscape of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Henry
Yellowstone National Park is one of the most highly rated national parks in the U.S. One of my favorite memories of Yellowstone was going into the bathroom at dusk where we saw toilet paper shreds all over the place. We realized a raccoon had gotten into the bathroom and shredded the whole place apart. I remember on the car ride there I was hoping that we would see a geyser go off. It never did happen but just seeing them smoke was incredible.
We definitely stayed late, and I remember it was around 11 o’clock and we were driving back to the hotel and all of a sudden, my dad hit the brakes and I looked up and there was a huge, beautiful owl. It looked right into my eyes and it felt like we connected in some way. Those are some memories of my favorite National Park.
Emma
We visited the Grand Canyon on our second cross country trip when I was a sophomore in high school.
Everyone always gushes about their experience there and how the canyon is unfathomably expansive. I had low expectations because I figured it was just rock – how impressive could it really be? We went to the North entrance of the canyon because we had heard there were fewer people there and it was more peaceful. This decision proved fruitful as we were one of only a few groups of people making the trek out to the various lookout points.
Once the landscape came into view, it took a moment for my eyes to focus and to realize how never-ending it appeared. It almost looked like a green screen if you didn’t look closely enough to see the patterns and the depth of the canyons and caverns. It was times like these where I cursed my eye condition and subsequent terrible eyesight. Even still, I could understand and feel its enormity and grandness. All I could think about was how this place must have appeared to Indigenous peoples and how it was so beyond the conception of man that it had to be explained through myth and lore. We now know the canyon has been there for millions of years and even that feels unnatural and strange. How do we put that in perspective with the minimal years we humans get to exist on this planet?
The Grand Canyon makes you feel like a tourist, a temporary visitor to the entire planet. It makes you acutely aware that life has existed long before you and will continue to persist long after you. I find it comforting in a way that I got the privilege of existing at this specific time where I was able to see it. But I also find it incredibly sad that the same may not be said for future generations.
Jack
The Redwoods was a journey into a familiar world, but only because I had seen its landscape in so many unique stories, all from the world of Hollywood. I think of the National Parks as being able to speak for themselves, as icons of the American landscape. But the Redwoods was different in that it brought so many of my childhood memories to life.
I loved the way it made me feel like a visitor of “Jurassic Park”, my all time favorite movie, half expecting to see a prehistoric creature emerge from the ferns.
Or, suddenly I found myself on the forest moon of Endor, immersed in the world of “Return of the Jedi.” It’s such a special place on its own, but even more remarkable for its ability to create iconic worlds, particularly in the realm of cinema.