Sad To Hear

Several hikers have died.
One in the Grand Canyon

The 18-year-old was among a group of eight hikers that ran out of water while hiking the Shinumo Wash route.

Though few details are available pending investigation and notification of next of kin, the National Park Service states that rafters on the Colorado River were flagged down on Thursday by the group from the cliffs above the river, telling them that they were out of water and needed help.

One in the Sierra

20-year-old Cherie Hamilton disappeared Tuesday afternoon, after leaving a trail during a day hike near Wishon Lake.
More info

One on the Pacific Crest Trail.

An 80-year-old Puyallup man was found dead on the Pacific Crest trail in Skamania County Thursday.

Hikers found the body of Albert Mader at about 10:50 a.m. and notified sheriff’s deputies, according to a news release from the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office.

My condolences to their friends and family.

Sad To Hear

A hiker dies in Kings Canyon- Sequoia National Park.

I'm sorry to report there was yet another national park death this week. This one was a bit closer to home, at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Kevin Trevor Rodriguez, 19, died of head injuries Monday after he fell 50-plus feet near Tokopah Falls, a popular day hike near the Lodgepole Visitor Center.

Rodriguez -- who was reported to be from the Malibu-Agoura area -- and a friend were scrambling on the rocks above the trail when the accident occurred, according to the National Park Service. Instead of climbing down the same way they came up, they tried to descend via an apparently easier route, albeit one with slippery rocks, and Rodriguez took a tumbling fall, landing in a pool below

.

My condolences to his friends and family.

Packing Heat In The National Parks

There is no good reason for this.

WASHINGTON — Here's a list of stuff the typical American family can legally carry into national parks this summer: sleeping bag, toothbrush, change of underwear . . . loaded guns.

Thanks to a 279-147 vote Wednesday in the House of Representatives , visitors to the nation's parks and wildlife refuges will be able to carry weapons there if they abide by state weapons laws.

The bill is on its way to President Barack Obama , who faces a dilemma: Gun rights advocates attached the provision to a sweeping overhaul of the credit card industry, an initiative Obama strongly supports, so he has little choice but to let the gun section become law.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said only that Obama "looks forward" to signing the bill "as quickly as possible," and didn't mention the gun provision.

Gun control advocates howled Wednesday, but to little effect. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy , D- N.Y. , protested "the bill has been hijacked," and Rep. Maxine Waters , D- Calif. , maintained, "American taxpayers ought to be incensed."

Scot McElveen , the president of the Association of National Park Rangers , predicted that the measure would provoke problems at the parks.

"Members of the ANPR respect the will of Congress and their authority to pass laws, but we believe this is a fundamental reversal from what preceding Congresses created the National Park System for. Park wildlife, including some rare or endangered species, will face increased threats by visitors with firearms who engage in impulse or opportunistic shooting."

The people with guns will not legally be able to use them. You can not shoot the wildlife in a National Park. You can not shoot the other park visitors. You are not allowed to fire guns in the National Parks. I have never felt the need to have a gun in the wilderness. This will allow people who are scared to bring guns into the parks where they will be used illegally. Nothing good will come of it.

Nothing To See

Of course there probably is nothing to see, but Yellowstone is still having earthquakes.

When you have 400 earthquakes on top of one of the largest supervolcanoes on Earth, people pay attention.

And since the day after Christmas, that's what has happened at Yellowstone National Park. Scientists are seeing what they call a "swarm" of low intensity earthquakes - the largest since the 1980s. The biggest quake had a magnitude of 3.9, below the level that can cause damage.

But the earthquakes have made worldwide news because the park lies on a giant caldera, the crater of a volcano that scientists say could one day explode and destroy most of North America and freeze the rest of the world under a shroud of ash for up to two years.

Still, the latest earthquakes are nothing to fear, said park geologist Hank Heasler.

Some scientists say that Yellowstone is 40,000 year over due for an eruption. There is no reason to worry, There is nothing we can do!

So Sad

Suicide deaths are up in our National Parks.

Although the National Park Service doesn’t consistently track the number of suicides on park properties, at least 33 people are known to have ended their lives in a national park in 2008.

Park Service search-and-rescue reports list 26 suicides (or probably suicides) in 2007, 18 in both 2005 and 2006, and 16 in 2004.

Attempted suicides are much higher.

Twenty-six people attempted suicide at Colorado's National Monument in just the past year. Two were successful.

Patrick Suddath, branch chief of Ranger Operations at Glacier National Park, told the Associated Press that, “It's some place where, toward the end of someone's life, when they're feeling a total sense of despondency, they want to return to a place of natural beauty ... for their final moments.”

Quake Lake

Quake Lake, originally uploaded by ML Dollan Art & Photography.

A swarm of over 250 earthquakes hit Yellowstone National Park this weekend. Is this a precursor to a super volcano caldera eruption? Who knows?

The earthquakes have occurred in an area of the park where the temblors are common, scientists at the University of Utah say.

However, that number of earthquakes in such a short space of time is unusual, officials say.

According to the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, the quakes have been centered beneath Yellowstone Lake some five to nine miles south-southeast of Fishing Bridge. They are shallow temblors, anywhere from less than 2 miles below the earth's surface to near it, according to reports.

The earthquakes started on Friday and continued over the weekend, growing in strength. The strongest quake was 3.8 magnitude.

The picture above is of Earthquake Lake. The lake was formed when a August 17, 1959 earthquake caused part of the mountain to slide into the Madison River forming this lake, also called Quake Lake. 28 people were killed in the slide caused by the earthquake.

Bush Hates You And Your Parks

Bush is working hard to pollute the country on his way out.

The Environmental Protection Agency is finalizing new air-quality rules that would make it easier to build coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and other major polluters near national parks and wilderness areas, even though half of the EPA's 10 regional administrators formally dissented from the decision and four others criticized the move in writing.

Documents obtained by The Washington Post show that the administration's push to weaken Clean Air Act protections for "Class 1 areas" nationwide has sparked fierce resistance from senior agency officials. All but two of the regional administrators objecting to the proposed rule are political appointees.

The proposal would change the practice of measuring pollution levels near national parks, which is currently done over three-hour and 24-hour increments to capture emission spikes during periods of peak energy demand; instead, the levels would be averaged over a year. Under this system, spikes in pollution would no longer violate the law.

Coal plants are worse than nuclear plants.

Via Warren Street at They gave us a republic.

Eielson Visitor Center

Denali from Eielson visitor center, originally uploaded by jkbrooks85.

The view from the new platinum LEED visitor center in Denali National Park.

While the design, architecture, technologies, and remote location are fascinating in themselves, the Eielson Visitor's Center is notable for a more practical issue -- its low cost.

Operating costs are 84.7 percent lower than the average building its size (15,000 square feet), and Eielson was the first National Park Service building to receive a LEED Platinum rating within a federal budget.

Proving that integrated design and cutting edge technologies can indeed be cost effective, Eielson is set to be a model for future National Park Visitor Center designs.

More are to be built.

Once Again

If you are going to commit a crime, do not post the details online. Typo vigilantes are now paying for their crimes.

Jeff Michael Deck, 28, of Somerville, Mass., and Benjamin Douglas Herson, 28, of Virginia Beach, Va., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Flagstaff after damaging a rare, hand-painted sign in Grand Canyon National Park. They were sentenced to a year's probation, during which they cannot enter any national park, and were ordered to pay restitution.

According to court records, Deck and Herson toured the United States from March to May, wiping out errors on government and private signs. On March 28, while at Desert View Watchtower on the South Rim, they used a white-out product and a permanent marker to deface a sign painted more than 60 years ago by artist Mary Colter. The sign, a National Historic Landmark, was considered unique and irreplaceable, according to Sandy Raynor, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix.

They maintained a website that had details of their activities. The pictures and prose were used to convict the two men.

Wall Arch No More

Wall Arch - In Memory Of, originally uploaded by Crumblin Down.

This picture was taken by flickr user appropriately named Crumblin Down. The arch fell last Monday or Tuesday.

Wall Arch, one of the most accessible major arches in the Devils Garden area of Arches National Park, collapsed sometime Monday night.
"Not being a geologist, I can't get very technical but it just went kaboom," Chief Ranger Denny Ziemann said. "The middle of the arch just collapsed under its own weight. It just happens."
Wall Arch, located along the popular Devils Garden Trail, was 71 feet tall and 33 1/2 feet wide, ranking it 12th in size among the known arches inside the park. Lewis T. McKinney first reported and named Wall Arch in 1948.

The article linked above has before and after pictures.

Yosemite Fires

Yosemite Fires, originally uploaded by mikematthews.

The fires are getting close to Yosemite and have shut off power to the park.

(07-28) 04:00 PDT Mariposa -- A 26,000-acre wildfire raged out of control Sunday night in steep and rugged canyons 12 miles west of Yosemite, destroying 12 homes and threatening the tiny town of Midpines as firefighters braced for volatile weather conditions during the coming days.

The fire, burning just northwest of Midpines and 2 miles northeast of the town of Mariposa, forced hundreds of residents to flee their homes, threatened thousands more homes, caused a power outage in the Yosemite Valley, and was threatening the water supply for the Mariposa Utility District, authorities said.

There is no danger in the park.

Denali Goes Hybrid

Denali National Park is testing a hybrid diesel electric bus this summer. If it works well they may replace all their buses with hybrids.

Park managers do not allow visitors to drive their personal cars the length of the park road. Visitors board the buses near the park entrance. The 92-mile road, much of it unpaved, is the only way in and out of the nearly 6 million-acre park, home to Mount McKinley, at 20,320 feet the tallest mountain in North America.[...]

The hybrid bus requires as much as 70% less fuel.

"The beauty is when you use less fuel, you emit fewer pollutants," Kladder said.

The hybrid application is perfect for park buses, because just like school buses, they make a lot of stops and starts, Kladder said.

For park managers, it's not all about money. The quieter hybrid motors will enhance the visitor experience.

One big problem with the diesel-engine buses — which drive an average of 1.2 million miles per year — is that they are noisy. They can be heard from afar in the park.

The hybrids are quiet.

"Can you imagine the thrill of moving slowly and silently past a bear nursing its cub or wolf hunting along the road?" said Elwood Lynn, assistant superintendent of operations for Denali.

I hope it works for the park service. With diesel fuel going up and up, there will be bigger demand for this type of bus driving the cost of the buses down. It will make them much more attractive to other transit systems.

Via Backpacker's Ted Alvarez

Out Of The Wilderness

The Economist has an article about why visitation to the National Parks is down.

Yosemite is long on staggering views but short on what most people would today regard as entertainment. It contains fewer diversions than it once did. Scott Gediman, the park’s spokesman, points out that it used to have a Cadillac dealership and a zoo. Although pretty, Yosemite’s hotels are basic compared to most cities (if they were in Las Vegas they would have been dynamited long ago). Camp Curry, a vaguely military cluster of fixed tents and cabins, has hardly changed in a century.

As in other national parks, Yosemite’s rooms tend to sell out in descending price order. Expensive hotels go before cheaper ones—indeed, they routinely book up as soon as reservations can be made, 366 days in advance. Cabins with bathrooms go before cabins without. This suggests there is pent-up demand for luxury hotel rooms. Not only is there little chance more will be built; it is proving almost impossible to put up a handful of campsites.

I think people have become used to certain creature comforts and are not willing to give them up. I have been to Yosemite and it is near impossible to shower there. You have to be in the hotel or cabins that offer showers. Camping areas offer no showers. I think all National Parks are this way. I am not sure of the reasoning.

Glacier Point, Yosemite

Glacier Point, Yosemite, originally uploaded by hermanau.

A hiker is missing near Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park.

Yosemite National Park officials are combing the wilderness in search of a missing 24-year-old Honduran man.

Yosemite spokeswoman Adrienne Freeman says authorities began the search for Esmeen (Ess-MEEN) Garmendia-Barrios Monday morning after he was reported missing near Glacier Point around 3 p.m. Sunday

Update: Esmeen has been found alive.

Yosemite, Ca -- Missing Yosemite hiker Esmin Garmendia-Barrios has been found near Mt. Starr King, the same area where he was last seen Sunday afternoon.

“He is alive and responsive,” says Yosemite Spokesperson Kari Cobb. “At this point we do not yet know if there are any medical injuries.”

How They Made It

How Alan Humphrey and his wife Irene Faraklas survived in the Grand Canyon. From the National Park Services Daily report.( June 2, 2008)

Following the happy conclusion of last week’s search for Alan Humphrey and his spouse, Irene Faraklas, rangers were able to learn what happened to them during their hike on the Royal Arch route. The couple was reported overdue from their backpacking trip on Sunday, May 25th, and a search began for them the next day. By May 28th, five days after they were expected to complete their trip, a number of ground crews were searching high-probability areas on foot, helicopter flight crews were searching drainages and rim areas increasingly distant from the couple’s anticipated route, and a technical team from Zion National Park was searching the lower Royal Arch Drainage using canyoneering techniques. Around 5 p.m. that day, a ground search team found the couple – tired, hungry, but otherwise in good condition – near the South Bass trail in the Royal Arch route area. Personnel working on the incident, and the couple themselves, attribute the fortunate outcome to being prepared and making good decisions. Humphrey and Faraklas had backpacked at the Grand Canyon before and were familiar with the rugged nature of the terrain and the changeable weather conditions (conditions during their 11 days in the canyon ranged from “temperatures in the 90s to hail and freezing,” according to Faraklas). While they had never hiked the Royal Arch route, they had done research on the route and had sought the advice of others who had previously hiked it. They set specific dates when they would be meeting people after their hike, and they made sure that at least one person knew what they planned to do while they were at the Grand Canyon. In spite of all of their preparations, on the last leg of their trip, they overshot their exit route and attempted to reach the rim via the wrong side canyon. Eventually, they realized they were lost – and to a degree stuck – but they didn’t panic. Instead, they assessed their situation, developed a plan, and made a commitment to stick with that plan no matter what. They first decided to be prepared for up to a week on their own and rationed their one day of remaining food accordingly. Then they found water and a source of shade and decided to stay put until help arrived or their meager supplies started to run out. Above all they made a decision to stick together. These decisions, it is believed, are a big part of why they here today. They shared the burden of decision making, they kept track of each other’s condition (physically, mentally and emotionally), they kept each other on track, and they stuck to the plan. Finally, as their rations began to run out, forcing a last ditch attempt to seek aid at the river, searchers and this resourceful pair of lost backpackers found each other. [Submitted by Shannan Marcak and Maureen Oltrogge, Public Affairs Officers]

They stayed with the water and let people know when they should be heard from.

Ouch!

Yellowstone National Park, originally uploaded by asnewlibrarian.

A hiker in Yellowstone National Park fell through a trail into a geothermal pool.

The Artists' Paintpots area in Yellowstone National Park is temporarily closed due to safety concerns.

Eyewitness news has learned that yesterday afternoon a hiker from Utah suffered serious burns after falling through an established trail into a pool of near boiling water.

Before yesterday park authorities were unaware of the pool's existence.

Jeanette Hogan received burns to her ankle and lower leg. She was taken to EIRMC, treated, and released last night.

Yellowstone Bison

Bull Bison Yellowstone N.P., originally uploaded by rlw5663.

The bison that leave Yellowstone National Park are being killed at a record pace this year.

At first light on Tuesday, at the end of a closed road, past a boneyard of junk cars, trailers and old cabins, more than 60 of the park’s wild bison were being loaded on a semi-trailer to be shipped to a slaughterhouse.

With heavy snow still covering the park’s vast grasslands, hundreds of bison have been leaving Yellowstone in search of food at lower elevations. A record number of the migrating animals — 1,195, or about a quarter of the park’s population — have been killed by hunters or rounded up and sent to slaughterhouses by park employees. The bison are being killed because they have ventured outside the park into Montana and some might carry a disease called brucellosis, which can be passed along to cattle.

The large-scale culling, which is expected to continue through April, has outraged groups working to preserve the park’s bison herds, considered by scientists to be the largest genetically pure population in the country. It has also led to an angry exchange between Montana state officials and the federal government over a stalled agreement to create a haven for the bison that has not received the needed federal financing.

“When they leave the park they have nowhere to go,” said Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana, a Democrat. “This agreement would have given them a place to go.”

A 1.5 million dollar appropriation was killed by Montana's republican congressman.

Bad News

Hiker Devin Ossman was found dead in Mt Rainier National Park.
Also, the hiker found in The San Bernadino's was identified.

Other hikers spotted the body of William Lyall Spearman about 8 a.m. Monday in a mountainous area known as the Big Horn Sheep Reserve and notified Cathedral City police, said Sgt. David Florez of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

Due to the terrain, the county Desert Search and Rescue team and the sheriff's Aviation Unit were summoned to recover the body.

The rescue party had to hike into the canyons and climb roughly 75 feet, Florez said, adding that the body was transported out of the area in a sheriff's helicopter.

An initial investigation determined that the hiker may have have died of natural causes, he said.

My condolences to their friends and families.

Hiker Missing

Mt Rainier National Park

Devin Ossman, 45, is thought to have hiked into the Kautz Creek drainage area. His car was found Monday just before dark, and a check of his license plate number showed he had already been reported missing, a park spokeswoman said.

Grand Canyon

Wrath, originally uploaded by Leviathor.

Scientists say the Grand Canyon is much older than thought.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A new dating technique has put the age of the Grand Canyon at 17 million years old, three times older than earlier estimates, according to a report in the latest edition of the journal Science.

The latest in uranium-lead isotope dating allowed researchers to study the canyon's "cave clouds", the mamillary coatings of carbon deposits that gather on the canyon walls at or near the water table, the journal said in its edition released Thursday.

"The canyon is older than we think," said Victor Polyak, a geologist at the University of New Mexico and principal author of the paper.

The age of the natural wonder in the US southwest has been in dispute for more than a century, as some methods commonly used to date geological events are unable to trace with precision beyond one million years ago.

Polyak and his team also found that, based on the hypothesis that the mineral deposits in the caves were left by a declining water table level as the Grand Canyon deepened, it formed first at its western side and then opened up to the east, with the eastern side cut out more quickly some five to six million years ago.