SPECIAL TRAVEL ISSUE High Country ForN people whoews care about the West The Parks March 7, 2016 | $5 | Vol. 48 No. 4 | www.hcn.org No. 48 | $5 Vol. 2016 March 7, You Don’t Know FROM A TRAIL ON THE BORDER TO A TINY ISLAND IN WASHINGTON, THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM INSPIRES — AND SURPRISES High Country News EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PUBLISHER FEATURES Paul Larmer MANAGING EDITOR THE PARKS 14 Brian Calvert Tracing borderlands history on the Anza Trail SENIOR EDITORS By Sarah Tory COVER Jodi Peterson Jonathan Thompson YOU DON’T ART DIRECTOR 29 Oregon’s trail through time Cindy Wehling How do you protect a historic artifact from the development it helped create? ONLINE EDITOR Tay Wiles KNOW By Sarah Gilman ASSISTANT EDITOR Kate Schimel D.C. CORRESPONDENT INSIDE Elizabeth Shogren WRITERS ON THE RANGE EDITOR Betsy Marston 4 A park ‘in the raw’ New Mexico’s Valles Caldera National Preserve ASSOCIATE DESIGNER Brooke Warren 4 Parks confidential Discoveries from readers and staff COPY EDITOR Diane Sylvain 6 Listening to big empty An acoustical journey into Great Basin National Park CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 8 Cally Carswell Dark parks The national park system does more than celebrate beauty. It also Sarah Gilman commemorates the ugliest parts of our past. Michelle Nijhuis CORRESPONDENTS 11 Where you go — and where you don’t The National Park Service’s known, Ben Goldfarb and lesser-known, sites Krista Langlois Sarah Tory 18 SPECIAL SECTION: TRAVEL MARKETPLACE Joshua Zaffos EDITORIAL FELLOW 19 NPS unveiled Paige Blankenbuehler INTERNS 36 WRITERS ON THE RANGE Lyndsey Gilpin Bryce Gray Whiteness reigns in a new film celebrating national parks By Glenn Nelson ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER 37 BOOKS Alexis Halbert DEVELOPMENT MANAGER A Thinking Person’s Guide to America’s National Parks by Robert Manning, Alyssa Pinkerton DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT Rolf Diamant, Nora Mitchell and David Harmon, and The Wonder of It All, Christine List edited by the Yosemite Conservancy. Reviewed by Brad Tyer. SUBSCRIPTIONS MARKETER JoAnn Kalenak WEB DEVELOPER Eric Strebel 39 ESSAY DATABASE/IT ADMINISTRATOR By Ana Maria Spagna Alan Wells Unpeopled places COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Gretchen King FINANCE MANAGER DEPARTMENTS Beckie Avera ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE 12 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, Dear Friends Jan Homan CIRCULATION MANAGER 34 MARKETPLACE Tammy York By Betsy Marston CIRCULATION SYSTEMS ADMIN. 40 HEARD AROUND THE WEST Kathy Martinez CIRCULATION Doris Teel, Kati Johnson, ONLINE ONLY AT HCN.ORG Stephanie Kyle ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Gonzo Utah pipeline gains ground hcne.ws/-UT-pipeline David J. Anderson ADVERTISING SALES Scalia’s death ripples through the West hcne.ws/-scalia-west REPRESENTATIVE Bob Wedemeyer SOPHIE KITTREDGE GRANTWRITER Janet Reasoner [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Complete access to subscriber-only content [email protected] HCN’s website hcn.org FOUNDER Tom Bell Digital edition hcne.ws/digi-4804 Tablet/mobile apps hcne.ws/HCNmobile-app BOARD OF DIRECTORS John Belkin, Colo. Follow us Beth Conover, Colo. @highcountrynews Jay Dean, Calif. John Echohawk, Colo. (ISSN/0191/5657) is published bi-weekly, 22 times a year, by High Bob Fulkerson, Nev. Country News, 119 Grand Ave., Paonia, CO 81428. Periodicals, Carswell Gilman Hansman Langlois Spagna Wayne Hare, Colo. postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post offices. POSTMASTER: Laura Helmuth, Md. Send address changes to High Country News, Box 1090, Paonia, John Heyneman, Wyo. CO 81428. 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Thompson Tonino Tory Tyer Zaffos 2 High Country News March 7, 2016 www.hcn.org High Country News 2 Editor’s note FEATURES The parks less traveled 14 Tracing borderlands history on the Anza Trail I’ll never forget the misty June morning I caught By Sarah Tory COVER a glimpse of a gray wolf, loping like a ghost dog through the green of Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley. 29 Oregon’s trail through time Or the March afternoon I squeezed through the claustrophobic Joint Trail in Canyonlands, How do you protect a historic artifact from the development it helped create? emerging sweaty and exhilarated into a By Sarah Gilman surreal landscape of red and white sandstone hoodoos. The West’s national parks naturally INSIDE evoke indescribable feelings of awe. But there is more than beauty involved; many of these places are designed to 4 preserve American history, and to provoke moments of reflection — A park ‘in the raw’ New Mexico’s Valles Caldera National Preserve even if those reflections are sometimes uncomfortable. Years ago, 4 Parks confidential Discoveries from readers and staff for example, I hiked to the Shrine of the Stone Lions at Bandelier National Monument, only to find that park staff had removed the 6 Listening to big empty An acoustical journey into Great Basin National Park offerings of turquoise, eagle feathers and antlers left by Native 8 Dark parks The national park system does more than celebrate beauty. It also people, who hold the place sacred. Why? Because non-Native tourists commemorates the ugliest parts of our past. had started adding their own offerings — including beef jerky and 11 Where you go — and where you don’t The National Park Service’s known, .38 caliber bullets. Last year, a record 307 million people sought out the more than and lesser-known, sites 400 units of the national park system, ranging from the world- 18 SPECIAL SECTION: TRAVEL MARKETPLACE renowned “Y” parks, Yellowstone and Yosemite, to their more obscure 19 NPS unveiled but perhaps equally intriguing alphabetical cousins, Yucca House National Monument and Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. This 36 WRITERS ON THE RANGE year — the parks’ centennial — is likely to see even more visitors. Whiteness reigns in a new film celebrating national parks By Glenn Nelson And so this HCN special Travel Issue is devoted to the parks. 37 BOOKS But we’re not going to recommend hikes and lodges and road trips, or make suggestions about what you should pack. (Although you A Thinking Person’s Guide to America’s National Parks by Robert Manning, should know that, during National Park Week, April 16 through Rolf Diamant, Nora Mitchell and David Harmon, and The Wonder of It All, 24, you can visit any U.S. park for free.) You can find that kind of edited by the Yosemite Conservancy. Reviewed by Brad Tyer. information in many other places. Instead, we want to introduce you to some lesser-known Western gems. Contributing editor Sarah Gilman takes us to the Oregon 39 ESSAY Trail and considers the complexities involved in preserving this key By Ana Maria Spagna Unpeopled places Westward route — and the vexed question of how the story should be told, and who should tell it. On the U.S.-Mexico border, correspondent DEPARTMENTS Sarah Tory explores another historic trail, the Anza, with its uncomfortable parallels between modern and historic immigration. 12 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, Dear Friends Out in Nevada’s remote Great Basin National Park, Leath Tonino 34 MARKETPLACE playfully blindfolds himself to discover how the landscape might stimulate other senses. And in New Mexico, contributing editor 40 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston Cally Carswell visits Valles Caldera, which failed under semi-private management but is now reinventing itself as one of the park system’s newest units. Our writers also visit what we call “dark parks,” places ONLINE ONLY AT HCN.ORG that memorialize some of the West’s most painful historical chapters. Gonzo Utah pipeline gains ground hcne.ws/-UT-pipeline We’ll also meet a few of the men and women (and even sled dogs) who keep things running behind the scenes. hcne.ws/-scalia-west Scalia’s death ripples through the West We hope you enjoy the journey, and that it inspires you to seek out the hidden riches of this truly unique invention: our national parks. —Jodi Peterson, senior editor Contributors Cally Carswell is a High Country News Krista Langlois is a freelance journalist and Brad Tyer is a former editor of the Missoula, contributing editor who lives in Santa Fe, New correspondent with High Country News. She Montana, Independent, and the author of Mexico, and is currently working on a film project writes from a tiny round cabin outside Durango, Opportunity, Montana: Big Copper, Bad Water, and about dog-powered sports. Colorado. the Burial of an American Landscape (Beacon Press). In the early 2000s, Sarah Gilman unwittingly Glenn Nelson is the founder of The Trail Leath Tonino’s writing appears in Outside, Men’s traveled parts of the Oregon Trail on her way to Posse (trailposse.com), which documents and Journal, Orion, The Sun and other magazines. He and from college in southeastern Washington. encourages diversity and inclusion in the edits poetry for the Afghan Women’s Writing She is a High Country News contributing editor in outdoors. He tweets @trailposse. Project. Cover Portland, Oregon. Ana Maria Spagna lives and writes in Stehekin, Sarah Tory is a freelance journalist and A tunnel through Heather Hansman is a Seattle-based freelance Washington. Her most recent book is Potluck: correspondent for High Country News. an arundo thicket writer. She’s a former editor at both Powder Community on the Edge of Wilderness. on the Juan Bautista Joshua Zaffos is an HCN correspondent based and Skiing magazines and a contributor to de Anza National Jonathan Thompson is a High Country News in Fort Collins, Colorado. His work has also Smithsonian’s “Innovations” department.