Merry Christmas and Happy Holy Days to you!
Besides the Divine Gift and the opportunity to celebrate with loved ones, this Christmas I bring you the greatest gift we can give ourselves now – peace. I found it in our National Park System and it has stayed with me for almost 30 years. Today I’m placing our “Crown Jewels” under your tree so you can unwrap them at your leisure and a world of experience you never dreamed possible.
Before you dismiss this as exaggeration, ask yourself:
“Why did 312 million people from the U.S. and around the world tour the national parks last year?”
Exactly. Because they are among the most beautiful and historic places on Earth; they’re spread out all across the country, and they offer the best value at the lowest price. Can you believe that five of you in one car, can get into every single national park in the country (425) for a full year, with one National Parks Pass for $80? Let me share some of the jewels in that Christmas package.
Incidentally, America considers these 63 of these places of soaring beauty or tranquilizing calm our “crown jewels” as compared to the Britain’s Crown Jewels, for example, which are stored under lock and key in the Tower of London, accessible only by appointment and at a cost. Europeans arriving on this continent observed that we had no imposing buildings dating back centuries as Europe does, but found something far more valuable in the spectacular scenery that the natives revere. The effort to preserve some of these most pristine and iconic lands led to the creation of the National Park System and the agency to protect them, the National Park Service. Today we find that they not only refresh our spirits but protect us against the effects of changing climate.
If we were in South Florida this Christmas (my husband Frank grew up there since age 4 and we lived there until 2018) the first Crown Jewel we’d visit among our gifts is Everglades National Park, at the end of the Florida Turnpike. Besides being a wonderland of nature that we can enjoy securely from wheel-chair accessible boardwalk trails, we will learn the story of how freedom-seeking Africans and Seminole Indians became allies and lived together in the sawgrass marshes to escape enslavement. Somehow managing to cross the treacherous Gulf Stream current, they made their way to the Bahamas, making the Everglades a stop on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. (Learn more at the Saltwater Underground Railroad Experience led by our friend Stefan Moss.)
After basking in the tranquil scenery and gaping at the huge wading birds standing motionlessly at the edge of the sawgrass waiting for their prey to swim by; watching the alligators, turtles and prehistoric carp, we’d drive serenely to Flamingo at the end of the park. Sitting on the deck of the Flamingo Lodge and Restaurant which opened last summer, we’d sip on cocktails as we watch dolphins leaping in the bay and pink flamingoes bending their long necks to fish.
In the next package you’ll find the Big Cypress National Preserve just west of Everglades National Park, where Americans of African, indigenous, Hispanic and European ancestry worked together to build the Tamiami Trail (Tampa Miami) and supply the “wood eternal” that supported the US WWII effort. The beauty and history here is so rich and present you will feel you’ve fallen back into old time Florida.
Your third gift sweeps you away to the golden vistas of The Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, a Natural Wonder of the World. The journey from Flagstaff up to the canyon is spectacular. (If you open the present next to it, it will take you to the Petrified Forest National Park, where your mesmerized eyes will gawk at real trees that have turned to stone.) There’s nothing like the Grand Canyon to me with its vast views of natural ‘pyramids’ and ‘cities’ in the sky stretching as far as our eyes can see, glowing under the sun.
Oh, Comfort and Joy! Do you feel it yet? I sure hope so, because I can share at least one hundred others with you.
Over the holidays I hope you’ll take out these gifts I selected for you, talk about them and resolve to take advantage of them instead of leaving them for those other 312 million people. In the New Year, God willing, I will have more things to share about our parks that I hope will engage you to help cherish and protect them. Peace and Blessings of the Season to you.
(Audrey Peterman has reported on environment and culture for The Westside Gazette since 1995. Visit AudreyPeterman.com)
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