Now This is God's Country: A Closer Look at National Parks

Another way to view national parks is by foot. Hikers and climbers flock to America's national parks. But they don't visit just any park; they go to the best parks. Hikers who are looking for a good challenge should try visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The Badlands of this park can be a beast to traverse. Some of the rockier, mountainous national parks can also provide a good challenge. Places such as Rocky Mountain National Park, Yosemite National Park, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, offer some great views and tough trails. However, for the less adventurous hiker, each national park offers a series of shorter, easier trails.

Some of these trails only take a day to hike. For those who desire explicitly spectacular scenery and untouched wildness, Yosemite is one of the best. Two of climber's favorites, because of their rugged challenge: El Capitan and Half Dome. These vertical walls of rock take days to climb. Climbers must use cliff-side beds for their nights in the suspended air. Those who would like to test their skills before attacking these rocky monsters, should try their hand at climbing El Capitan's little, eastern brother, the sheer wall of Appalachian rock known as Seneca Rocks. Seneca Rocks is located in the Appalachians of West Virginia. It is also a vertical climb, but it isn't nearly as tall. Still, climbing up its 1,000+ foot face can be quite an experience. Whether you're hanging from El Capitan or trudging through woodland forests, nothing is better than viewing national parks in their raw form.

Despite the efforts of the U.S. Forest Service, national parks have been transformed into something other than places where one can view the raw, untouched land. The purpose of these parks is to serve as places where people can observe nature at it's finest. National parks now seem to have taken the title of real estate properties that people enjoy merely for recreation. This is all well and good, but their recreational endeavors are beginning to have an effect on the land. If people are allowed to continue in their delirious forms of entertainment, then the beauty and grandeur of the high peaks and flowing meadows will become the rural version of suburbia.

Enjoying the parks for recreation is far from unlawful, but measures need to be taken in order to restrict people from taking things to the excessive. For example; in 1980, a General Management Plan was adopted for Yosemite National Park. The purpose of this plan was to lower the amount of urban development in the park. In 1989, a report was given on the progress of this plan. The report revealed that after nine years, many of the plan's goals had not yet been met. During this same time, the government spent $76 million on water lines, sewer systems, and other such things that were being installed in Yosemite. This is far from conserving the land.

New steps need to be taken in order for the national parks of the world to be in existence for generations to come. People need to gather together and lend their services in restoring national parks to their original form. Recreation doesn't have to be eliminated, but it does need to be conservatively controlled. Allowing people to devastate the land by littering up campsites, building numerous sewer systems, erecting large resorts, and constructing new roads, should be brought to a halt. If the right steps aren't taken, the goal and purpose of national parks will be extinguished.
National parks represent the true majesty of the earth. The towering peaks and lush meadows show the wonders of nature. All of these parks are rejuvenating places. To stand in the presence of their natural wonders is genuinely inspiring. As the great Theodore Roosevelt once said:

"Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion themselves by saying 'the game belongs to the people.' So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The 'greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method."

Your journey has now come to an end. Were these previous moments the best moments of your life? Maybe you are someone who has previous knowledge of many of the things which were discussed in this report; however, there is always room to gain more knowledge. Nature's assets need to be treated with a humble respect for their origin. To live our lives destroying these natural wonders which God has placed on this earth, would be an act of poor stewardship. God has designated us human beings to be the caretakers of the earth. John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, John Wesley Powell, and others, all lived up to this designation. Let us do the same, not only for our benefit, but for the sole purpose of glorifying God, and being faithful stewards. Whoever you may be, and whatever your beliefs, living life in the presence of such glorious splendor carries with it a feeling of sincere thankfulness to the One who has placed such grandeur in this Country.