National parks pass it on

We are huge fans of National Parks spaces. The NPS administers so many amazing places. Their annual pass is astoundingly good value. We just started our second one, and I wanted to keep track of where and when we use it.

But there's a history too, to this particular instance of the American dream, that I don't want to gloss over. It's not the pastiche of feel-good anecdote and Manifest Destiny grand horn music crescendo you'll get from watching, say, Ken Burns's doco series (sigh, made my teeth hurt a bit.) Rather, a dark underbelly story. These amazing places - that give me so much enjoyment, tranquillity, wonder, and delight - came at a cost. As so often, it was marginalised peoples who paid disproportionately, as native peoples were in many instances bullied off their ancestral land to make room for tourists to have their weekend hikes and nature experiences. (For an overview, see this article).

Huh, I started his post only intending to note down every use of the new parks pass ... Guess I had something else to get off my chest too.