National Parks Traveler Essential Park Guide, Fall 2013 by Kurt Repanshek

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

The Original Western Vacation Bar W Guest Ranch

Lone Mountain Ranch

Experience relaxing hospitality in the heart of Glacier Country while surrounding yourself with the unspoiled, breathtaking nature of Northwestern Montana. At the Bar W, time runs slower, things seem easier, and everyday feels like Saturday.

An all-inclusive Montana guest ranch only 18 miles from Yellowstone National Park. Lone Mountain Ranch offers 4 to 7 night luxury Dude Ranch vacations with guided adventures, log cabins, stunning scenery and incredible cuisine.

www.barwguestranch.com

www.lonemountainranch.com

Whiteﬁsh, MT • 1-866-828-2900

Big Sky, MT • 1-800-514-4644

Red Rock Ranch

C Lazy U Ranch

Kelly, WY • 1-307-733-6288

Granby, CO • 1-970-887-3344

Adjacent to Colorado’s stunning Rocky Mountain National Park, C Lazy U is a premier guest ranch getaway, featuring luxurious accommodations, ﬁne dining, a fullservice spa and 8,500 acres of adventure.

www.clazyu.com

The Red Rock Ranch is just outside of Jackson Hole WY. Family oriented, diverse riding, excellent kids program, ﬁne dining, comfortable cabin accommodations, blue ribbon trout ﬁshing and the relaxed charm of the old west.

www.theredrockranch.com

Greenhorn Creek Guest Ranch

Tanque Verde Guest Ranch

Whether you are enjoying Horseback riding for the ﬁrst time or a seasoned pro, our wranglers will guide you through the adventure of a lifetime on our beautiful scenic trails.

Discover America’s largest, old time guest ranch. Plush accommodations, unparalleled amenities, supervised children’s programs and a vast array of exciting activities are all awaiting you at Tanque Verde Ranch.

Quincy, CA • 1-800-334-6939

www.greenhornranch.com

Tucson, AZ • 1-800-234-3833

www.tanqueverderanch.com

Western Pleasure Guest Ranch

Gros Ventre River Ranch

Sandpoint, ID • 1-888-863-9066

Moose, Wy • 1-307-733-4138

We are an ALL- INCLUSIVE ranch open from June to September. We provide vacations that focus on horseback riding, fly-fishing, hiking, fine dining, breathtaking views and most of all, relaxation at its best.

www.grosventreriverranch.com

With ranch adventures for families, couples or singles, Western Pleasure Guest Ranch, rich in history and family heritage, is Idaho’s most northern ranch. Activities include horseback riding, skeet shooting, cattle sorting, mountain biking, hiking, children’s programs, adult only weeks and more.

www.westernpleasureranch.com

The Hideout Lodge & Guest Ranch Shell, WY • 1-800-354-8637

Unique upscale guest ranch located East of Yellowstone National Park on a 300,000 acre working cattle ranch. Upscale accommodations & culinary experience personal, genuine and professional service.

White Stallion Ranch

Tuscon, AZ • 1-888-977-2624

A traditional guest ranch with all the amenities of a ﬁne resort. So easy to get to, but so hard to leave... the magic of horses, family, friends and fun.

www.thehideout.com

www.whitestallion.com This ad sponsored by these fine DRA Members.

866-399-2339 • WWW.DUDERANCH.ORG

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

The colorful high country of Rocky Mountain National Park. Photo by Ann Schonlau via NPS

Exploring National Parks in Fall For many, fall is the most sublime of seasons in the National Park System.

Leaf-Peeping Park Tours America’s National Park System offers mile after mile after mile of glorious rides through spectacular fall color.

Editor

Kurt Repanshek art director

Courtney Cooper

Peak Fall Lodges Looking for a great base camp for fall explorations of the national parks? Consider these lodges.

Kirby Adams Danny Bernstein Jim Burnett Bob Janiskee Rebecca Latson

Photographing the Parks Fall is a favorite time for many photographers who want national park backdrops.

Take A Hike Enjoy autumn’s colorful show on the trail in the National Park System.

sales director

Flocking Southward Where to look for birds in the national parks during fall migration.

contributors

Brenda Sieglitz

e d i t or’ s

n o te

Essential Park Guides are published by National Park Advocates, LLC, to showcase how best to enjoy and explore the National Park System. National Park Advocates, LLC, P.O. Box 980452, Park City, Utah, 84098. © 2013 Essential Park Guide, Autumn 2013. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Blend Two Great Western Vacations For a twist on a national park vacation, consider a dude ranch as your base of operations.

Enjoy The Wild Side of Fall Whether you prefer listening to bugling elk, watching bison on the move, or photographing strutting turkeys, the National Park System can accommodate your interests.

Ride Through Fall And History There is a bucolic parkway that offers fall colors, history, and solitude. It’s called the Natchez Trace.

West Yellowstone This welcoming Montana town is a perfect base camp for exploring Yellowstone during the fall.

Test Your Park Knowledge A quiz on all things “fall” in the national parks.

Carry the Parks In Your Pocket Special edition coins that feature the national parks are in great demand.

on the cover Contributing photographer Rebecca Latson captured the glory of fall in the Pacific Northwest with this shot of Mount Rainier taken from Paradise during one late-September day.

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

The Best Of Seasons In The Parks For many, fall is the most sublime of seasons in the National Park System. Forests are cloaked in their autumnal best, wildlife is on the move and readily visible, crisp temperatures are perfect for hikes and bugs are gone. You can even smell the season, both in the moldering leaves and the woodsmoke curling above cabins. Sunrise from Many Parks Curve, Rocky Mountain National Park / Rebecca Latson

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

cross much of the park system, from September to October and on into midNovember, the passing weeks usher in a change of weather, a change in landscape appearance, and a change in experiences for those who find themselves in the parks. As temperatures slowly cool and the hours of daylight steadily shorten, a transformation visibly arrives in the attire of many parks. From Maine down through the mid-Atlantic states and into the South, mixed hardwood forests display a riot of color as oaks, maples, willows, hickories, and even fruit trees in long-forgotten homesteads slowly become flecked in leaves orange, russet, gold, brown, and all combinations within that spectrum. Western mountainsides of pine and spruce are daubed with gold as aspen glades ready for winter. Scrub oaks, Rocky Mountain birch, and maples sprinkle their own yellows, oranges, and rubies onto the forests. Not only do these colorful displays and cooler temperatures offer superb hiking conditions, but as the deciduous trees slowly discard their dried leaves the landscape opens to reveal vis-

tas often hard, if not impossible, to see in mid-summer. Though the days are growing increasing shorter in terms of sunlight, the cooler temperatures make hiking more comfortable, and more enjoyable. These are the months to head deep into the backcounty of parks such as Sequoia, Yellowstone, or Great Smoky, or to make progress on your personal checklist of day hikes anywhere you find yourself in the park system. These three months, too, are perfect for long drives along the Skyline Drive through Shenandoah, the Blue Ridge Parkway, across Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, down the road through Bryce Canyon National Park where the fluttering aspen leaves meld into the hoodoos in the amphitheaters down below, or along the Natchez Trace Parkway that follows ancient footpaths through the bucolic South. Though the high season in the parks is winding down, there remain some great programs and special activities to take advantage of during these months. Rangers at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado will lead you to Ancestral Puebloan ruins normally closed to visitors. Starry night skies are the focus of a fall festival at Acadia National Park in coastal Maine. Harvest time hangs

heavy in the fruit orchards at Capitol Reef National Park, where you can pick your fill of peaches and apples amid the grandeur of Utah’s red-rock. Guided tours continue through Harpers Ferry National Historical Park at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in West Virginia. Wildlife are on the move during these months. There are breathtaking raptor displays as hawks, eagles and other migratory birds head for their wintering grounds. Elk congregate as bulls summon their harems with shrill bugling that pierces the sky and forests around both sunrise and sundown. Other big game become more visible as they slowly trek down to the river valleys to wait out winter, and occasionally wolves and bears can be spotted on the move, too, in some parks. For those unburdened by school schedules, visiting the national parks during the fall months can mean lesscrowded surroundings. True, the peak leaf-peeping weeks in places such as Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, and Acadia national parks as well as along the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Natchez Trace Parkway can be woefully crowded on weekends. But visiting these parks during midweek, or being able to head into the Rocky Mountains or the High Sierra, can reward you

with not only stunning beauty, but a relative measure of solitude. In the following stories, we’ll point you to some great fall destinations and activities in the National Park System, and suggest some wonderful hikes and places to spot wildlife. We’ll offer suggestions and tips on where you can add to your bird life list, as well as some photography pointers to ensure you return home with some outstanding photos. To showcase some of the diversity of the national parks, we’ll also take a look at what perhaps might be considered an unusual national park vacation: using a dude ranch in the West as a base camp. True, many dude ranches offer all-inclusive vacations, but some are actually located inside national parks, so you really can combine the two settings. Others are just a short ride away, close enough for a day trip. So pull up a chair and get comfortable, and keep your calendar handy so you can start planning your fall escape to the parks.

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

Enjoying Fall Colors In The National Parks

Through Your There is a magical quality to fall visits to Shenandoah National Park as mile after mile of trees blazing with vivid reds, oranges, and yellows come into view along Skyline Drive. In Rocky Mountain National Park, the aspen groves you see along the lower reaches of Trail Ridge Road turn so vividly gold in the fall that they take your breath away.

By Bob Janiskee

f leaf peeping in the parks is on your to-do list, here are some picks and tips for following the crowd or taking the road less traveled.

The Eastern “Big Four” East of the Mississippi, the “Big Four” fall foliage magnets are Acadia National Park, Shenandoah National Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. While you’ll certainly have plenty of fall color to enjoy in these places, you’ll also encounter congested roads, parking problems at overlooks and parking lots, and “no vacancy” signs galore. Coastal Maine’s Acadia has a mix of evergreens and hardwoods that delight the eye and offer some of the best fall foliage in New England. Many visitors particularly like the vivid contrast of the flaming hardwoods, the dark greens of the spruce, fir, and pitch pine, the white bark of the birches, and the blues and greens of the sea. Colors begin to show in the higher and cooler places by late September. Catch the fall foliage at its peak—usually during the first few weeks of October—and you can enjoy spectacular views along the Park Loop Road and atop 1,530-foot Cadillac Mountain. Make a point to abandon your car and walk or bike the park’s famed carriage roads and enjoy the colors from under the forest canopy. The 105-mile-long Skyline Drive, America’s first lengthy parkway that meanders the length of Virginia’s Shenandoah, reliably offers an artist’s palette of red, yellow, and gold from about mid-October to mid-No-

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

Deciduous trees brighten Acadia National Park with their fall colors / NPS photo

Windshield

Shenandoahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Skyline Drive lights up in October / Kurt Repanshek

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

Cades Cove / NPS photo

Great Smoky Mountains National Park boasts the largest stands of old-growth forest in the eastern United States. This landscape yields a fall outburst of reds, yellows, purples, browns, and golds rivaling those of the New England countryside. Newfound Gap Road / NPS photo

vember. Colors generally peak in Shenandoah during the last half of October. Catching the peak can be tricky, however, since this elongated park is north-south oriented and varies considerably in elevation. Colors arrive up to several weeks earlier in the north and at higher and middle elevations. The extended season in the south and at lower elevations offers extra options. Many species of small trees and shrubs, such as sassafras and sumac, remain vibrant long after the oaks peak. The Blue Ridge Parkway, winding 469 miles from the southern end of Skyline Drive to the eastern entrance of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, puts on one of the best fall color shows for windshield tourists. You need to be carefully

tuned in to the “where and when,” though. As in Shenandoah, the leaf peeper season unfolds from north to south and from higher to lower elevations. Depending on location, colors may peak from early October (elevations above 5,000 feet) to mid-October (3,000-4,000+ feet) to as late as mid-November (lower elevations near Asheville/Lake Lure). Expect to share the splendor of the brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows with lots of others. On weekends in October, the park’s busiest month, it may seem that the whole population of the eastern United States has decided to take a leaf-peeping drive on the parkway. Travel on weekdays if you can. Gas stations are scarce, so fill your tank before you go. Straddling the North Carolina/Tennes-

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

see border in the Southern Appalachians, Great Smoky Mountains National Park boasts the largest stands of old-growth forest in the eastern United States. This landscape yields a fall outburst of reds, yellows, purples, browns, and golds rivaling those of the New England countryside. The colors generally peak in mid- to late October at higher elevations (which have a climate similar to New England’s), but can start as early as mid-September with the turning of “early” trees such as yellow birch, American beech, mountain maple, hobblebush, and pin cherry. At lower and middle elevations, where the color tends to be most spectacular, the blend includes such beauties as sugar maple, scarlet oak, sweetgum, red maple, and hickory.

East-west trending Highway 441 (Newfound Gap Road) gets the bulk of the leaf peeping traffic, which is typically quite heavy (especially on weekends), but the Clingmans Dome Road and the Cades Cove Loop are very popular as well. For something different, take the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, a narrow, steep, winding (but paved) one-way road that passes through color-rich forests and offers glimpses of Roaring Fork Creek as a bonus.

Out West Most of Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park is too high, steep, and rocky to harbor broad swaths of diversified hardwoods that offer a rainbow of color. Nevertheless, leaf peeping in the park has a magical quality. Credit it to the aspens, great groves of which turn to shimmering gold in the early fall when the bull elk are bugling and assembling their harems. On a sunny-bright afternoon in late September (the usual peak), the sweeping vistas of gold and green can take your breath away while the eerie bugling sends a chill up your spine. If this experience is on your list, you’ll need to be willing to drive slowly in congested, stop-prone traffic. The leaf peeper season in this park is short (as elsewhere in the Rockies), and the colorful fall leaves can peak, wane, and disappear with dismaying swiftness. Fall in Montana’s Glacier National Park delights visitors in elevational gradients. Autumn color starts in the subalpine zone by early September with vibrant orange Rocky Mountain maple, and red and orange vaccinium (huckleberries, whortleberries), etc. In mid- to late-September and even into early October the color drops in elevation, yielding gorgeous yellow, gold, and orange birch, cottonwood and aspen at mid-elevations. Golden swaths and archways of Western larch peak in mid- to late October along roadways (almost a golden halo along the U.S Highway 2 corridor and Middle Fork of the Flathead River) and the park’s lake corridors, especially the North Fork lakes (including Kintla and Bowman Lake). As with Rocky Mountain and Glacier, Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park and the contiguous John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway have a short, but spectacular, fall season centered on gloriously golden aspen groves that peak in mid- to late September. Grand Teton’s Jenny Lake area is a renowned destination. The Teton Park Road, which follows

Even New River Gorge National River in West Virginia offers colorful drives / NPS

A wonderful fall hike in Yellowstone leads to Imperial Geyser / Kurt Repanshek

To track the fall colors, check with either The Foliage Network at www.foliagenetwork.com or The Weather Channel at www.weather.com/activities/driving/fallfoliage/ the base of the Teton Range from Moose Junction north to Jackson Lake Junction, practically bursts with color. In Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park, the main sources of fall color are vine maple, huckleberry bushes, cottonwood, mountain ash, willow, elderberry, aspen, and tamarack. The leaves begin turning in early September. If you hit the

leaves at their peak (usually late September to early October), driving on State Route 410 through Chinook Pass or on the White Pass Scenic Byway (U.S. 12) will be a truly memorable experience. In the Chinook Pass and White Pass areas, you can still see gloriously golden tamarack (western larch) when the serious snow begins to fall in November.

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

Some Other Fall Foliage Eye Catchers In the Parks By Bob Janiskee

• A three-hour drive northeast of Las Vegas, southern Utah’s Zion National Park has some of the best fall color of any western park. And because of the large size of the park (146,598 acres) and the great variety of elevations, exposures, and microclimates, the season can last as long as four months. The first color show occurs near Lava Point, one of the highest places in the park (elevation 7,890 feet). In lower, warmer parts of the park, where the color typically peaks in late October or early November, some areas may show good color into December.

• Situated on a huge Navajo Indian Reservation in the Four Corners region of northeastern Arizona, Canyon de Chelly National Monument does not normally leap to mind when you think of fall foliage. But the park’s abundant aspens and cottonwoods turn spectacularly gold and yellow by late October, and the blend of brilliant foliage and ruddy sandstone cliffs is especially pleasing. Scenic drives from the visitor center and along the canyon rim lead to ten overlooks (three on the North Rim Drive and seven on the South Rim Drive) providing excellent views of the canyon below.

Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore / NPS

• At Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, colorful hardwoods abound along the park roads beginning in late September and peaking in mid- to late-October. Sections of Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive are lined with maple, beech, and birch trees that form a gorgeous canopy for windshield touring. The reds and yellows of the maples and beeches vividly contrast with the white birches, and the nearly white dunes and the blue of Lake Michigan provide a dramatic background. • The West Virginia mountains are ablaze with colorful hardwoods that challenge New England’s show. At New River Gorge National River, the color peaks about the third week of October. The weather is normally mild and dry at that time, so that adds to the appeal.

Zion National Park’s fall colors shimmer in the cascading flows of the Left Fork of North Creek / QT Luong

Dr. Robert Janiskee is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina. He long taught a national parks course, and continues to visit parks, think about parks, and occasionally write about parks. 10

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

As the Natchez Trace Parkway rolls 444 miles from Mississippi to Tennessee, the route offers endless vistas of fall color / Natchez Trace Compact

A canoeist’s view of fall color along the Ozark National Scenic Riverway / Marty Koch

• Minnesota’s Mississippi National River and Recreation Area extends 72 miles through the heart of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro complex. This makes it convenient for thousands of motorists to drive the roads of the riverine corridor and enjoy the fall color displays in the various riverfront parks, historic sites, wildlife areas, and other sites within this unusual park’s borders. • At Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, the Pinnacle Overlook (elevation 2,440 feet) offers spectacular views into mountains and valleys in Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee—and of course the namesake Cumberland Gap. Come fall this landscape blazes with color and Skyland Road, the winding, four-mile route that takes motorists from the visitor center up the mountain to the overlook, is a leaf peeper’s delight. Big-rig RVers beware: Skyland Road is closed to vehicles longer than 20 feet.

• The Natchez Trace Parkway runs a winding 444 miles from Natchez, Mississippi, across northwest Alabama to the Nashville, Tennessee, vicinity. The cooler northern end of this National Scenic Byway and AllAmerican Road offers the best color, with the reds, oranges, and yellows of its mixed hardwood forest (especially maple, oak, hickory, dogwood, and sumac) usually arriving at their scenic best during mid- to late October. • Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park offers more than just cave tours. The 52,830-acre park’s sprawling upland hardwood forest, interspersed with wide-open spaces, is a visual delight in the fall. The Green River Valley landscape offers color-splashed views up to 15 miles.

• Buffalo National River in the Ozarks of northwest Arkansas is a fine fall destination, with hardwoods that typically shimmer beginning in late September and peaking in early to mid-October. Leaf peeping from the road in this long, narrow park is easier than you may think, since several state highways cross the park, and other roads roughly parallel the river (much of the time you’ll actually be outside the park boundaries and encountering a mix of farms and forest). • Southeastern Missouri’s Ozark National Scenic Riverways features 134 miles of the Current and Jacks Fork rivers, over 300 springs, many interesting cultural relics, and some very nice fall colors by mid-October. There are various routing options for leaf peeping (see the map at this site), and many windshield tourists add roads in neighboring Mark Twain National Forest to their itinerary.

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

Fall Lodging at The National Parks

Great Accommodations With Great Views What better way to end a fall day of hiking in Glacier National Park than to enter the Many Glacier Hotel and settle comfortably into one of the armchairs before the cracklinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; fireplace in the hotel lobby? Along with the popping wood and flickering flames, the soft smell of wood smoke mingles with the steam wafting from your hot chocolate, Irish coffee, or hot tea.

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

The panoramic view of Mount Grinnell and Swiftcurrent Lake from Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier National Park / Rebecca Latson

r maybe you’ve just returned from sampling Shenandoah National Park’s resplendent forest colors on the hike to Lewis Falls and back to Big Meadows Lodge, where the fireplace is blazing and the chairs filling with park travelers discussing their day in the mountains. The first setting offers Rocky Mountain views of panorama-sweeping mountains reflected in Swiftcurrent

Lake. The second, Appalachian splendor within a kaleidoscope of color. Both lodges are great base camps for fall treks into the National Park System, but they aren’t the only ones. Let’s take a look at some of your lodging options across the system. What follows isn’t intended to be an all-inclusive list, but rather a cross sampling of what you can consider.

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

Acadia National Park There are no accommodations within this mountainous park’s boundaries, but there are plenty nearby from which to base your explorations of the reds, yellows and oranges of Acadia’s forests of oaks, maples, and beeches. Bar Harbor offers cozy water-front cottages, charming bed-and-breakfast options, and even grand hotels. But you shouldn’t restrict your search to Bar Harbor. Expand it to Southwest Harbor, where you’ll find the elegant and time-honored Claremont Hotel (800-244-5036) not far from Somes Sound, and to Northeast Harbor, where you might consider the Asticou Inn (800258-3373). To find a home or cottage to rent for an extended visit on Mount Desert Island, check with the Davis Agency (207-244-389).

Blue Ridge Parkway Anywhere along this leafy 469-mile parkway will guarantee you brilliant fall colors thanks to the more than 130 tree species. Welcoming inns, B&Bs, lodges, roadhouses, and chain motels dot the route. Among them is the Peaks of Otter Lodge (866-387-9905) located at Milepost 86 some 20 miles south of Roanoke, Virginia. Earlier this year, Delaware North Parks and Resorts took over management of this 60-room property that comes with views of Abbott Lake.

Bryce Canyon National Park Western fall viewsheds are decidedly different than those in the East. Here the foremost color is the gold of aspen leaves rattling on the breezes, though Gambel oaks add some vivid reds. Out the door of the Bryce Canyon Lodge (877-386-4383) and its surrounding cabins you also have the glowing amphitheaters of Bryce Canyon. The lodge itself is historic, dating to 1925. It stands surrounded by Ponderosa pines and is just a short stroll from the park’s rock hoodoos. The lodge’s accompanying Western Cabins boast gas fireplaces, perfect for taking the chill off an October or early November night at 8,000 feet. In nearby Tropic you can find some B&Bs, including the Stone Canyon Inn (435-679-8611) that backs up to the park.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park There is just one lodge inside the park—LeConte Lodge (865-429-5704)— and you need to make reservations long in advance and then hike to reach it. Otherwise, the park’s surrounding towns hold 14

your options, with comfortable B&Bs as well as chain motels. You can rent cabins and homes in the woods near Bryson City, N.C., from Hidden Creek Cabin Rentals (888-333-5881) or look to the Tennessee side of the park and the cabins and B&Bs in the mountains that overlook Gatlinburg.

Natchez Trace Parkway

Lake on the western side offer many options. At Estes Park you have a rich choice of cabins filling the canyon that leads to the Fall River Entrance, or you can stay in the stately Stanley Hotel (1-800-9761377). At Grand Lake, you might choose a cabin on Moose Lake or one on Grand Lake.

Meandering through the states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, this scenic drive with its vibrant forests of oak, beech, and hickory offers a multitude of lodgings from which to enjoy the fall weather. You might opt for a rustic log cabin at the French Camp Bed & Breakfast Inn (662-547-6835) near Milemarker 181, or stay within the 175 acres of woodlands that serve as a backdrop for the Natchez Hills Bed and Breakfast (931-285-2777) that is affiliated with the Natchez Hills Vineyard in Hampshire, Tennessee. Relax after—or before—dinner with a tasting of one of the vineyard’s merlots or rieslings.

Shenandoah National Park

Olympic National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Fronting its namesake lake, the Lake Crescent Lodge (866-476-5382) offers rooms in motel-style, stand-alone units, as well as in four Roosevelt Fireplace Cottages, handsome cabins with warm, hardwood flooring and stone fireplaces. Outside you not only have the lake for boating and fishing, but nearby is a trail that winds not quite a mile to Marymere Falls through the park’s beautiful lowland forests lush with hemlocks, firs, red cedars, spruce, huckleberry, Oregon grape and Salal. Kalaloch Lodge (866-662-9928) on the southwestern corner of the park is the perfect perch from which to “storm watch” in the fall as Pacific storms slam the coast and its sea stacks.

Crisp fall nights seem to bring the park’s wildlife alive and into sight as the bull elk serenade their harems with bugling, bison are on the move to wintering grounds, and bears are gorging themselves for the winter. The park has nine lodging options (866-439-7375) ranging from the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel to the venerable Old Faithful Inn. Aspens glowing gold and maples and scrub oaks flaming red help color the green pine forests. Where should you stay? Old Faith is ground zero for geyser gazers, while Canyon Lodge and the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel place you closer to the Lamar Valley with its premier wildlife viewing.

Ozark National Scenic Riverways

The historic Zion Lodge (888-297-2757) in Zion Canyon is the location most park visitors want. The lodge, the only accommodations inside the park outside of campgrounds, is rimmed by the canyon’s soaring sandstone walls, just a short walk from the rippling Virgin River, and within easy reach of some great hikes. You’ll find a combination of motor lodge rooms and beautifully renovated cabins complete with gas fireplaces and hardwood floors, much like those at Bryce Canyon. Cool, not cold, weather dominates fall here. Along the Virgin River that flows through the canyon, cottonwoods in fall turn golden yellow and bigtooth maples add splashes of scarlet to the canyons and trails.

Though less well-known than the Yellowstones, Shenandoahs, and Everglades of the National Park System, Ozark NSR offers outstanding fall color in southeastern Missouri thanks to its forests of oak, sycamore, cottonwood, birch and maple. While the Jacks Fork and Current rivers offer paddling opportunities through this colorful landscape, the Big Spring Lodge (573-323-4423) with its 14 cabins provides the lodging in this corner of the Ozarks.

Rocky Mountain National Park One of the best parks for listening to the shrill singing of bull elk courting their ladies, Rocky Mountain is without lodging inside its borders. Instead, Estes Park on the eastern side of the park and Grand

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

Big Meadows Lodge (877-847-1919) and Skyland Resort (877-847-1919) are the park’s two historic lodges. Both are well-situated in deciduous forests that showcase the season’s best colors. Their character—floors worn by millions of footsteps, banisters and chair arms rubbed smooth by millions of hands, the history of those who built these fine lodges—add much to your vacation. Outside the park, your options expand in the gateway community of Front Royal or down into the Shenandoah Valley on the west side of the park with its inns and B&Bs.

Zion National Park

The stately Stanley Hotel is an elegant approach to fall at Rocky Mountain National Park / Dan Swanson

Left and Top: Cabins at Zion Lodge at Zion National Park and the venerated Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone are great base camps for enjoying fall in the parks / Xanterra Parks & Resorts

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

Photography In The National Parks

Capturing

The Fall By Rebecca Latson

Every photographer has his or her favorite season at his or her favorite national park. For wildlife photographers, it may be spring in Yellowstone National Park, when new life abounds and sweet furry little faces fill the frame of a camera’s viewfinder. Other photographers like the sparkling winter beauty of an ice-encrusted waterfall in Yosemite National Park, or the contrast of white snow against red rock in Arches National Park. Some photographers most enjoy shooting in the summer, when hiking trails are clear of snow, alpine lakes are a deep turquoise hue from glacial melt, and lateblooming flowers carpet the fields of places like Glacier National Park.

hen, there are those photographers—like myself—whose favorite time of year is the fall, when the trees of Rocky Mountain and Acadia national parks are graced with autumnal hues of orange and gold. Autumn can produce variations in weather ranging from a crystal-clear blue sky over the red huckleberry bushes of Mount Rainier National Park to a storm-cloudy morning in Grand Canyon National Park with intermittent, sunlight-peppered snow showers. Fall air is fresh and sweet, perhaps tinged with the scent from a cabin’s wood-burning stove. The weather is chilly without being bone-freezing cold—a far cry from the humid 80-degree October temperatures of southeast Texas where I currently reside. Because autumn is my favorite season for photography, I plan most of my national park trips around the months of September, October, and November. I know, though, that the fall season will not bring a drapery of orange, red, and gold to every national park. Some parks have very little foliage to begin with, much less any that change colors with the season. Other parks have plenty of vegetation but are located in regions where frequent precipitation and temperate climates retain a 16

color scheme of varying shades of green. Nonetheless, the fall season is still my favorite time for photography because of the clarity of light and atmosphere as well as the saturation of colors.

A Must-Have Accessory For The Season When I travel during the autumn months, one of the camera accessories I always take with me is a circular polarizing filter (aka “polarizer”). Acting on the same principal as the lenses in a pair of sunglasses, polarizers cut through bright glare and reflections on watery surfaces, glass and vegetation, deepen a blue sky, enhance the colors of the landscape, and bring out the drama and detail of clouds. Some polarizers like Singh-Ray’s LB Color ComboTM filter combine a warming polarizing filter with a color enhancer filter to provide a slightly more golden color saturation within a composition. Singh-Ray’s Gold-N-BlueTM polarizing filter adds a little extra blue or gold hue to the scene with a twist of the filter’s rotation ring. Always keep in mind that you get what you pay for. If you are spending the money to buy a good lens, then don’t skimp on an accessory like a polarizer; get the best that you can afford.

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

Timing Is Everything Regarding timing—and this goes for every season, not just autumn—remember to set your camera’s clock to the time zone of the park you visit. This information is saved to your camera’s metadata and can prove quite helpful when you are trying to remember the date and/or time of image capture for a particular photo. Another item concerning timing: sunrises and sunsets (the “golden hours”). During the fall, they are especially dramatic. It’s all about that light, clarity, and atmosphere thing based upon the position of the Earth in relation to the Sun during this particular time of year. As a morning person, I don’t worry much about timing because I generally get up at dark-thirty and travel to my location for a sunrise session. For sunsets, though, I like to have a fairly decent idea of when that time occurs in order for me to stake out my spot at least an hour prior to the actual event. With that in mind, I have found a helpful online site (www.sunrisesunset.com/ USA/NationalParks) that allows me to choose a national park, month, and year, then generates a calendar of sunrise and sunset times in addition to day length, moonrise, moonset, and latitude & longitude (among other choices). This site aids

Fall sunrise, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

me in determining optimal arrival times for setting up my tripod and camera in readiness for those golden hour images. And, when I do capture that fall sunrise or sunset, I set my aperture between f5.6 and f16 to turn that golden orb into a golden starburst.

The Little Things While photographing those broad fall landscapes, don’t forget about the little things around you. This time of year provides extra photo ops to be found literally at a photographer’s feet: a golden aspen leaf on a gray rock, a starfish in a quiet tidal pool while the autumnal sea crashes onto the rocks, or a pocket-sized chipmunk scampering to and fro as it seeks to store food for the winter.

snow storms between the sunshine. In addition to clothing for your body, remember to be proactive regarding “clothing” for your camera gear. Make sure you’ve packed a weather-protective covering like Vortex Media’s Storm Jacket or Op/Tech’s Rainsleeve for your camera and lens to allow you continued shooting out in the elements while others around you pack up their gear and head for shelter. As the harbinger of winter, the autumn season brings a sense of peace and introspection with its quiet isolation, broken only by the occasional haunting call of a bull elk. Crowds are fewer and dispersed. Colors are saturated. The air is clear and crisp. It’s these elements combined together that make fall my favorite season for photography.

Dress For The Weather It goes without saying that you should dress both yourself and your camera gear for the fall season’s weather. This means you need layered clothing to shed or put on as the temperature dictates. Autumn weather is changeable, ranging from the 70s to the 40s (Fahrenheit) in the space of an hour or less, with rain showers and

Rebecca Latson, whose portfolio ranges from national parks to weddings, is a contributing writer and photographer for National Parks Traveler.

During the fall, the “golden hours” are especially dramatic. It’s all about that light, clarity, and atmosphere thing based upon the position of the Earth in relation to the Sun during this particular time of year.

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

There arguably is no better time for hiking in the National Park System than fall. The season brings fine weather to most of the country, and in many locations brilliant foliage is a bonus. Cool, bug-free conditions exist in many parks, and crowds are on the wane. With so many parks, there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t time enough for us to tackle each hike out there. But here are some suggestions for some great ones all across the nation.

Fall is a fantastic time to hike in Shenandoah National Park / Bob Mishak

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

For A Great Season

Park Hikes By Jim Burnett

all hiking in the East conjures immediate thoughts of Acadia National Park in Maine, Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, or Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee. All three are justly famous for fall color, have hundreds of miles of hiking trails…and lots of traffic on the roads, especially on autumn weekends. If you’re looking for some options for a fall hike in a park that might not be quite so crowded, you might consider the following areas: • Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Vermont dangles the chance to “Walk through one of Vermont’s most beautiful landscapes, under the shade of sugar maples and 400-year-old hemlocks, along winding woodland carriage roads and trails. On the gentle slopes of Mount Tom you will find mountain pastures, a mysteriously-named pond, and spectacular views of nearby hills and valleys.” • Not terribly far from the Smokies, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee border. The park’s 125,000 acres include miles of scenic gorges and sandstone bluffs and is rich with natural and historic features. Two hikes stand out in fall: the Angel Falls Rapids hike from Leatherwood Ford (four miles round trip) and the Twin Arches/ Twin Arches Loop Trail (1.4 miles round trip to Arches only or 6 miles total for the complete loop).

Yosemite National Park’s high country is a perfect location for fall hikes thanks to cooler temperatures and gorgeous views / Kurt Repanshek

• Where Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee come together, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park combines history and scenery spread across 20,500 acres of rugged mountain beauty threaded with 85 miles of trails. • Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky has plenty to see above ground. The Green River Bluffs Trail near the visitor center winds through a ridge-top forest. This trail overs some nice vistas from 150 feet above the river. The Cedar Sink Trail, meanwhile, is a two-mile trek through woods to a huge sinkhole that has a river running through the bottom.

• Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan gets plenty of colorful mileage from the area’s maple, beech and birch trees. The Empire Bluff, Pyramid Point, Alligator Hill, and Windy Moraine trails are great hikes, and all but the Windy Moraine Trail eventually lead to a view of Lake Michigan from a high bluff. Windy Moraine overlooks the Glen Lakes, beautiful inland lakes wrapped by forest. • Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is home to miles of pristine beaches and more than 100 miles of trails woven through a northern hardwood forest. Try the trail that runs from the

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

Rocky Mountain National Park’s Hidden Valley wearing its fall wardrobe / Ann Schonlau photo via NPS

Chapel parking lot to Mosquito River at Lake Superior (about 1.7 miles one way) and then return via the Mosquito Falls trail. • To the south, the Buffalo National River in Arkansas offers more than 100 miles of hiking trails through the rocky bluffs and hardwood forests of the Ozarks that complement river trips. A popular short hike, the Lost Valley Trail, features waterfalls, towering cliffs, a large bluff shelter, a natural bridge and a small cave. The cave runs about 200 feet and ends in a large room with a 35-foot waterfall. The trail begins at the Lost Valley Campground; the round trip covers 2.1 miles. • Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah just might be one of the top ten places to experience fall colors in the United States. Park staff recommend the Alpine Pond Nature Trail as the hike to take for fall color. Rated as “easy to moderate in difficulty,” it’s a two-mile, double-loop route through forests and meadows. The lower trail offers excellent views of the “breaks,” the colorful, eroded badlands where the edge of the

Glacier National Park offers a range of fall color, here backed by blue waters of St. Mary Lake and towering mountains / Jim Burnett

Markagunt Plateau breaks away to a lower area, while the upper trail takes you across meadows, through a spruce-fir-aspen forest, and by ancient volcanic deposits. Half-way through the loop, a natural, spring-fed pond offers a quiet location for a break. A cut-off trail at the pond allows you to make this hike a one-mile loop. A small stand of bristlecone pines can also be viewed from this trail. • Glacier National Park offers outstanding fall hikes, including one of my personal favorites. West of St. Mary along the classic Going-to-theSun Road is the Sun Point Nature Trail. The trail covers about a mile each way, and includes the chance for some premier views of Saint Mary Lake with rugged mountain peaks in the background. You can return to your car from Sun Point or continue a short distance to Sunrift Gorge, a straight, steep canyon formed when a small stream cut through a natural break in the rock. For a longer, half-day hike, you can carry on to St. Mary Falls and Virginia Falls.

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

• Fall is the perfect season to hike in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, as the lack of a forest canopy makes the trail system a scorcher in summer. But with fall’s cooler temperatures, a walk along the Blue Mesa, Crystal Forest, or Long Logs trails is delightful. • Rocky Mountain National Park is a magnet for hikers. Many day hikers head to the Bear Lake area, and the trail to Nymph, Dream, and Emerald lakes is one of the main reasons. Another is the path to Alberta Falls. Just get there early, preferably around sun-up, to land a parking spot and enjoy the solitude of the mountains. • West Coast travelers looking for an option to Yosemite might try Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in northern California. For fall day hikes, consider the Brandy Creek Falls Trail (1.5 miles round trip) and the James K. Carr Trail to Whiskeytown Falls (3.4 miles round trip). Both are rated by the park as “moderate” in difficulty. Two foot bridges on the route to Brandy Creek Falls allow you to access the falls during high winter flows.

Looking for a longdistance fall hike? Here are a handful to consider: • Anywhere along the Appalachian

National Scenic Trail. This wonderful 2,184-mile path offers gorgeous fall color anywhere along its route, though the best might be in Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains national parks or along the Blue Ridge Parkway. You can hike for a few days, or a few weeks, before winter arrives. • Yellowstone National Park’s backcountry is uncrowded throughout the year, but particularly so in the fall. Those who venture into the Bechler region, aka Cascade Corner, in the fall have no bugs to contend with and spectacular waterfalls to enjoy. Those who know where “Mr. Bubbles” is even can soak in the outflow of a hot spring that is cooled by the Ferris Fork of the Bechler River.

The Bechler River Trail in Yellowstone’s southwestern corner is perfect for fall solitude / Kurt Repanshek

No matter where you live–or travel–in the fall, there’s a great hike not too far away. Whether it’s long or short, flat or steep, find one that fits your situation and enjoy a wonderful season of the year in the parks.

Jim Burnett can point to a three-decade career with the National Park Service. He’s the author of two books: Hey Ranger! True Tales of Humor and Misadventure from America’s National Parks and the sequel, Hey Ranger 2: More True Tales...

• The Under-the-Rim Trail at Bryce Canyon National Park is 23 miles long, perfect for a threeday getaway that surrounds you with fall foliage and rainbow hues of the park’s eroded sandstone. • The John Muir Trail through Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia national parks is very popular, and early fall -- before it gets too wintry -- is a great time to avoid the crowds on it. • September is a wonderful month to hike the Wonderland Trail around Mount Rainier National Park, though nabbing a permit at the last minute is tough if not impossible. October can be good, too, but you chance an early season snowstorm. www.NationalParksTraveler.com

Challenge Your

Birding Skills This Fall In The National Park System By Kirby Adams

Spring migration may be the grand pageant of color for birders across North America, but the flip side in autumn is not to be overlooked by birders hoping to catch some rare sightings or just hone their birding skills. Spring is a frenzied rush to breeding grounds. Food, sex, and territory are all that’s on the minds of our feathered friends in May.

Wood Ducks and other ducks molt back into their colorful breeding plumage during fall migration after being drab all summer, the opposite of the molting pattern of most songbirds / Kirby Adams

Kirby Adams, National Parks Traveler’s resident birder, is working on a book about birding in the national parks.

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

n the fall, it’s all about heading south for a relaxing winter with the new kids. Songbirds that confine their northward migration to a few bursts during a couple weeks in May will be straggling south all through the fall. There’s no need to time your movements perfectly when there are no territories to be claimed, mates to be seduced, or nests to be built. Fall birding has plenty of other differences with the spring. Many of the birds, males in particular, aren’t wearing their best breeding plumage. Colors may be muted or completely molted away. Shorebirds that had some subtle coloration differences in April and May can all look frustratingly similar in August and September. Very few birds are singing in the fall. Most are making some chips and chatters that are to their spring songs what the drab autumn plumage is to the gaudy outfits of May. If you bird for the fashion and symphonies, this may not be good news, but I see it as a good time to test my birding chops on some more challenging identifications. Good birders know size, shape, and behavior are more important than plumage any day. In the fall, those are essential field “marks” every day. Finding a place to bird in the fall is as easy as stepping out your front door. Four major flyways of bird migration span the North American continent, each with its own suite of avian vacationers heading south each fall. Let’s look at those flyways and find a national park positioned for great birding in each.

Atlantic Flyway – Acadia National Park Birds love to follow coastlines, particularly raptors. Raptors also tend to cluster in the fall, using thermal upwellings to help conserve energy. This makes a high point on the coast, like Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park in Maine, an ideal spot for fall hawk watching. Every year, from late August through early October, birders and ornithologists gather on Cadillac Mountain to count

raptors in what is known as a Hawk Watch. An average of over 2,500 birds are counted there annually. Birders of all experiences can join the fun to assist in spotting or just watch the action.

Pacific Flyway – Point Reyes National Seashore It’s not just the Atlantic Coast birds tend to follow. Peninsulas with notable topography on the Pacific Coast are favored migrant stops as well. Point Reyes couldn’t be a better birding spot if you designed it from scratch. That explains why Point Reyes holds the unofficial title of most birds in the Nation Park System, with 490 species either residing or passing through. In the fall, the mudflats and beaches around Drake’s Bay are wonderful sites for catching shorebirds as they head south. Snowy Plovers are one of the favorite attractions, along with Western Sandpipers, godwits, and phalaropes. Remember, low tide means mud, and mud means shorebirds!

Mississippi Flyway – Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Continuing on the theme of birds following shorelines, the Great Lakes aren’t left out of the fun. The long northto-south shores of Lake Michigan are migration superhighways in the fall. Where the two sides of Lake Michigan meet at the bottom, we have Indiana Dunes. The national lakeshores up on Lake Superior may boast nearly a couple dozen nesting warbler species each during the summer, but when migration time comes, every one of those species will be passing through Indiana Dunes. Some change plumage dramatically in the fall, while others look just like they did in the spring. For an extra challenge, try to pick out the juveniles making their first trip south. Lake Michigan itself is also host to thousands of migrating waterfowl. Grebes, loons, and ducks of all sorts are found in mid to late autumn on the lake. You’ll need a good spotting scope, a sturdy windbreaker, and some patience, but lake watches can be some of fall’s best birding adventures.

Central Flyway – Rocky Mountain National Park What the Central Flyway lacks in water, it makes up for with mountains. Endless ridges running north and south span the distance from Alaska to South

Migration flyways across the country involve many national park settings / Kirby Adams

America along this route. Pick a spot along the cordillera and you can’t go wrong. Rocky Mountain National Park offers up spectacular fall vistas and great migrants. Migrating raptors follow ridgelines, sometimes migrating simply from higher elevations down tributary ridges to lower areas for the winter. Watch for resident Red-tailed Hawks chasing other hawks out of their territories as they pass through. When leaves are shed in late fall, it’s a great time to hunt for some of the boreal residents of the mountains like American Three-toed Woodpeckers and Gray Jays.

Honorable Mention – Dry Tortugas National Park Fort Jefferson was built on Dry Tortugas for its strategic military location, but it may be even more perfectly placed for birding. The Atlantic Flyway diverges when it reaches Florida. Some birds continue south to the

islands of the Caribbean while others swing southwest to cross the Gulf of Mexico to the Yucatan Peninsula and onward to South America. Similarly, the birds on the Mississippi Flyway follow the river to its delta, then some hook right to follow the coast to Mexico and beyond while others make a left to cross the gulf, headed for the islands where they intersect at Dry Tortugas with the Atlantic migrators headed for Mexico. You’ll see hundreds of warblers and other songbirds stopping to rest and refuel here. The island is also a favorite refueling spot for raptors like Peregrine Falcons and Sharp-shinned Hawks that use the songbirds for food. It might be disconcerting to see a Peregrine Falcon pick off the Blackpoll Warbler you just identified, but such is the circle of life. The falcons know a good hunting spot in the fall just as well as the birders do.

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

Ride Off Into the West, And A National Park,

From A Dude Ranch

A trail ride at the Red Rock Ranch often includes views of the Tetons in Grand Teton National Park / Dude Ranchers Association

It’s after a soft, pattering rain, with the clouds clearing and the sun streaming through, that the essence of the Western landscape rises up. The pungent scent of sagebrush is wicked up by the moist air, mingling with the sweet aroma of pine. And whether you’re astride your horse, or relaxing on the ranch-house porch with a steaming cup of coffee, the early fall view of snow-dusted peaks with valleys below glimmering with the gold of aspen leaves seems crisper, almost magnified. 26

urrounded by hundreds, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, of acres, the views from dude ranches from northern Montana down to southern Arizona never seem to end, sweeping across mountains and over meadows. And that bugling you hear early in the morning or late at night? It is indeed a reveille, but not to summon the troops. Rather, it rises up from deep in the throats of bull elk and pierces the air—with a flume of steam, if it’s cold enough—as they summon their harems. Try to gain a feel for this land through your windshield and you’ll be wondering what lies beyond that ridgeline, how bad the badlands really are, and whether that mechanical horse you rode as a youngster was adequate preparation for a ride into the forests or up into the mountains. Dude ranches have been showcasing these landscapes, and their associated experiences, for generations of families, many who come back year after year after year to relive the experience. And why not?

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

These typically week-long vacations revolve around trail rides that literally carry you into these marvelous settings. And that day in the saddle is followed by a hearty meal that might feature Citrus Roasted Half Chicken, Porcini Mushroom Risotto, or a classic Buffalo Tenderloin. At day’s end, you’ll settle into a soft, warm bed in a cabin that’s rooted in the setting. With some ranches closing in on a century of welcoming guests, it’s not a lie to say the industry literally grew up with the National Park System. So intertwined are the two that there’s almost a symbiotic relationship between them. True, most dude ranch vacations feature all-inclusive ranch stays. But there are ranches out there that relish and promote their proximity to national parks, places such as the Lone Mountain Ranch that is just 18 miles from Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, or the White Stallion Ranch that sidles up to Saguaro National Park in Arizona. When considering a dude ranch vacation, be sure to look for the establishment’s

endorsement from the Dude Ranchers’ Association. This organization, which arose from a meeting in 1926 in a Bozeman, Montana, hotel room between cattle ranching and railroad interests, doesn’t take membership lightly. Rather, ranches are evaluated for two years on everything from their lodgings to how they care for their horses before they’re granted membership. Today, only about 100 ranches sprinkled through the Western United States and two Canadian provinces have qualified for that distinction. Here’s a look at ten dude ranches that can connect you with a national park when you want the best of both experiences—ranch life and a sampling of America’s best places.

The Hideout Lodge and Guest Ranch – Shell, Wyoming 3170 Road 401/2, Shell, Wyoming 82441 800-354-8637 • thehideout.com This 300,000-acre ranch at the base of the Big Horn Mountains in north-central Wyoming specializes in intimate experiences by limiting weekly stays to about two dozen guests. Under the wide Wyoming skies you can work on your horsemanship, or help drive some of the ranch’s 1,200+ head of Black Angus cattle down from the high country to their wintering grounds near Trapper Creek Lodge. Want a national park day trip? Yellowstone is about two hours west, while Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument is about the same distance to the north.

Hearty meals and camaraderie at the end of the day at the Tanque Verde Guest Ranch.

Lone Mountain Ranch Big Sky, Montana

Tanque Verde Guest Ranch Tucson, Arizona

750 Lone Mountain Ranch Road Big Sky, Montana 59716 800-514-4644 • lonemountainranch.com

14301 E. Speedway Blvd Tucson, Arizona 85748 800-234-3833 • tanqueverderanch.com

With a history that dates to 1915 when the ranch was homesteaded, this guest ranch offers everything from fly fishing and horseback riding to tours of Yellowstone. Those parks tours are led by one of the ranch’s naturalists and can be done from atop a horse or on foot. Kids have their own programs to look forward to, be it pony rides for the youngsters (3-5 years old), or maybe an overnight backpacking trip for teens to build their outdoors skills. After a long day, enjoy a massage before, or after, dinner and then retire to your cabin and relax in front of the fire.

Exit your adobe casita each morning at Tanque Verde Guest Ranch and you have a multitude of activities to choose from. You can work on your horsemanship or roping skills with a morning class, take in the ranch’s 60,000 acres of desert and mountains on horseback, or sign up for a hike in Saguaro National Park. There’s also the 21 acres of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum just outside Saguaro’s Tuscan Mountain District to explore, mountain biking options, and even water color classes or simply relaxing around the pool.

White Stallion Ranch Tucson, Arizona 9251 West Twin Peaks Road Tucson, Arizona 85743 888-977-2624 • whitestallion.com

At the Hideout Ranch in Wyoming, you can ride, fish, help drive cattle, or take a day trip to Yellowstone National Park.

This southern Arizona ranch spans 3,000 acres, but can seem larger thanks to the access it has to Saguaro National Park and its 91,439 acres right next door. Allday horseback rides at the White Stallion Ranch can include treks into the national park. You also can ride up into the surrounding mountains studded with the region’s iconic saguaro cacti or, if you have the skills, take a faster ride that features loping and cantering through the Sonoran Desert. Recall the day’s activities around the evening buffet dinner grilled outside, and relax afterwards by studying the night sky or listening to a cowboy singer.

At White Stallion Ranch, you can ride into Saguaro National Park.

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

Gros Ventre River Ranch Moose, Wyoming

C Lazy U Ranch Granby, Colorado

Red Rock Ranch Kelly, Wyoming

18 Gros Ventre Road Jackson, Wyoming 83001 307-733-4138 grosventreriverranch.com

3640 Colorado 125 Granby, Colorado 80446 970-887-3344 • clazyu.com

P.O. Box 38 Kelly, Wyoming 83011 307-733-6288 • theredrockranch.com

Just west of Rocky Mountain National Park, the C Lazy U Ranch dates to 1919 when it was a working cattle ranch. These days guests have more than 175 horses to choose from for trail rides, though you also can wet a fly in the Colorado River, improve your archery skills, or stretch out with a yoga lesson. Meals in the main ranch house feature entrees such as rosemary rack of lamb and Rocky Mountain trout. The national park is a short drive up Highway 34, making a visit an easy day trip.

Sweeping views of the glacier-streaked Teton Range atop Grand Teton National Park highlight a stay at the Red Rock Ranch located on the fringe of the park. Start the day with a steaming cup of coffee while seated across from the cracklin’ fire in the main lodge, and end it a dozen or more hours later before the woodstove in your cabin. In between, the hours can be filled with trail rides, angling for trout in the ranch’s 2.5-mile stretch of Crystal Creek, exploring the park, or improving your square dancing.

Towering over your stay at the Gros Ventre River Ranch are the crags of Grand Teton National Park. Not surprisingly, the park can play a supporting role in your vacation at the ranch. You can take time to climb the Grand Teton itself, or play white-water cowboy on the rapids of the Snake River that flows through the park. Daily trail rides offer great photo opts with the bison and moose that call this landscape home. Family-style dinners back at the lodge allow you to make new friends while comparing your day’s adventures.

A stay at the C Lazy U Ranch includes the option of guided fly-fishing as well as a massage or a “Cowboy Soak” in a copper tub after a long day in the saddle.

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

Stays at the Greenhorn Creek Guest Ranch can include a day trip to nearby Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Bar W Guest Ranch guests have the option of skipping a day in the saddle for one in Glacier National Park.

Western Pleasure Guest Ranch Sandpoint, Idaho

Greenhorn Creek Guest Ranch Quincy, California

Bar W Guest Ranch Whitefish, Montana

1413 Upper Gold Creek Road Sandpoint, Idaho 83864 888-863-9066 westernpleasureranch.com

2116 Greenhorn Ranch Road Quincy, California 95971 800-334-6939 • greenhornranch.com

2875 Highway 93 West Whitefish, Montana 59937 866-828-2900 • thebarw.com

In northern California, far from the crowds and surrounded by the Plumas National Forest, you can work on both your horsemanship and line dancing at the Greenhorn Creek Guest Ranch. Practice your skills trotting or loping with your horse, or simply enjoy day rides into the mountains flecked red, yellow and orange by autumn. Those late afternoon rides might include cookouts, or you might head back to the main ranch house for dinner. Display your new-found skills during the “guest rodeos.” Lassen Volcanic National Park is just 90 minutes to the north, a perfect distance for a day trip.

There is a place in northern Montana where days are spent on trail rides or sharpening skills barrel racing or maybe simply fishing. Visitors to the Bar W Guest Ranch also have access to mountain bike trails and relaxing on evening wagon rides that culminate with a cookout. For some, helping with a cattle drive might be on your schedule. For all, rides high up into the mountains and through the pine forests are daily adventures. The 3,000-acre ranch is not far from the Canadian border...and it’s also less than an hour from Glacier National Park.

The forests of northern Idaho are the backyard of the Western Pleasure Guest Ranch, a family-owned operation where you can build on your horsemanship or start from scratch. Days are built around two rides, morning and afternoon, though you can also hone your archery skills or take a dinner cruise on Lake Pend Oreille. During the week you might enjoy a Dutch oven dinner followed by music around the campfire. You also can break away for a drive along the Going-to-theSun Road in Glacier National Park a few hours to the east.

Whether you’re anxious to get back on a horse, or want to slip your foot into a stirrup for the first time, a dude ranch vacation surrounds you with landscapes so magnificent in their beauty that we protect many of them as national parks.

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

Fall Is Perfect For Glimpsing The

Wild Side Of National Parks Wildlife Watching Tips from Danny Bernstein and Kurt Repanshek

Bull elk, Hoh Rain Forest, Olympic National Park / NPS

Wonderment and joy unfold in the national parks come fall when the wild kingdom becomes more visible, literally voicing the call of the wild in parks such as Great Smoky Mountains or Rocky Mountain or winging overhead in any number of parks.

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

Fall wildlife viewing in the parks can reward you with Tri-colored Herons in Everglades National Park and mountain goats at Glacier National Park / NPS photos

heck our list for wildlife watching and you’ll likely find a place not too far from home where you can watch this seasonal affair.

Bird Migrations Acadia National Park’s granite mountaintops are a great place to watch migrating birds from mid-August into October as “strong northerly winds push thousands of raptors from Maine and Canada south along the eastern coastline as they migrate to warmer areas for the winter,” notes the park staff. This year marks the 19th season of Acadia’s Hawk Watch program. Park rangers and volunteers will be atop Cadillac Mountain on Mount Desert Island daily to help you identify the birds winging by. Migrating birds also soar south along the ridge tops of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Raptors that can be seen usually include red-tailed, Cooper’s, and sharpshinned hawks. Birds of prey make Dry Tortugas National Park popular with hawk watchers in the fall. Park officials say flocks of raptors are common during September and October, though the southbound migration trickles off and ceases by about late November. Fall heralds the arrival of the dry season at Everglades National Park in Florida, where birding revs up as birds cluster around waterholes. Among the species commonly sighted are Pied-billed Grebes, American White Pelicans, Double-crested Cormorants, Great and Snowy Egrets, and Tri-colored Herons. Golden eagles often can be seen soaring on the air currents above the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park during the fall on their southward jourwww.NationalParksTraveler.com

Sights of feral horses in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, or deer in Yellowstone National Park, are possible in fall / NPS and Kurt Repanshek

neys. Rangers suggest you hike to the Mount Brown Lookout on the west side of the park in mid-October with binoculars in hand to watch for these large birds. Though better known for grounded wildlife sightings, Yellowstone National Park’s Hayden Valley is a reliable producer of raptor sightings as red-tailed hawks, bald eagles, ospreys, American kestrels and more wing by. Turkeys don’t migrate, but they occasionally can be seen roaming the forests of Shenandoah National Park, which also has a resident population of owls whose hoots you might be lucky enough to hear if you spend time hiking or camping out.

What’s That Sound? Perhaps the oddest sound to reverberate through national parks come fall is that of bugling elk. Once upon a time you had to head west to Yellowstone or Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain or Olympic, or even Point Reyes National Seashore to hear that piercing love song. But thanks to an elk recovery program started at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2001, you can catch bulls summoning their harems in the Cataloochee Valley in the northeastern corner of the park. At Yellowstone, bugling hangs in the early morning and evening air in the Hayden and Lamar valleys, near 32

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

Mammoth Hot Springs, or, if you’re in the backcountry, around meadows. Rocky Mountain National Park’s Horseshoe Park just inside the Fall River Entrance practically guarantees you an evening of chorusing bulls throughout September and into October, and other good areas include Moraine Park as well as Harbison Meadows and throughout the Kawuneeche Valley on the west side of the park. Point Reyes National Seashore in California has about 400 Tule elk, and through September you often can hear them bugling near the Tomales Point Trail and at Windy Gap. Up the coast in Washington state, Olympic National Park harbors the largest herds of Roosevelt elk in the Pacific Northwest. September is a good month to listen for bulls bugling in the park’s rain forests. Even the Buffalo National River in Arkansas has bison, and can be a good spot to listen for fall bugling.

Wolves, Bears, Bison, And Other Charismatic Megafauna Glacier National Park seems to have almost every large mammal from elk to black bears and grizzly bears to moose. More frequently seen than the grizzlies, though, are the snow-white mountain goats that thrive on the steepest of slopes along the Continental Divide. These animals with their professorial goatees

Wherever you find yourself looking for wildlife, remember that wildlife watching in any unit of the National Park System is best done with a good pair of binoculars, a spotting scope, or a good telephoto or zoom lens on your camera. Remember to keep your distance from all wildlife, particular bison, moose, elk, bears and wolves. Check with rangers at the park you’re visiting for specific wildlife watching guidelines. Yellowstone’s bison are on the migratory move in the fall, even if it’s only down to the river valleys / Marcelle Shoop

often can be seen in the meadows on Logan Pass and even on the trails to the Granite Park and Sperry chalets. Moose often can be spotted at Grand Teton National Park in Willow Flats, a marshy expanse right behind the Jackson Lake Lodge. Pronghorns, the fastest land animals in North America, might be seen at the southeast end of Jenny Lake or, better yet, along the sagebrush flats lining the Snake River and surrounding Mormon Row. In early September, the Moose-Wilson Road is pretty reliable for black bears, as they come to feast on the tasty hawthorn berries. The bruins are so fixated on gorging themselves that they pretty much ignore the cars on the road. Just remember that they’re wild bears and keep your distance. At Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Cades Cove, deer can often be seen in the open fields. While bucks with large antlers keep weaker males away and attract a harem much like elk bulls do, deer don’t bugle. Still, their antics during the rut is something to watch...and to keep your distance from. Bears also call the Cades Cove area home, and in the fall they come down into the orchards for some fresh fruit.

Roam the rocky coastline of Olympic National Park and you just might be able to see some of the park’s marine life. The Olympic coast lies along the migratory path of both California and Steller’s sea lions, according to park officials, who add that en route to foraging areas in the Strait of Juan de Fuca California sea lions feed in the coastal waters in the late summer and early fall. Your best bet to spy these creatures are on the islands off the coast of Cape Flattery and Cape Alava. At Shenandoah National Park, it’s possible to spy black bears attracted in fall to the old apple orchards established by homesteaders before they left for creation of the park. The Lamar Valley in Yellowstone is a reliable spot for sighting not only elk and bison but also wolves, bighorn sheep and, if you’re lucky, grizzlies. September into October are good months for going whale watching in the waters off Acadia National Park. Bison, elk, and feral horses are among the large animals easily spotted in Theodore Roosevelt National Park during the fall months. Travel to Shackleford Banks at Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina and you can spy some of the seashore’s famous Banker horses.

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

A Quieter Ride Through Fall Along The

Natchez Trace Parkway Fall, that lofty season when Eastern hardwood forests don foliages red, gold, and orange, lures us like motorized lemmings into national parks to admire nature’s wizardry. We inch along, practically bumper to bumper at times, to be dazzled in a final seasonal hurrah before the paint-by-number leaves are shed and winter’s first squalls convince us that being inside really isn’t such a bad thing.

ut there is a pastoral parkway in the National Park System that meanders hundreds of miles, through colorful forests and leading to plunging waterfalls, one rich in Native American and Civil War history, that doesn’t precipitate quite so hectic or jammed an excursion through the season Unlike its neighbors to the north, the Natchez Trace Parkway has yet to be discovered by the masses of motorists out in search of fall’s peak colors. Whereas the Blue Ridge Parkway, that hallowed ribbon of two-lane that roams through the Appalachians from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee drew more than 1.6 million people last October, the Trace that runs from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee, counted not even a third as many visitors. Fall crowds? Not along the Trace, at least not comparatively speaking. The Natchez Trace Parkway is the seventh-most visited site in the National Park System as reflected by the 5.56 million recreational visitors in 2012. But that doesn’t mean you’ll be jockeying with crowds. “Really, year-round, there is no traffic if you take the Natchez Trace as a whole,” says Lance Ragsdale, vice president of development for the French Camp Academy that manages the French Camp Historic Village at milepost (MP) 180 says, Oh, around rush hour in morning and evening the Trace near Madison, Jackson, and Tupelo in Mississippi might get busy with folks heading to work or back home. But “once you get past those cities, it is

clear and open,” he says. Though summer-like weather prevails, with daily highs in the 80s possible, the Natchez Trace with forests thick with hickories, oaks, and maples has enough reds, yellows and oranges to signal a fall season that rivals other areas of the park system. Laid out south to north, with Natchez the entry point to Milepost 1 and Milepost 444 at Nashville the far end, the Trace is a perfect destination for travelers looking to both enjoy the season and yet gain a measure of solitude from the high summer season. “Usually the leaves start changing in October in this area,” Mr. Ragslade says. “Mississippi is pretty lush and green and stays that way for a while, but in October that begins to change, and the colors along the Trace begin to look like autumn.” For those seeking the season’s best display, some of the very best views are to be had at Old Trace Drive (MP 375.8), Metal Ford (MP 382.8), and Swan View Overlook (MP 392.5). Time and weather permitting, take a leisurely stroll to enjoy the foliage at Meriwether Lewis (MP 385.9) or Fall Hollow (MP 391.9). Many motorists from northern states are surprised to find that stretches of the parkway in Alabama and Mississippi offer pleasing color. Among the recommended views in this southerly section are the Freedom Hills Overlook (MP 317.0), the Old Town Overlook (MP 263.9), and the Little Mountain Overlook (Jeff Busby Campground, MP 193.1). You can pair those foliage displays with chapters on American history, side trips

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

to other park system units, waterfall gazing, or simply relaxing in a campground with a few easy hikes to connect with the landscape.

History Along The Trace Did American frontiersman Davy Crockett cross the Trace early in the 19th century when he served as a scout for the Second Regiment of Tennessee Volunteer Mounted Riflemen? Most likely, for history, and even prehistory, thrum and reverberate along the 444 miles of the Trace. If Crockett did follow the Trace, well, he was only one of the more recent visitors. American Indian villages developed more than 9,000 years ago along the area now traversed by the Natchez Trace Parkway. The paths that became the Natchez Trace traveled through the homelands of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez people- descendants of the early mound builders. This rich history is highlighted at many sites along the Parkway, including Emerald Mound (MP 10.3). Though only about 750 years old, it is the secondlargest American Indian mound in the country, covering about eight acres. The Natchez Indians developed a village outside present-day Natchez that is preserved at Grand Village of the Natchez Trace Historic Site. Here you can explore three ceremonial mounds, two of which have been restored to their original sizes and shapes. Even later, beginning in the late 1700s and continuing into the early 1800s, boatmen coursed the rivers, including the Mississippi, down to New Orleans to sell

Motorcyclists enjoying a fall day along the Trace / Natchez Trace Compact

their goods, including their flatboats, before heading back north along the Trace to home. This landscape was a hive of military activity during the Civil War, as evidenced by today’s Park Service sites that are clustered along the Trace: Vicksburg National Military Park, Tupelo National Battlefield, Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site, Shiloh National Military Park and its affiliated Corinth Civil War Interpretive Site, and Stones River National Battlefield. It was at Tupelo that the Union troops prevented the Confederates from severing General William T. Sherman’s supply lines. This two-day fight involving some 20,000 soldiers was the last major battle of the war in Mississippi. Head roughly 15 miles west of the Trace from Milepost 60 and you can enjoy a side trip to Vicksburg National Military Park, where you’ll find the USS Cairo, a restored Union gunboat, more than 1,300 monuments, a Union cemetery with the remains of 17,000 Union soldiers and, for ambitious youth, a 12-mile-long Scout trail that requires map and compass skills. Civil War mysteries stand solemnly at MP 269.4, where 13 Confederate graves can be found along the Old Trace. How the soldiers died, and who they are, remains a mystery.

Fall Fun Along The Trace

Tuscumbia Spring Park in Alabama is a popular spot to stop for a picnic / Natchez Trace Compact

Cyclists along the Natchez Trace Parkway, here on the Double Arch Bridge in Williamson, Tennessee, have five campgrounds reserved just for them / Natchez Trace Compact

The Natchez Trace Parkway is not only a famous drive, but also a special place for cyclists. Pedal down the Parkway and not only will you take a decidedly slower tour of the fall color, but you can stop in bicycle-only campgrounds (MPs 159, 234, 266, 327, and 408) or, if you like a hot shower at day’s end, overnight in one of the numerous bed-and-breakfasts along the way. “Typically, as a general rule, people driving are fairly respectful to cyclists,” points out Mr. Ragsdale. “I think that just reflects the tranquility of the Trace, the scenic byway that it was intended to be.” Seeking a great fall photograph along the Trace? Head to the “Sunken Trace” at MP 41.5. This short trail, along a section of the old Trace that appears to have sunk down into the ground due to the millions of footsteps that helped erode away the soil, offers a classic portrait of the Trace under a colorful canopy. The “sunken” nature of the trail stems from the highly erodible “loess” soils underfoot; sturdier soils further north that saw the same traffic don’t erode quite as easily and are consequently not as “sunken.” Wildlife in the form of alligators somewww.NationalParksTraveler.com

The historic “Sunken Trace” at Milepost 41.5 in Mississippi is a great place to see the effect of millions of footsteps / NPS

times can be seen from the boardwalk that meanders through Cypress Swamp (MP 122). It’s a short walk, roughly a halfmile through a water tupelo/bald cypress swamp adorned with tangles of Spanish moss, but offers a peaceful leg-stretcher. Any season is wonderful to find yourself along the Natchez Trace Parkway. But the fall calendar is dotted with special activities that are worth noting. Travel to Milepost 180 and you’ll arrive at French Camp, site of an historic village with roots put down around 1810 when Louis LeFleur and his family opened a tavern and inn to accommodate travelers along the Trace. These days you’ll find a nice historic district containing cabins, a log bed-and-breakfast establishment, and more than a little entertainment. Plan on visiting October 12 and you can participate in the annual Harvest Festival where you can attend an auction of handmade quilts, pick up artworks, or enjoy family-style picnic. (If you can’t bring a covered dish or two, there are donation boxes.) All the while, strains of music fill the air as dulcimers are strummed, banjos plucked, and fiddles fiddled by musicians set up around the village. If you visit the birthplace of Elvis Presley in Tupelo (MP 260) during Labor Day Weekend, you can enjoy the Multi-Cultural Gospel Fest that will be held in Ballard Park. Or mark September 13-14 down on your calendar so you don’t miss the Up, Up, & Away Hot Air Balloon Festival, also at Ballard Park.

Don’t be surprised to come across convoys of classic cars and trucks along the Trace in mid-October. They’re likely heading to the 20th Annual Fall Classics Car and Truck Show (and the annual Oktober Heritage Festival) held in Hohenwald, Tennessee (near MP 385). Come Friday, October 11, the parking lot on the corner of North Maple and East Linden in Hohenwald will feature entertainment, arts and crafts, and food from morning ‘til nightfall. In late November you can help open the new Visitor Center arising at Florence, Alabama, on the banks of the Tennessee River at McFarland Park (just off MP 330). This facility will showcase Muscle Shoals and its musical heritage. After exploring the Visitor Center, head over to a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Built in 1939-40, the home is constructed of cypress, glass, and brick. The City of Florence maintains and operates the home and offers tours Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The home’s flat roofs, large overhanging eaves, expanses of glass, and the flowing space are all hallmarks of the Usonian style loved by Wright in his designs for the average American family. Typical of many of Wright’s projects, the house is furnished with Wright designed objects. If you prefer to entertain yourself, more than 60 miles of the Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail can be found along the Parkway, and there are 28 hiking and self-guiding trails for you to explore along the Trace. With more than a dozen camp-

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

grounds adjacent to the Parkway, and three campgrounds in the park itself, you have plenty of choices for finding some solitude. Two significant waterfalls can be found along the Trace, perfect for photographs that frame them with fall foliage. The Fall Hollow Waterfall at MP 391.1 cascades down a slope in a beautiful forested setting reached via a set of wooden bridges that crisscross the creek before arriving at a viewing platform from which you can admire the small falls. Not too far up the road (MP 404.7) tumbles Jackson Falls—named after Andrew Jackson—where a paved trail takes you nearly 900 feet down in elevation to a small gorge carved by the water. Too, state parks can be found up and down the Trace, including David Crockett State Park not far to the east of MP 370. In Mississippi these state parks complement the Homochitto and Tombigbee national forests. The Homochitto National Forest, which actually wraps a portion of the Trace near MP 240, is of particular note as it was the result of an extensive reforestation effort made in the 1930s by the Civil Conservation Corps. The Corps also developed scenic drives and recreation areas (don’t miss the Clear Spring Campground with its manmade lake, picnic grounds, swimming area, and hiking trails) in the forest. Along with the state parks, you’ll find charming communities with wonderful places to stay, excellent places to dine, and plenty to see and do. Several historic cultures are represented by living villages, museums, and monuments. Throughout the year, there are many cultural events such as Pioneer Days, Dulcimer demonstrations, craft demonstrations, and heritage programs. Whenever you visit the Trace—September, October, or into November—you’ll find a peaceful ride with countless attractions, events, and historic sites to capture your attention. And you surely won’t mind the absence of bumper-to-bumper traffic.

E X P LO

RE THE

NATCHEZ TRACE M I S S I S S I P P I

A L A B A M A

T E N N E S S E E

A Unique Journey from Natchez to Nashville. 1- 8 5 5 - 56T- R AC E www.scenictrace.com thenatcheztrace

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

West Yellowstone A Great Base Camp For Yellowstone Fall

hopefully a picture from/in the town? a sign or building or something

West Yellowstone entrance sign in 1992 / Jim Peaco, NPS archives

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

Fall. Its days are waning. The gold of aspens are fluttering in the breezes, making their last salute before falling into winter. The growing crispness gripping the air is driving off the insects, making for superb hiking and biking weather, while wildlife, well-aware of the season, are easily seen on the move towards wintering grounds.

Fall’s golden mantle is draped across aspen glades on the mountainsides in Yellowstone and surrounding West Yellowstone / Michael Polkowske

hese wonderful months near year’s end, it can be argued, are the best of the year in Yellowstone National Park. And why not? The weather generally is outstanding, the scent of autumn invigorating, the hiking and photography options spectacular. All this unfolds on the front doorstep of West Yellowstone, Montana, a small, friendly town fringed by parklands and national forest that is well-versed in making visitors feel welcome, having greeted the first more than a century ago. You would figure the locals have hospitality down, and they do. Make your base camp here and the national park and the outdoors are almost literally at arm’s reach, sometimes requiring nothing more than a short walk from your room. That lodging might be a simple hotel room, or a charming log cabin with room for the whole family and a wood-burning stove or fireplace to help ward off the season’s growing chill. Family suites and fall season lodging discounts allow you to save some money while cooking your own

meals, or you can rely on the diverse array of eateries in town for hearty meals. Though Yellowstone’s high season has passed, there remains much to do and see, from wildlife watching and cycling tours to angling for trout or strolling the Norris Geyser Basin before winter sets in.

Wildlife, And Their Watchers, On The Move They are in motion before the first blush of dawn, and at day’s end as well, gathering in Yellowstone’s meadows and along the rivers that drain the park. Often they arrive early and stay late, anxious to catch the spectral bugling that cuts through the air and rings across the landscape. “They,” of course, are the wildlife watchers. Come fall, you need to be either an early riser, or have a late dinner, to catch the bull elk calling their harems together with their unique melody, a highpitched whistle that descends into a guttural wheeze. Bugling elk are, for many, the main attraction of the fall season. Both the bulls’

shrill calls and their fierce antler-to-antler battles create memories not soon forgotten. A short, enjoyable hike along the mile-long Riverside Trail from downtown West Yellowstone (the trailhead is on Boundary Street) into the park offers the chance to both catch this fall concerto and savor either the rising sun, or the setting sun, as its slanting rays shimmer across the lazy bends of the Madison River. The short drive into the park through the West Entrance and along the Madison River opens up more opportunities for encountering these displays. Pull over at Seven Mile Bridge, park the car, and get out to spend some time listening to the bulls’ competing choruses. Down in the river, if your timing is right, you just might spot a moose. As you drive into the park, watch out for bison, as they are on the move as well. Having gone through their rut in August, these shaggy animals are heading towards the river valleys for the winter months. Their herds can jam traffic in Gibbon Can-

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

Above: West Yellowstone is renowned for its nearby trout streams, such as Grayling Creek / Michael Polkowske Above right: Bull elk in Yellowstone’s meadows are magnets for photographers and wildlife watchers / Pat Cone

yon, as well as in the Hayden Valley, as the bulls, cows, and calves are unfazed by vehicles. They know winter is on the way, and are focused on finding the best, last grass of the season, undeterred by traffic. Overhead, raptors are on the move, too, heading south on their migratory exodus. Red-tailed hawks, bald eagles, ospreys, and American kestrels often can be seen winging through the Hayden Valley. Not interested in leaving are such year-round Yellowstone residents as mallards, greenwinged teal, majestic trumpeter swans, and even great blue herons, which you just might spot in some of the park’s ponds and marshy areas. Stop by the West Yellowstone Visitor Center to pick up a brochure on where best to look for birds in the area. It just might help you catch common loons calling across lake waters.

Photographing The Best Side Of Yellowstone Nature photographers don’t sleep well. They know when the best light is cast on the landscape and when animals are about. So they rise early, often right at or even before dawn, rest during midday, and then head back out until the last glimmer of daylight flickers across the western horizon. Fall’s soft early morning and late afternoon sunlight make the parklands and forests surrounding West Yellowstone a photographer’s favorite landscape. While the gold of aspens and reds of maples add contrast to the green lodgepole forests, wildlife seem more than willing to pose for you. Bull elk congregating in meadows easily fill frames with their massive antlers, 40

Grasses surrounding Old Faithful put on their fall best to contrast with the geyser’s billowing steam / Kurt Repanshek

while bison contentedly chewing their cud or kicking up dust in a wallow offer more prime focal points. But while bison look ponderous and lazy, they can summon surprising bursts of speed of more than 30 mph. With their horns and bulk they can do substantial damage to your vehicle, and inflict serious injuries to you, if you don’t keep your distance. Inside the park, that means staying at least 100 yards from wolves and bears and at least 25 yards from elk, bison, bighorn sheep, pronghorn, and mule deer. After filling your camera’s flash cards with wildlife images, head to one of the geyser basins and you can add tendrils of steam and skying columns of boiling water to your photographic collection. By altering your perspective, either by shooting pictures from ground level or by hiking up in elevation and shooting back down on the sprawling setting of geysers and colorful hot springs, you can add even more depth

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

and originality to your vacation photos. Another bonus of fall photography is that summer’s crowds are gone. As a result, you’re not jockeying to improve your line of vision, or rushed to keep moving around the boardwalk in the geyser basins. Instead you can relax while composing your shot...or simply enjoy watching the geysers and hot springs seethe, gurgle, sputter, and boil. If you’d like some pointers on where to capture the best images, West Yellowstone has a number of photography businesses that can lead you on photo safaris in the park.

Ride Your Bike, Or Take A Hike Coming to Yellowstone means getting out and enjoying the landscape, wildlife, and thermal features. Got a road bike? Consider joining the 2014 peloton for a 60-mile roundtrip from West Yellowstone to Old Faithful and back during the an-

nual cycle tour of the park in September. This ride is limited to 350 participants and quickly fills up, so watch for the reservation window next June. You’ll follow the Madison River from West Yellowstone to Madison Junction, then turn south and head to Old Faithful, the steaming Firehole River on your right as you cruise through the Lower and Midway geyser basins. Don’t worry about packing snacks, as there are feed stations along the route, and even a sag wagon to give you a lift if the elevation or distance get to you. Prefer cruising through forests on your mountain bike? Head for the 35 kilometers of trails weaving through the Gallatin National Forest on the Rendezvous Trails System that adjoins town. The trailhead at the south end of Geyser Street ushers you into a maze of loops that roll, dip, and climb with the forest (come back in winter to ski the trails!). Worrying about the 6,600-foot elevation? Take a trail map with you and you’ll see the cutoffs that can help you take it easy on your lungs. Fall walks can be as mellow as a meandering tour of downtown West Yellowstone with its quaint shops, art galleries, and jewelers, to a day-long affair hiking down to Shoshone Lake in Yellowstone. In-between mileage can be logged walking through the geyser basins: the Norris Geyser Basin is the park’s hottest and offers the most colorful mudpots, while the Upper Geyser Basin is home to Old Faithful, Giantess, Riverside, and Castle geysers, as well as countless other hot springs and geysers. A few hours could be spent hiking to Mystic Falls up behind Biscuit Basin, while

a longer excursion could involve a 7-mile roundtrip hike to Spray and Imperial geysers near the Midway Geyser Basin. On hikes in geyserland the cooler fall temperatures often reveal thermal features you otherwise might have missed, as the warm mists they vent billow more visibly in the season’s colder air.

Relaxing In Town Everybody deserves a down day, one spent without worries of rushing someplace or filling the day driving from one spot to the next. West Yellowstone can handle those days. Stroll over to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center on South Canyon Street and you’ll not only come away with a better understanding of wolves and grizzly bears, but with photos of some of the bears and wolves that live out in the open here. In the Yellowstone Historic Center, housed in a handsomely restored railroad depot that dates to 1909, you can come away with an understanding of the historic wildfires that swept across a good portion of the park during the summer of 1988, and delve into the roots of this gateway town. There are painstakingly restored stagecoaches in the center, and carefully detailed exhibits on fly fishing, which isn’t too odd when you consider the trout streams in the area. Ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the top 10 fishing towns in the country, West Yellowstone is within easy reach of the Madison, Gallatin, and Yellowstone rivers, as well as the Henrys Fork of the Snake River, with their rainbow, Yellowstone cutthroat, and

brown trout fisheries. The Center is open through mid-October and features some great events, such as a “Night at the Museum” on September 7 when you can explore the museum by flashlight, and a “Brat Night” on October 5 when you can find dinner there. You can stretch your legs with a walk around town, one that will take you by the historic district, and connect you with the Rendezvous Trails System, or which can be extended to create a nearly 4-mile loop that you can either jog or ride your bike along. This approach allows you to crisscross the downtown area in search of the perfect souvenirs to take home. Need a hat to shield your head from the sun, or a warm fleece? Stop by Eagle’s Store, which has been in the same family serving the needs of travelers since 1908 from its location on Canyon Street. Want a book on Yellowstone’s natural or human history? Stroll down the aisles in The Book Peddler, also on Canyon. Antiques, including some vintage flyfishing collectibles, can be found at Once in A Blue Moon on Madison Avenue. Western-themed gifts and postcards, just to name some of the merchandize, can be found at Smith & Chandler on Yellowstone Avenue across from the historic center. By the time your trip comes to an end, you’ll appreciate that fall enjoyed in West Yellowstone and its namesake national park offers a rich array of activities and experiences guaranteed to create memories…and convince you to return to enjoy the other seasons from this base camp.

Fall’s best colors, including that of sunsets, reflect off the Madison River that flows out of Yellowstone near West Yellowstone / Michael Polkowske

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

FALL QUIZ

How much do you know about the National Park System?

In which of the following units of the National Park System does the peak of the fall color season (best viewing) occur earliest in the fall?

A. Natchez Trace Parkway B. Buffalo National River C. St. Croix National Scenic Riverway D. Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The ______ trees whose golden yellow leaves adorn the landscape in many parks each fall grow in colonies that can be thousands of years old.

A person who especially enjoys red foliage in the autumn would logically be happiest with a fall colors tour on the A. Going to the Sun Road B. Trail Ridge Road C. Cades Cove Loop Road D. East Rim Drive

You’ll need a Road Lottery permit if you want to take a leaf peeping drive on the main park road in ______ National Park during the fall color season. A. Yellowstone B. Acadia C. Shenandoah D. Denali

You can look out the window and enjoy brilliantly colored fall foliage while riding a train in A. Acadia National Park B. Cuyahoga Valley National Park C. Shenandoah National Park D. Great Smoky Mountain National Park

6 7 8

Hunters cull surplus elk each fall as part of the elk management program in A. Yellowstone National Park B. Point Reyes National Seashore C. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve D. Grand Teton National Park

October ranks with June, July, and August as one of the four months in which visitation is greatest at A. Everglades National Park B. Glacier Bay National Park C. Great Smoky Mountains National Park D. Big Bend National Park

A. just before dawn B. mid-morning C. mid-afternoon D. just after sunset

Nor’easters that strike ______ in the fall bring heavy precipitation, gale force winds, and powerful surf that can cause severe beach erosion and property damage. A. Canaveral National Seashore B. Padre Island National Seashore C. Point Reyes National Seashore D. Cape Cod National Seashore

By early fall, snow forces the closing of ______, which remains closed until June.

Which of the following national parks commemorates an important Civil War battle that was fought in September? A. Antietam National Battlefield B. Shiloh National Military Park C. Vicksburg National Military Park D. Manassas National Battlefield Park

In the fall, grizzly bears forage for food and store up the fat they’ll need to last through hibernation in all of the following national parks EXCEPT:

Which of the following is an outdoor recreational activity that takes place only in the fall?

A. backpacking in Badlands National Park B. rock climbing in Joshua Tree National Park C. whale watching at Point Reyes National Seashore D. whitewater rafting in Gauley River National Recreation Area

To avoid the harsh cold and deep snow of higher elevations, all of the following animals move to lower elevations in the fall EXCEPT:

If you thrill to the sound of bugling, you would logically want to listen for it in the fall at any of the following National Park System units EXCEPT: A. Great Smoky Mountains National Park B. Yellowstone National Park C. Shenandoah National Park D. Rocky Mountain National Park

A person who visits ______ in early November can enjoy a “sit-down meal” at a full service restaurant without leaving the park. A. Mesa Verde National Park B. Everglades National Park C. Crater Lake National Park D. Grand Canyon National Park

A. mule deer B. elk C. ground squirrels D. Dall sheep

Watching migrating waterfowl is a popular fall activity in ______, which contains a wildlife refuge that is a component of the National Wildlife Refuge System. A. Point Reyes National Seashore B. Gateway National Recreation Area C. Biscayne National Park D. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

A. Glacier National Park B. Yosemite National Park C. Yellowstone National Park D. North Cascades National Park

Picking heirloom apples is a popular visitor activity each fall at A. Great Smoky Mountains National Park B. Capitol Reef National Park C. Wind Cave National Park D. Joshua Tree National Park

Near-perfect conditions for the formation of radiation fog commonly occur in the fall. During what time of day does radiation fog typically pose the greatest risk of vehicle-animal collisions on a park road?

A. Going to the Sun Road B. Blue Ridge Parkway C. Hurricane Ridge Road D. Skyline Drive

Fall is a good time to stand on the shoreline and watch for evidence of a bluefish feeding frenzy at A. Cape Hatteras National Seashore B. New River Gorge National River C. Lake Mead National Recreation Area D. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

A. less than 80 °F B. 80 to 89 °F C. 90 to 99 °F D. more than 100 °F

A. aspen B. persimmon C. sugar maple D. hickory

At Furnace Creek, the main visitor hub in Death Valley National Park, the afternoon temperature on a typical September day is

Extra Credit

On the autumnal equinox, which marks the start of the fall season in the Northern Hemisphere, night and day are about equal length and the noon sun is directly overhead at A. the Arctic Circle B. the equator C. the Tropic of Cancer D. the Tropic of Capricorn

Answers on next page

www.NationalParksTraveler.com

FALL QUIZ answers by Bob Janiskee

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

C. The St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, a portion of which is located in northern Wisconsin, has the earliest fall color peak in this particular set of national parks. A. Aspens, which produce golden yellow leaves in the fall, spread through the growth of root suckers. Some aspen colonies that exist today are thought to have been established tens of thousands of years ago. C. Because oaks, maples, and other hardwoods dominate the forested slopes of the southern Appalachians, motorists on the Cades Cove Loop Road in Great Smoky Mountains Park see plenty of red and yellow in the fall foliage. D. A day use permit is required to operate a private vehicle on Denali’s park road during the fall color season. The demand for the permits greatly exceeds the supply, so the permits are allocated by means of a lottery. B. The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad (CVSR) offers regular service and special excursions in Cuyahoga Valley National Park beginning in early June and ending in late October. B. Capitol Reef National Park has more than 3,000 fruit trees of various kinds in orchards that were planted by early settlers. The apple harvest season in the park lasts from early September to mid-October. D. Each fall, some of the elk in Grand Teton National Park are harvested by hunters who have a valid Wyoming elk hunting license and a park permit. Annual culling of the herd was authorized by Congress when the park was expanded in 1950.

8 9

10 11

C. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is hugely popular with visitors in October because that is when the fall colors of the forested mountainsides are at their glorious best. D. The brutally high summer temperatures for which Death Valley National Park is famous persist well into the fall. On a typical September day, the afternoon temperature at the park’s Furnace Creek tourist hub can be expected to top out at around 105 °F. A. The earth radiates heat and cools rapidly during calm, clear fall nights. Ground-hugging radiation fog tends to be thickest near dawn because that is when air near the earth surface is chilled the most D. True nor’easters are principally confined to the upper East Coast of the United States and the Atlantic provinces of Canada. Because Cape Cod National Seashore is situated on the coast of Massachusetts, the park is certain to get its share of nor’easters.

A. Snow forces the closing of the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park in early fall. The road has been closed as early as October 4 (1990).

B. There are no grizzly bears in Yosemite National Park – or anywhere else in California, for that matter.

C. While mule deer, elk and Dall sheep all migrate seasonally to lower elevations, ground squirrels spend the winter hibernating in their dens.

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013

15 16 17

18 19 20

C. It is male elk that bugle during the fall breeding season. There are no elk in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. A. Sport fishermen enjoy catching bluefish at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. A good way to locate bluefish is to watch for birds gathering over the disturbed water where a school of ravenously hungry bluefish is feeding. B. Management of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is highly unusual, in that the refuge is administered by the National Park Service as a component of Gateway National Recreation Area even though it is part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. D. The South Rim area of Grand Canyon National Park has a number of full service restaurants that remain open throughout the year. A. Antietam National Battlefield commemorates the Battle of Antietam (aka Battle of Sharpsburg), which was fought at Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862. D. The whitewater season in Gauley River National Recreation Area begins the first weekend after Labor Day and continues for six weekends. Whitewater boating and rafting on the Gauley is confined to the fall by the release schedule for the dam that controls the river’s flow.

Extra Credit B. The noon sun is directly over the equator on the autumnal equinox.

National Parks Quarters Hard to Find, Make a Great Collectible

hose familiar with current American coinage know that the United States Mint in 2010 started issuing a brand new series of National Park Quarters and other site quarters through its America the Beautiful Quarters® Program. This lineup came on the heels of the extremely popular 50 State Quarters Program and its follow-up the District of Columbia and U.S. Territories Quarter series. What many do not know is where to get new National Parks Quarters. Finding the quarters in circulation has proven to be a challenge, in part due to the fact that the U.S. economy has needed fewer new coins since the recession. The new America the Beautiful Quarters series is operated in a fashion very similar to the previous quarters programs where several newly designed quarters are issued annually. However, where the previous programs featured reverse designs emblematic of the honored state or territory in general, the new coins contain reverse designs emblematic of a specific site within each of those jurisdictions. The chosen sites were required to be under federal control and feature locations such as national parks, national forests, and national monuments. Authorized by the America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008, which became Public Law 110-456, this new series has already seen several rounds of releases by the U.S. Mint.

With the first coins already in circulation, one might assume that it would be easy to find them in your pocket change. That assumption would, for the most part, be wrong. For example, the total mintage for each of the four National Park Quarters issued averaged less than 70 million strikes. While that may seem like a lot, it is low in comparison to the previous programs. The average 50 State Quarters mintage stood at 695.952 million, with the lowest being 416.6 million from Oklahoma. And the most from New York… reaching 2 billion. The Mint at one time claimed that 147 million people collected the 50 State Quarters. Given the mintages seen in the debut strikes of the new series, not even half that number would be able to assemble a complete set. To learn more about the National Parks Quarters program, and how to obtain some of these collectibles, visit the website of Coins of America (http://www.coinsofamerica. com/quarters/national-parks-quarter-program.html) From collectible coins and colorful collections to fine jewelry and coin bears, Coins of America has the perfect gift for friends, family, loved ones, associates and even yourself. You’ll love the way Coins of America presents the story behind the coins to further enhance the collecting experience. www.NationalParksTraveler.com

Winter, despite its cold and snowy reputation, is one of the most wondrous seasons in the National Park System. From 20 below zero at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park to 85 degrees on the sugar-sand beaches of Virgin Islands National Park, this season offers a wide mix of experiences in the parks. The National Parks Traveler Essential Park Guide, Winter 2013, will showcase this season to a global audience with articles on lodging, bird watching, snowshoeing, snorkeling, and more from the National Park System.

Photo by Kurt Repanshek

ESSENTIAL PARK GUIDE - Autumn 2013