Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, CaliforniaYosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California, from El Capitan on the left, Halfdome at center, and Bridalveil Falls on the right right.

It’s been said many times that the establishment of the National Parks is the best idea America ever had. I have to agree that they are one of the greatest assets of the U.S., well worth their relatively small fraction of the federal budget to preserve and protect these important and powerful, but sometimes fragile places and make them available to everyone. These include not just the signature Parks such as Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Grand Canyon, but numerous others less visited as well as National Monuments, Wildlife Refuges and other Federal units.

I have been alarmed recently when efforts by the current administration to "streamline" the government included drastic cuts to the funding for the National Park Service, already facing shortages causing deferred maintenance and reduced staffing. To put these places in danger and making the dedicated rangers and other park personnel scapegoats for whackadoodle fantasies about balancing the federal budget seems ludicrous to me.

In the words of Ansel Adams, "It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment".

I have visited many parks over several decades, beginning with family road trips as a teenager, making photographs along the way. I began revisiting the photographs, finding many to reinterpret or process for the first time, rediscovering many of the popular, signature parks but also less visited locations that are nevertheless spectacular in varied ways. It’s been rewarding to remind myself of the power of these landscapes and locations that belong to all of us, and the need to preserve and protect them. 

In more or less alphabetical order, we start with Arches National Park in Utah. This state is an appropriate place to begin and to celebrate the park system as the landscape is varied and spectacular. Utah hosts five national parks along with national monuments and forests and many other federally protected areas along with numerous state facilities.

Picture Frame ArchPicture Frame Arch in Arches National Park, Utah, conveniently located to view nearby Delicate Arch and the La Sal mountains in the distance. It does take a bit of a scamper up some steep-ish rocks to get this view.