“You shouldn’t have to convince people to go to paradise,” says National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson in a heart-touching video released by the National Parks Conservation Association. The video shows how visiting national parks like Yosemite fills people with pride of the accomplishments of their ancestors in preserving these great places for all humanity.
Ranger Shelton Johnson addresses the NTA Convention (NTA Photo)
America’s National Parks were featured at a major luncheon program at the National Tour Association convention in Las Vegas this month, marking the first time in anyone’s recollection that the national parks were given such focused attention before the nation’s tour industry.
Response to the national parks program was truly sensational, generating high interest among tour operators and U.S. destinations to meet with National Park representatives attending the show.
On the convention floor throughout the week were representatives of the National Park Service: Rich Wiedeman, Donald Leadbetter and Desmond Lee, who fielded questions and provided guidance to the tour industry about how they can best connect people to parks. Also there were John Poimiroo and Susan Cronin of the NPPC.
While other exhibitors were able to leave their booths early to attend evening functions, that wasn’t the case for Weideman, Leadbetter and Lee who were so busy that they were among the first manning their booths and the last to leave, each day.
Sponsoring the event were Yellowstone National Park Lodges/Xanterra Parks and Resorts, Yosemite/Mariposa County Tourism Bureau, Forever Resorts, Glacier Park Inc. and Brand USA/DiscoverAmerica.com, who were recognized during the luncheon presentation and were able to have their materials displayed at a very busy America’s National Parks booth.
The luncheon program included inspirational video of the national parks edited by Xanterra Parks and Resorts, followed by an introduction by NPPC Chief Executive Officer Poimiroo, who recognized NTA initiatives to bring more youth and minorities to the national parks.
NPS Interpretive Ranger, Shelton Johnson (NTA Photo)
National Park Service Interpretive Ranger Shelton Johnson from Yosemite National Park electrified the audience, moving several to tears with his emotional Call to Action, describing the obstacles people of color must overcome in order to feel welcomed to visit the parks and encouraging the tour industry to use its resources, knowledge and abilities to connect all Americans to their national parks.
Following Ranger Johnson’s presentation, he was stopped so often that he had difficulty getting back to the America’s National Parks booth which was surrounded at times by tour operators and destinations seeking to discuss how they might better connect people to the parks.
The next NTA convention occurs in Florida in 2013, though discussions are already underway as to how to top this past month’s presentation. Destinations and businesses interested in benefiting from partnering with America’s National Parks are encouraged to contact NPPC VP of Partnership Development, Sue Cronin [scronin@nationalparksonline.org or (203) 256-8402].
To read what Examiner.com wrote of Ranger Johnson’s presentation, CLICK HERE.
THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING WHO HELPED MAKE THIS POSSIBLE:
Normally, the Tioga Road, which crosses Yosemite National Park, would be closed in December, due to snow coverage and its high elevation. Derrick Vocelka of Bishop, CA shares this rare look of ice skating at Tenaya Lake along the Tioga Road.
Because the Tioga Road is closed typically from November through May, many people wrongly conclude that Yosemite National Park is closed in winter. Whereas, only highway access to Yosemite’s back country closes in winter. The same is true of many national parks, which while they operate with reduced services and access, remain open in winter. And, in a mild winter like this one, the experience of high country ice skating is possible.
The Ahwahnee Dining Room, Yosemite National Park © John Poimiroo
Travel writer Christopher Reynolds of the Los Angeles Times included two national park lodges in his list of the top ten grand hotels in the United States. The Ahwahnee in Yosemite National Park tops the list. To see the entire LA Times list, CLICK HERE.
The recently released “Comprehensive Survey of the American Public,” conducted by the Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center at the University of Wyoming for the National Park Service is raising public awareness discussion of why so few minorities visit national parks, particularly natural parks.
In “Where are the people of color in national parks?,” MSNBC.com travel writer Rob Lovitt points out findings within the study which indicate that despite efforts by the National Park Service and its partners to encourage more minorities to visit parks, fewer minorities visit national parks than are represented in the U.S. population. “Visitation figures are skewed even further when the visits in question are to parks that showcase wilderness and outdoor recreation,” Lovitt writes, “For example, at Yosemite National Park in California, a 2009 visitation survey showed that African Americans totaled just 1 percent of visitors, compared to 77 percent white and 11 percent each for Hispanics and Asians. The reasons would easily fill a book… but the end result is that the national parks run the risk of losing their connection to the American public.”
To review the new study, CLICK HERE and to read the MSNBC article, CLICK HERE.
The important national dialogue about why African Americans are missing from our national parks continued in Oprah Winfrey’s recent programs about her Yosemite camping adventure with her best friend, Gayle. This week, The New York Times wrote of the topic. To read the article, CLICK HERE.
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park‘s popular Valley Floor Tours now offer a Spanish language option for tour passengers through the use of loaner iPod devices. The new Spanish language service is provided through a collaboration between the National Park Service and park concessioner, Delaware North Companies (DNC).
Anyone who prefers to listen to the tour in Spanish can ask for loan of an iPod at the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls tour desk before boarding one of the park’s open-air trams, called “Green Dragons.” In winter months, the Spanish-language option will also be available on climate-controlled enclosed motor coaches. The professionally recorded and mastered interpretive tool provides 18 descriptions of Yosemite Valley locations in Spanish.
John Hernandez, Executive Director for the Central California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce described these Spanish tours as promising to be “a big factor in opening doors for the Hispanic community.”
Yosemite’s Valley Floor tours depart several times daily, year-round, with narration by National Park Service interpretive rangers who describe the fascinating history and geology of the park and its landmarks. The new devices similarly describe the park’s wonders in Spanish.
The heritage, environment, culture and aesthetics of the Sierra Nevada come together in a new map and guide for the Sierra Nevada, released today by the National Geographic Society, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and the Sierra Business Council.
The new “Sierra Nevada Geotourism Map Guide” is both an interactive website (www.sierranevadageotourism.org) and a print map. The greater Yosemite National Park area comprises the first of four Sierra Nevada regions that will appear on the site.
What’s different about “geotourism” guides is that they focus upon genuine experiences and places recommended by locals and that most directly benefit local economies and cultures. Often, these places lack national brand identity, though what they lack in recognition they make up in authenticity of experience, like the Happy Burger or Butterfly Cafe in Mariposa, Calif. along the western route to Yosemite National Park.
This is the fourth geotourism map guide from National Geographic. Previous geotourism sites were created for California’s Redwood Coast, Greater Yellowstone and Oregon and Washington’s Central Cascade region.
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