Plan Family Visits to Your National Parks This Summer.png

Our National Parks are among our country’s greatest treasures! Last year, I wrote a blog about how they have become more welcoming to people of diverse races and cultures. This summer, I would like to encourage families to plan visits to their local National Parks.

The National Park Service (NPS) has many suggestions for trips with children at the link below and at a webpage titled “Kids in Parks”. There is a list of activities for children, including specific ones for 4th and 5th graders, as well as junior ranger activity books and activities to do online. There is a tab “Visit Parks with Kids” where advice is provided about how to prepare before visiting a park and how to plan for hiking and camping. There is also another tab “Events for Kids” which has a monthly calendar and a list of events for specific parks.

The National Park Foundation also has many creative activities for children on its website (the link is provided below), some of which can be done at home. These activities include history and science lessons and learning about park wildlife and digs.

Many people think about the larger parks such as Yosemite National Park or Yellowstone National Park, but there are parks within cities or short drives outside city limits.

You may not have to travel very far for a visit. Have your children get involved and do the research as to which parks to visit.

There is so much for your children to do and learn this summer. Plan a visit and get out of the house to explore one of our beautiful National Parks. Your entire family will enjoy it! You will be building fond memories for your children for years to come!

To learn more, please visit:

https://www.nps.gov/kids/index.htm

https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/back-school-national-parks

https://fullsuitcase.com/best-usa-national-parks-for-families/

Making America’s Parks More Welcoming to Diverse Groups

The National Park Service (NPS) has embarked on a major push to make our beautiful national parks more welcoming to diverse groups of people. According to the NPS’s statistics, in 2019, over 327 million people visited the national parks. Statistics also establish that the majority of visitors are not “people of color” and NPS seeks ways to improve this.

In conjunction with the National Park Foundation (NPF), a nonprofit organization chartered by Congress that generates private support, the NPS has established a number of programs as an outreach to our communities. These include:

The National Park Service Mellon Humanity Fellowships
Junior Ranger Angler program to encourage children to learn about all the recreational activities involving fishing
American Latino Heritage Fund to preserve and protect the history and culture of Latino Americans
NPF’s Kids program introducing children to our parks through a variety of activities online
The National Park as Classroom education program which provides teachers with free curriculum, field trip ideas, and workshops for students
The Strong Parks, Strong Communities initiative supporting local programs all over the country

In a thought provoking online article titled Here’s How We Make The National Parks More Diverse, author Ted Alvarez gathered a number of recommendations from a variety of knowledgeable people as to what more the NPS can do. Some of the recommendations included the NPS partnering with local city parks and having NPS rangers be more visible around communities; teaching about the history and contributions of African Americans with our national parks; and having children and families come out and experience the parks, if just for a day’s outing.

I have traveled and visited many parks over the years with my family and can say that we absolutely loved the beauty and adventures that our parks have. Especially during the pandemic, I recommend that all families, no matter what race or national origin, make plans to visit some of them.

To read the entire online article and obtain more information on this topic, please visit:

https://www.backpacker.com/news-and-events/national-parks-diversity

https://www.nationalparks.org/our-work/programs/programs-connect

https://www.nationalparks.org/our-work/programs/all-programs

https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/celebrating-black-history-and-culture-through-national-parks