Welcome to the Park Avenue Photo Friday diary and open thread. Each Friday, people are encouraged to join us in sharing their pictures of the national parks, state parks and other major parks and to vote on which park will be the subject of our next Things to Know Before You Come column of travel advice and tips on visiting the parks.
Our Weekly Diaries
Follow us each week with out other two weekly diaries. Each Tuesday at 11:30am ET/8:30am PT we have our Things to Know Before You Come column, looking at hints and tips for visiting a park you choose each week in this open thread (see poll below). Our previous columns have covered:
Help choose next week's column by voting below. Each week's runner-up will return to the poll the following week.
On Thursdays at 11:30am ET/8:30am PT we release our weekly user contributed park feature. Our past features have been
- Jackson Hole National Monument
- Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine
- Capitol Reef National Park
- Petrified Forest National Park
- Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
- Dry Tortugas National Park
- Wind Cave National Park & Jewel Cave Natl Monument
- Death Valley National Park
Next week's feature is on Zion National Park, to be contributed by Musing85's. If you are interested in writing a feature about a park, please volunteer at out
sign up form and as your window approaches, you'll be contacted (about 3 weeks before) to finalize your date.
Additionally, if any of you are interested in writing other pieces about the parks or park related topics (eg. the CCC, History of the National Park Service, Biographical sketches of park related people, the science behind a park or parks, a look at native American cultures whose ruins are protected as parks, etc) feel free to submit those features. Just ask for an invite as a contributor and we'll get you set up. I think it'd be nice if we branch out into more than just our two regular features.
State Park Series?
Phoenix Rising would also like to get some feedback on starting a weekly series on state parks. He's volunteered to coordinate the series if there is interest. So, if you'd be interested in contributing to such a series, please drop a note in the comments here so we have an idea of the depth of our contributor pool. Also, if such a series is started what day of the week and time would people like?
Photos!!
We did not have a good year for Bluebonnets and Paintbrushes in Central Texas where I live, so to make up for the lack of flowers from the extreme drought in Texas, I'll throw out some wildflowers in our national parks.
A few of mine...
Alpine Paintbrushes in Glacier National Park
Lupines in Grand Teton National Park
Subalpine Fleabane at Logan Pass in Glacier National Park
A variety of wildflowers at Logan Pass
And some Creative Commons shots by others...
Desert Gold in Death Valley National Park
(credit: Tom Hilton)
Plein Soleil in Mount Rainier National Park
(credit: Selva Morales)
Mexican Gold Poppies in Saguaro National Park
(credit: Lars Hammar)
Blooming Cacti in Grand Canyon National Park
(credit: Jason Corneveaux)