As our travel comfort returns and our national treasures begin to benefit from funding from the Great American Outdoors Act, let’s go play!
Family legend has it that my first “hike” took place as I was nestled among several pillows inside a round wicker laundry basket, which was somehow tied to my father’s back.
This was the late 1940s, as my father, my mother and I had arrived in Great Smoky Mountains National Park after traveling pre-Interstate roads for who knows how many hours from Baltimore south in a balky Studebaker Champion convertible that tended to overheat on long ascents.
The balky part of me, apparently, was my wobbly toddler neck, as Eloise put an end to Walter’s infant-carrier contraption after a number of miles that I’m sure was deeply insufficient to him.
The park was about 10 years old, and welcomed, during those years, about 1.5 million visitors each year. In 2020, its 80th year, Great Smoky Mountains National Park maintained its usual top-three spot for visitation among all national parks.
My father’s favorite spots had a role in a Shenandoah National Park experience a few decades hence, when on a family trip to Doyles River Cabin, I seemed to be the only one who couldn’t quite get to sleep for fear a mouse was going to walk along over my hand or my head. My parents were both big fans of Doyles River, and the day-time parts of that trip—when our sons were young and newly in love with the woods—were full and memorable.
I should say that I also have a boatload of positive national park memories as well, including great stays-with-hikes and Shenandoah National’s iconic Big Meadows and Skyland lodges and hiking-with-my-honey all the the Appalachian Trail miles in both the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge Parkway corridors.
We’re taking a good chunk of this issue to provide a print shout-out to the Smokies, the Shenandoah and the park that connects them—the Blue Ridge Parkway. Those parks, now all in their 80s and with their wear and tear scheduled to get some needed attention via the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020, are a central aspect of this magazine’s coverage area and focus.
And the $1.9 billion per year for the next five years that will help address the deep backlog in maintenance will also benefit many other entities, including waterways, national forests and smaller entities under the Department of the Interior.
Just one rugged, wild, favorite example: An initial round of funding for West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest includes money for improvements or replacements to bridges in the Cranberry and Dolly Sods Wilderness Areas, two of my mother’s favorite hiking areas.
One way to plan to celebrate is via a new national day: Great American Outdoors day, now annual on August 4, will offer free admission to all national parks and public lands. That’s a Wednesday this year, and I’m going to turn in for PTO here in the next few minutes, to make sure The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All and I spend the day in one of our national treasures.
We hope you’ll join us not only on that day, but also in the perspective that there are not many better ways to spend a day than out upon this land that is our land.
The story above first appeared in our May/June 2021 issue.
