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
- Zion National Park
Our feature next week is being contributed by tnaskedov on Saguaro National Park in Southern Arizona. 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.
And now some pictures of some little critters...
A curious Uinta ground squirrel that I think was eyeing the package of peanut butter crackers in my camera bag as I was setting up a shot of a waterfall in Yellowstone.
This little guy was territorial. Two birds had the audacity to land on his fence. He promptly chased them away and started screaming as if to warn any other birds not to land there. Quite entertaining as I waited for the Jenny Laker General Store to open for the morning in Grand Teton Natl Park.
I came across this marmot hiking the Mount Washburn Trail in Yellowstone. He tolerated me talking a sequence of shots with my camera, but after checking them and raising the camera back up, he darted across the trail and up the hill out of sight. He's his great escape...
This little Columbian ground squirrel was chowing down on some roots in a field of flowers at Logan pass at the top of the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park.
This rabbit hopped out of the brush as I was photographing a native American ruin in Wupatki National Monument in Arizona.