It's been a long time since the Park Avenue group has been active here. I guess when you're writing about our wonderful outdoor parks, vacation season can find you pretty far away from writing blogs!
We'll be starting off slowly, just as we first began, with regular Thursday posts on our National Parks, and the Photo Friday Open Thread. We'll see where we go from there...
Each Friday, people are encouraged to join us in sharing their pictures of the national parks, state parks and other major parks. Because we've been away for a while, I'm going to tease with an opening picture above the fold.
Deep Blue Maroon - Maroon Bells (a special protected area of the USFS)
Our Weekly Diaries
Things To Know Before You Come To... This series formerly ran on Tuesday mornings at 11:30ET/8:30PT, and the topic each week was based on reader input. It is on hold for now, but the archives are still great sources of information:
On Thursdays at 11:30am ET/8:30am PT we release our weekly user contributed park feature. Our past features have been:
The Thursday National Parks series will be returning next week with a profile of Assateague Island National Seashore.
Our newest series of features started just before we all went away on hiatus was the "Our State Parks" series, looking at, you guessed it, state parks. Here are the parks looked at so far:
- Golden Gate Canyon State Park, Colorado
- Ricketts Glen State Park, Pennsylvania
- Itasca State Park, Mississippi
- Ona State Park, Oregon
This series is also on hold pending additional contributing authors.
Speaking of which... If you are interested in writing a feature about a park, please volunteer by writing a message to the Park Avenue group or to me (Phoenix Rising) and as your window approaches, you'll be contacted (a few 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.
Pictures!
This being a Photo Friday open thread, it would be seriously lacking if there weren't pictures of our great wild spaces. I'll start off here with a few - please feel free to add your own.
Grand Wash Galaxy - The Milky Way from inside the Capitol Reef
The Raven - In Yellowstone's Hayden Valley
Artist's Palette - Palette Spring, Yellowstone
Colorado River Overflow - our token environmental picture for the day. This is the spring runoff from this year completely overwhelming the valley. In the background you can see the many dead trees killed off over the past few years by Pine Beetle.
And finally, political commentary: Congress Pool, Yellowstone. 'Nuff said.