The Badlands

Yesterday I drove a shit ton (SI units). I drove across the Rocky Mountains, across the whole state of Nebraska, and past two Native American reservations in South Dakota on a dirt path in the dead of night until I reached...

...the Badlands.

Badlands National Park is home to the largest prairie of all national parks. It is also known for its incredibly gruesome summers and icy cold nights. The temperature swings from 68 degrees to 106 degrees, and tomorrow it will exceed the warmest temperatures of my rim-to-rim hike in the Grand Canyon. Luckily I brought a lot of water and got ready to hike through the unrelenting summer heat. 

A couple trails on the east side of the park take you to an overlook of what the park has to offer. Different layers of silt and clay that have piled up over the course of 125 million years creates interesting red/white/pink stripes on the mountain buttes. I spoke with a park ranger and they told me that the most common injury in the park is slipping while climbing and scraping your arms, legs, and knees....something they call "butte rash."  I unfortunately had severe butte rash on one of my favorite hikes in the park- the Saddle Pass trail, where I took a wrong turn and found myself climbing over boulders up a steep ravine. Luckily I did make it to the top unscathed...

The Badlands were once home to the Lakota tribe. In high school we watched a film in which the main character pointed to a picture of the bison and the acted it out, to which the native americans replied "Tatanka." Tatanka, the American bison, roam freely in the park's 220 thousand acres and if you are looking for them, take the old Sage Creek road to the wilderness and you will see them roam. 

After eating dinner outside the park, I returned in the evening to catch a glimpse of the sunset. Orange and pink rays of the sun decorated the Badlands wilderness and I was amazed how the unamusing stripes became more vibrant and came alive at the end of the day. On my way back from the fossil trail I noticed this guy poking his head on the side of the road. It was the first bighorn sheep I had seen on my adventure!

After going on several hikes and sweating it out in the Badlands heat, my favorite part of this trip came at the end. At 9 p.m., after the sun had set, the park rangers brought us to an amphitheater near the visitor center. They turned off all the lights, told us to turn off our phones and cameras, and waited...waited...waited until our eyes had adjusted. We looked up and there was the Milky Way. Boy was it beautiful standing behind the spires, buttes, and hoodoos of Badlands National Park. The park ranger took out a green laser pointer and shot it at each constellation. 

Vega! Deneb! Altair! The Summer Triangle! Polaris! Arturis! The tale of Cassiopeia! Antares! The ellipsis, Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus! The Sagittarius teapot and the steam which becomes the Milky Way! 

The park ranger brought the night sky to life! One by one we greeted each constellation as an old friend. Finally the park rangers brought out massive telescopes to meet the stars in person. It was amazing, thank you so much.

Wildflower in the Rockies

The emblem of the National Park Service remains true to its motto "to preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources of the park system." In the picture to the right, which ones are the natural ones and which ones are the cultural ones? Let's start with natural- the bison (animals), the tree (vegetation), the mountains (environment), the snow (water, the essence of life). What about the cultural ones? It is the arrowhead. The arrowhead symbolizes the Native people of the land, and the tool they carved from flint, obsidian, and chert. 

Every time you enter a national park you are sure to see this emblem. While you are observing the natural resources, you are also observing the cultural ones too. I will have a longer post dedicated to the native tribes that call these parks their ancestral homes- Blackfoot Nation of Glacier National park, Ahwahnee of Yosemite Valley,  etc. but for now let's turn to the Ute and Arapaho's of the Rockies.

The Ute were native to the western Rockies while the Arapaho were native to the east. Dr. Ralph Beals' 1935 paper dives in to the specifics of the two tribes. The Arapaho tribe were a Plains Indian tribe- horseman, buffalo hunters, and great warriors. The Ute were from the Great Basin living among buffalo in the valleys and even occupying parts of the desert.  The Continental Divide separated more than just animals and vegetation. As such, I have split this post into two.

The West

I arrived at Grand Lake on the westernmost section of the national park. A short hike from the visitor center looked over Grand Lake village and the Shadow Mountain Lake. 

With thunderstorms approaching from the Pacific, I found a beautiful trail called the Ohanu Creek Loop trail that took me by several wildflowers that have just started to bloom in the valley! Almost everywhere I turned on this trail, up until I reached the creek purple lupins popped their heads from the tall grass. Meanwhile, snowcapped mountains stood in the distance with grey storm clouds looming ominously behind. 

I feel like I'm writing a Virginia Woolfe novel.

After speaking with the park rangers, I came to the conclusion that hiking the Coyote Valley trail was an absolute must-do. This trail carries onlookers through the valley of the Rocky Mountains through several meadows cut by tributaries of the Colorado River.  All the while I could see that my time on this trail would be cut short by rain...I was right. A crack of lightning and buckets of rain left me drenched as I ran back to the car!

Of course, I was very fortunate to see a sign for Moose Crossing on the way out to Boulder. Shoutout to Raghu for hosting me at his apartment and Ezra Stiles (for the Moose, of course).

The East

While many park goers headed to Bear Lake early in the morning, I decided to catch up on much needed sleep. A tip of advice to those who don't get to Rocky Mountain early enough before lines start to form...take the northern route past the Sheep Lakes valley (below).

A tip from the park ranger: the Fall River route through Aspenglen gets you past all of the traffic and to some beautiful trails. The one that I picked was the Deer Mountain trail, which gets you up beyond the treeline to some picturesque views. A quick 3 hour round trip hike to the summit of Deer Mountain was an excellent way to round out my trip and see the legendary Rocky Mountains!

The Black Canyon

It may once have been known to the pioneers as "the place that God forgot", but the unforgiving landscape of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison left an impression on me. Unlike the Grand Canyon, its sister, the Black Canyon is a vertical 2,000 foot drop to the rushing Gunnison river. So why is it called the Black Canyon? What is the Gunnison? 

(shoutout to my new friend Zeus for the crazy pics at Devil's Outlook!)

The Gunnison refers to the Gunnison Uplift, a massive layer of gneiss and schist (stone) was brought from the depths of the earth to the surface via seismic activity. Soon after, waters of the Gunnison River carved the canyon by slicing through the tough stone- one inch per century. The Black Canyon refers to these steep walls that sunlight cannot reach. Metamorphic stone squeezed pegmatite out of the canyon walls during this period, for this the canyon walls look like they are painted pink. The South Rim is blessed with 12 overlooks that catch different glimpses of the canyon.

My favorite hike at the south rim was the Warner Point trail, which took me to a panoramic outlook of the entire canyon. Here you can see the jagged canyon walls collide with one another, and hear the river roaring below. Fun Fact: the Black Canyon first came on the national radar when railroad tycoons were trying to build a railroad through the northern part of the canyon by picking at the canyon walls. Imagine 400 Italian and Irish immigrants built a 15 mile railroad in 1.5 years using a ton of effort and a bunch of nitroglycerine. That's nuts!

On my way back to the campsite, I could see rain clouds in the distance crashing into snow capped Rockies. The very mountain range I would soon enter myself...

Camping out at the South Rim Campground has its advantages. Every evening at 9 p.m. the park rangers have an awesome program setup for parkgoers talking about the Black Canyon and astronomy. What I didn't know was that this park was named an International Dark Sky Park, one of the few where you can see the Milky Way clearly. In fact, the saying goes "Half the park is after dark." Though there were slight drizzles at nights, I did manage to catch a glimpse of the Milky Way at 3 a.m., before falling asleep and awaking to a beautiful sunrise.

Great Sand Dunes

The southernmost part of the Rocky Mountain range is called the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, and it's jagged ridge line features prominently in the distance. At the foot of the mountain you would expect the same thing you would see at any mountain base- wildflowers, rolling streams, pines giving way to underbrush. Alas no! You are wrong, and so was I.

This land is home to the one of the largest sand dunes in North America: Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. The sand dunes are straddled by two large streams- the Madano and Sand Creek that keep the sand there and were the original sources of sand deposit from the San Juan mountains. 

The park is split up into three parts: the western sabkha (crusty sand), the middle sand sheet (grassy hills), and the eastern Dunefields. I got to camp out near the Dunefields on the eastern part of the park at the Piñon Flats Campground.

My eyes were set on climbing up the tallest dune at the park. Towering at 750 feet this sand dune is the tallest in North America and overlooks over 130 square miles of dune fields. So I began the climb...

The view was spectacular! You could see the San Juan mountains and a couple of Colorado friends I had made along the way said that they were going to find one of the sand dunes in the distance to watch the sunset. Happy Birthday Caleb, hope you saw a good one!

I awoke the next morning to the sound of mosquitos humming outside my tent and mule deer walking through the campsite, rummaging through different areas. As I left national park I caught one last glimpse of the mule deer grazing as the sun rose above the San Juan mountains, setting the dunes ablaze.

Lake Meredith

My trip to Colorado was going to be a long and flat drive, so I decided I would split it up. I drove to Lake Meredith and Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument in northwest Texas. Joe Yogerst and Robin Young had an excellent bit on WBUR Boston NPR's Here and Now titled "A Guide to the Best Summer Lakes"  early on in July...so I decided it would be good to find a lake of my own. 

On the drive my uncle recommended that I listen to the Dallas NPR podcast KERA's "Think" by Krys Boyd. It's a great show, and what's more, one of the episodes I listened to was about "The National Parks in Peril." Krys brought on Terry Tempest Williams, an environmentalist, who talked about her book "The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks." The 49 minute show took the audience through countless topics including how Glacier National Park's glaciers had been reduced from hundreds of glaciers to only 15 glaciers today, about how drilling in the Bakken Shale formation is threatening Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and historical tidbits covering the President Abraham Lincoln and the founding of the first national park (Yosemite) up to President Obama's legacy of creating federal lands like Bears Ears National Monument. It turned a boring drive through the Texan hill country into an existential crisis.

Now, while I was at the lake I did find a campsite at the Harbor Bay campground, very close to several lakeside trails. The South turkey creek trail and harbor bay trail were humming with wildlife. Ants (small red ones and big old black ones) scurried all over the place. Brown and grey mosquitos lurched, and grasshoppers jumped out of the way as if listening to the procession of my footsteps down the path. After finding a spot that was a breeding ground for thousands of ants...(because I had no other options really), I jumped into the tent. Then out of the trees started the chorus of beetles, very similar to a fire alarm you would hear in middle school drill. But needless to say, sleeping by the lake had it's beauties.

Dallas Summers

The land of Torchy's Tacos and Freebird Burritos is truly magical, truly delicious, truly Dallas. I got to meet up with my cousin and his family and had the opportunity to explore the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I was only here for a short period of time, so that meant that my cousin and I got to binge watch Stranger Things on Netflix...can't believe it's taken me this long to watch it. I did however get the opportunity to restock my supplies for the next leg of the journey. 

No better place to restock than at HEB. For anyone who has ever been to HEB grocery store in Texas, there is a massive grocery market called Central Market in the heart of town. This place has got everything. 

I mean, apart from every single type of fruit imaginable, this place is also home to a great selection of artisanal bread. Now, my uncle would argue that this bread is not as good as his freshly baked jalapeño-cheese bread...to which he would be correct. It was delicious! 

But we got to explore much of the Dallas area. Driving past water towers and several lakes in the Flower Mound area. We finally got to reach the center of Fort Worth and check out some of the crazy fountains they have there.

The city center is home to the Fort Worth Water Gardens- a cool little interactive center where people can escape the heat of summer by jumping around in the water. 

Space Exploration

As winds and rain filled pummeled the Guadalupe Mountains, I made my escape east into the heart of Texas. I would have gone to Big Bend, but massive storms made their way south at the same time...so I decided I would skip out on this trip, at least for now. 

I visited a friend in Waco, TX who works at SpaceX. Waco is a town just south of Dallas. Located on the Chisholm Trail where drovers would take their longhorns and do trading, it is home to the Baylor Bears. Also, Waco’s Suspension Bridge over the Brazos River is the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi when it was completed in 1870. Since then it is known for the Branch Davidians and a shootout between biker gangs and local police. But it's also known for some good things like Chip and JoJo Gaines on HGTV's Fixer Upper show and who run a pretty successful store called Magnolia Markets in the heart of town.

To acquaint myself with Texas, I first got to try some good ol' fashioned Texas BBQ.

..and some chicken fried steak.

But ultimately, I was interested in taking a tour of the SpaceX Test facility. SpaceX has sites all over the US. The main HQ being in Hawthorne, CA. Their test facility, or the facility where all rockets are tested right before launch, is in Waco. I got to see where they test the Dragon, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy boosters. The facility was originally a Navy Ammunition testing facility and was then acquired by Beal Aerospace Co. before becoming SpaceX's main testing campus. Very impressive stuff! I even got to go out to the middle of the field where they keep the SpaceX Grasshopper spacecraft. This was one of the original test articles to prove that a rocket could take off and land back at its original site. Check out the video below!

Tallest Peak in Texas

Just picture, for a second, this scenario: I'm stepping down a windy path with steep cliffs on either side of me, but I can't see anything because there are only clouds. I'm wearing a white towel on my head and am carrying an umbrella that has been inverted by strong gusts of wind. Rain is coming in from all directions. My shorts, jacket, shirt, and backpack is drenched. Climbing Guadalupe Peak, the tallest mountain in Texas, was tough by itself. Battling the elements while doing this climb/descent was a different picture. 

Over the past few days I've enjoyed camping at the base of the Guadalupe mountains. The Pine Springs campground is located perfectly at the peak trailhead and here I've enjoyed waking up to this sight (above) every morning. In the evenings I've enjoyed exploring the area. While McKittrick Canyon is one of the favorites in this mountain range, one of my personal favorites was the Smith Spring trail.

But no adventure is complete without ascending the 8,751 foot Guadalupe Peak. I woke up early this morning to the pitter patter of rain on my tent. So at 5 a.m. I started packing up, and by 6:30, I was walking up into the clouds. 

Past perilous cliff sides...

...and dilapidated bridges made of sweet smelling wood soaked by the clouds. 

I climbed and climbed until I got to the top. I was drenched, my hands and fingers were numb, so I decided not to stay too long at the top. Behind the trail end marker was a small green box. I opened it up and found a notebook. Flipping past hikers who had come before me, I scribbled as neatly as I could "Run Rahul Run - July 14, 2017". Maybe you'll see it on your next adventure up the peak!

On an unrelated note, driving through Texas has been interesting. Many people have and will ask me, "how do you not get bored doing all this driving?" My answer is pretty simple: listening to podcasts. Now other than Serial and This American Life, which have been top suggestions...I have also been listening to the Energy Gang and Pod Saves America. I've also been amazed by the number of wind turbines I've seen. I've read a lot about the wind energy boom in Texas, but to see it up close is something else!

Carlsbad Caverns

In southeastern New Mexico lies one of the earliest discovered cave chambers in the United States. The Carlsbad Caverns isn’t the largest cavern in the US, that’s Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, but it certainly is one of the most beautiful limestone caverns I’ve ever seen. A few days ago I reserved a ticket for a section of the cave known as the King’s Palace (recreation.gov). The park ranger led tour left early in the morning, and after taking an elevator down 750 feet I found myself surrounded by cave formations.

Cheat sheet for those who forget: Stalactite has a “C” so they grow from the Ceiling. Stalagmite has a “G” so they grow from the ground.  These are both speleothems, which means that calcium carbonate, water, and carbon dioxide form calcium bicarbonate and then the reaction reverses to deposit calcium carbonate as the water evaporates in cave chambers to produce:

Fun material science fact: the cave was initially popular not for it’s calcium carbonate but for the large amounts of bat poop called “guano” that were deposited within the caves. Yes, the Brazilian flat tailed bat manufactured some of the most coveted fertilizer for the central California agriculture industry. But this was short lived.

Our tour guide talked about Jim White, one of the early cave explorers and the very first park ranger there and how he explored the caves in the 1920’s by himself in the early days. She then turned off all the cave lights and lit a candle. Wow, was it dark, scary, and also beautiful in there.

To summarize the feelings of peering into the abyss, I shall quote Mr. White who once said, “I crept between cactus until I lay at the brink of the chasm, and looked down. During all the year I’d known of the place, I’d never taken the trouble to do this. There was no bottom in sight! I shall never forget the feeling of aweness it gave me.”

White Sands

In the Tularosa Basin, little past the city of Las Cruces stands White Sand Dunes National Monument. Las Cruces was one of the stops on the old El Camino Real trail and was named after the "crosses" on the graves of victims attacked by the Apaches during the Mexican War in 1849. Between Las Cruces and Alamogordo in Southern New Mexico is the largest white gypsum sand dunes in the world. It's so large, in fact, that US astronauts can view the wind blowing/expanding the size of the dunes from space! Apparently the dunes can get as large as the state of Oklahoma.

At the park entrance you can rent sleds to slide down the sand dune...which is what I did. But you can also get backcountry camping permits for $3.00/night. Just be warned that the backcountry sites are a good mile or so away from your car, so all tents/sleeping bags/lanterns need to be carried over blazing hot sand dunes before the sunsets.

One of my favorite parts of the White Sand Dunes is a tour the park rangers put on for guests in the evening called the "Sunset Stroll."  We followed the park ranger to her favorite dunes, explaining why they form here, the importance of moisture, trade winds, and plant life to the ecosystem.

There is no feeling like being on top of a sand dune that stretches into a sea of smooth white hills, lit up by a purple, pink, and orange sunset. Simply amazing. 

But the night was another story. In the distance lightning and a wind storm approached. I distinctly remember waking up at 2 a.m. to the sound of my tent flapping in the wind, as gusts pushed the inside of my entrance towards my face. Flashes of lightning above my head were terrifying...but all part of the experience. I was pretty sure the winds would pick me up and fly me across the dunes surrounding my campsite. But I stayed on...as John Muir once said, " I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in."

...and of course, the sunrise was amazing.

Bear Down

First stop on the official road trip was the city of Tucson, AZ. Located 2 hours southeast of Phoenix, this wonderful city is home to the University of Arizona and Saguaro National Park. Saguaro is split into two national parks (one on the west and one on the east). The western one is known for its petroglyphs and saguaro cacti forest. The Eastern one is known for the wildlife, waterfalls, and mountainous overlooks. I chose the Loma Verde trail in the eastern park to get a feel for the park, but encountered some wild pigs known as javelinas at the visitor center!

These poor guys were panting due to the intense heat and resting in the cool shade. There were three newborns too!

Soon I was off on the 2 hour trail through the desert, on the Loma Verde trail which empties in to the Pink Hill Access trail and finally rounds off on the Squeeze Pen Trail. Halfway through I realized that storm clouds had started moving in from the west, and I needed to hurry up to get to my high school friend (Pradeep's) place. So I broke into a sprint!

Of course no journey to Tucson is finished without some Mexican food (here courtesy of Guadalajara Grill). A carne asada chimichanga can go a long way, let me tell you!

And of course eating some Sonoran Hot Dogs at El Guero Canelo with your good friend Dr. Koripella! Many thanks for hosting me!

Rim to Rim

On Thursday July 6th I completed one of the most intense trails in my life: the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim trail. Starting from the Northern Rim and ending at the Southern Rim, this 12 hour long journey traversed 12,000 feet in elevation across 14 miles on the North Kaibab Trail and 9 miles on the Bright Angel Trail. After camping overnight at the North Rim Campground, my dad dropped me off at the North Rim at 5:15 a.m. and I descended into the cool canyon below. 

As you enter the canyon, you are surrounded by the beautiful sound of springs and streams dripping from the canyon side and falling down the north rim. Waterfalls and streams combine to the basin below. However the temperature increases, and as the sun rises above the horizon everything came to a boil. Before leaving on this journey I had checked the daily temperatures at two sites: Phantom Ranch (at the bottom near the Colorado River) and the Indian Garden (the first wellhead on the way up). The goal would be to avoid the trip from the Phantom Ranch to the Indian Garden during the hottest part of the day...but little did I realize this would be more difficult than planned. 

Rather than descending in 4 hours, I made it to Phantom Ranch two hours late at 11 a.m. This was not good, as the temperatures would soon climb to 106 degrees on the stretch of land that traversed the Colorado River...

and then the climb up to Indian garden. What's more, I also ran out of water on the way up. Sweat and salt poured out of my shirt and caked the straps of my backpack. I realized that if I didn't get to Indian Garden soon, I would pass out. Over the bend I heard the sound of running river water. Luckily I met a kind family on the way who said I was only 10 minutes away. Jacob, their oldest son, was a junior in high school and had several questions about college. We got talking and soon became great friends, pushing each other at each stop, getting water, and making it up the south rim. 

At 5:20 p.m. I made it out of the South Rim at the Bright Angel Trailhead. My parents were tense and were waiting for me, and I was feeling pretty tired. After bearing the heat, physical exhaustion, and lack of food, I was glad to finally be done. I would recommend a few things that worked on the way down the grand canyon: North-to-South works due to heavy shade, pick a day with clouds (I got lucky), buy Saltsticks Chewable electrolytes as you will lose water, and make sure to always fill 4 Liters (2 liters was not enough to make it from  Phantom Ranch to Indian Garden) at the wellhead. 

This was one of the most beautiful trails I have ever been on. Seeing the sunrise over the canyon as deer were grazing on the side of the canyon walls was simply spectacular. The colors of the Grand Canyon told the story of the colorado river, as red and orange gave way to white granite and finally green below. Vegetation crept in and a forest of prickly pear cacti patterned the canyon basin, this was an exceptional trip and one that I will never forget. 

The Petrified Forest

On the Route 180 in the northeastern part of Arizona, just south of the Navajo Nation, stands the Petrified Forest. The quartz-filled massive wooden logs stand in the hot desert among blue and indigo mesas.  We started our hike there at the Rainbow Forest Museum, which used to be the old park headquarters in the 1960's. The main trail there was the Long Logs trail.

And of course, the famous and largest log...Old Faithful. How is petrified wood formed? Volcanic ash + ancient wood = oxygen cannot get in. Water+ Volcanic Ash + Wood= dissolved silica, calcite  replaces the organic tissue of the plant. 

One of the trails that was my favorite was the Blue Mesa Trail, which was covered in logs and displayed the strata of dirt long forgotten. It's interesting seeing that all of the logs are often found in a specific strata of dirt along the mesa...perhaps geologists can explain this to me. 

The northern part of the park empties into a basin of red, pink, and orange known as the famous Painted Desert. I would recommend pulling out an overlook to get a view of the cliffside:

Head in the Clouds

After graduation my family and I decided to visit Hawaii for the first time! In addition to surfing on Kaanapali Beach, snorkeling with sea turtles at the Molokini Crater, and eating spam we made sure to explore all parts of the famous Volcano on Maui named Haleakalā. 

The first day, we drove to the southeast corner of the park to a place called the Pipiwai Spring Trail. There are two ways to get to this place. The northern road, otherwise known to tourists as "the Road to Hana." And then there's the southern road, otherwise known to my sister and I as "the Death Trap." 

We accidentally took the southern road. It was rocky, much of it was unpaved, and it curved the side of a mountain that overlooked steep cliffs falling into the ocean. Two lanes with opposing traffic sometimes merged into one lane miraculously, and some parts of the road were cordoned off because it had collapsed due to landslides. It's a miracle that we survived the Death Trap and got to the National Park entrance safe and sound.

This trail had everything. Bamboo forests, lush waterfalls, helicopters buzzing overhead, and streams. It almost made the ride over there seem less tense. The only meal you can really get on this desolate side of the island is in Hana. 

After touring the beautiful southeast side of Haleakala, we thought we would take a tour of the actual summit. The Volcanic Summit requires a permit and NPS makes sure that there are enough parking spots on the summits for tourists on a daily basis. Most tickets are booked 2 months in advance, but if you are like me then you would have waited and procrastinated to the last minute. Luckily, NPS releases 40 extra tickets two days before the trip. You must go to recreation.gov to book your summit ticket two days in advance at 4 p.m. Hawaiian Time. $5/ vehicle and definitely worth it. 

So we woke up at 2 a.m. on the west side of Maui, and drove to the park for 1.5 hours. The park opens at 3 a.m., and we arrived at 3:30 a.m. We then drove to the summit for another 1 hour. At 4:30 a.m. we were at the second highest parking lot of the summit. Sunrise occurred at 5:30 a.m., so we sat in the car like 4 cold burritos. A short 0.2 mile hike to the summit was fantastic at 5 a.m., and we luckily found a secluded part of the trail. Winds crept up as faint glimpses of the Sunrise peaked over the sea of clouds. Totally worth it. Watch this cool time-lapse!

The Mountains are Calling & I Must Go

I spent two years of grad school learning a lot about material science. I learned about certain atomic arrangements, how planes of atoms lead to 3x3 and 4x4 tensors that describe certain unique material properties, or about minimizing Gibbs Free Energy, or about all the applications of a certain 2D material called MoS2 that people seem to be obsessed with. But the beauty and formation of materials is more than that and surrounds us in our daily life: rolling hills, jagged mountain lines, the peaks and valleys, the ebbing of the stream, the fiery sunsets, and the cool sunrises. This is a different type of material science, one that is formed by millions of years of seismic activity and formed into things that the eyes can behold but the hands cannot make. 

The Western United States is endowed with some of the most spectacular sights known to mankind. One of the Eight Wonders of the World lies in my backyard in my home state of Arizona. To the North, three spectacular mountains surround Seattle. And in Colorado, you are hard pressed to miss out on snow-capped mountains with rivers and lakes below. NATURE.

The National Park Service is a phenomenal federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior that just turned 100 years old. To preserve the ecological and historical integrity of 84 million acres of land that cover 59 national parks, 129 historical sites,  87 national monuments, 19 preserves, 18 recreational areas, and 10 seashores is an enormous task and a blessing to the over 307 million annual visitors.  

Many people need to be thanked for the protection, conservation, and preservation of these treasures. In 1906, President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt signed into order the American Antiquities Act that established the United States Forest Service. Roosevelt sought the advice of John Muir, a fellow conservationist and an acclaimed writer on the wilderness who wrote about his 40 years of exploring the American wilderness in four monthly magazines. Muir and Roosevelt were good friends, and Roosevelt had sent Muir a letter asking to meet him in Yosemite: “I want to drop politics absolutely for four days and just be out in the open with you.” This is their famous 1903 picture on Yosemite's Overhanging Rock at Glacier Point. On August 25th 1916, Woodrow Wilson signed "the Organic Act" that mandated the agency "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."

Of course, signing a bill is one thing and execution is another. I have always admired people who take simple teams and build them into mature institutions, that transition is exciting. Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service is just that man. In the words of NPS, "he laid the foundation of the National Park Service, defining and establishing the policies under which its area shall be developed and conserved unimpaired for future generations. There will never come an end to the good that he has done." Mather led NPS from 1917 to 1929, increasing the number of parks and federally protected lands. 

Several philosophers and writers of the age helped influence the American public to understand the importance of public lands. Of these was Henry David Thoreau (and on July 12th it will be his 200 years since his birth) who was an advocate of Yosemite in its early days. Relatively recently, Edward Abbey also helped shape public conscience and awareness of Arches National Park through his writing, "The desert wears... a veil of mystery. Motionless and silent it evokes in us an elusive hint of something unknown, unknowable, about to be revealed. Since the desert does not act it seems to be waiting -- but waiting for what?" In the early 1960's, Rachel Carson was a famous author who wrote Silent Spring and led the grassroots movement to create the EPA.  The famous Pulitzer Prize winner Wallace Stegner once famously wrote "the national parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst."

Of course, a picture is worth a thousand words. Without pictures and photographers to document our adventures, few would venture into the wild unknown and go beyond their comfort zone. For this we have to thank people like Ansel Adams and Carleton Watkins who first imaged the great parks. Historical tidbit: when environmentalists were first trying to convince President Lincoln of creating the first national park they showed the pictures of Carleton Watkins had taken of Yosemite. President Lincoln, knowing he would not be able to take the trip across the nation to see this park, still signed a bill on June 30, 1864, declaring the valley inviolate and initiating the blueprint for the nation's National Park System.

The great task and duty of our time is to visit, to enjoy, and to preserve these lands for those who came before and for those who wish to know their importance thereafter. As John Muir would say, "the mountains are calling and I must go."