Of course June would be the month to be in the great outdoors!  Not only that, but it is also National Camping Month.  What a splendid month it is!  

We’ve just returned from a two-week tour of Utah’s national parks, and I can tell you that, fresh out of a 16-month covid suspension of travel, those parks truly embody “America’s greatest idea.”  The U.S. national parks (and the other properties in the National Park System) are unrivaled anywhere in the world in size, number, diversity and accessibility.  What a wonderful world we have to discover and enjoy, all of it belonging to each of us.

Monument Valley (photo by Larry Nielsen)

The Utah parks have been on our agenda for a long time, but it is a pull to get there.  Well worth it, though.  Of the places we visited, though, we’d actually put Monument Valley at the head of our list.  The Valley is part of the Navaho Nation’s Lands in the Four-Corners region of Utah and Arizona.  The dramatic appearance of those monoliths rising out of the desert landscape is truly “monumental.”  

But among the Utah parks per se, we’d give the gold medal to Bryce Canyon National Park.  Thousands upon thousands of rock spires (hoodoos, they are called) cover a natural amphitheater miles across.  The shapes, colors and positioning are just extraordinary(learn more about Bryce here) . We’d give the silver medal to Arches—how can one dismiss those wonderful rock windows as anything put spectacular? (learn more about Arches here).

Hoodoos in Bryce Canyon (photo by Larry Nielsen)

The other parks are less showy, but perhaps more meaningful to those of us with a geology obsession.  Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Grand Staircase Esclanate reveal amazing profiles of the earth’s history, laid out for you in textbook fashion.  I found Canyonlands the most interesting, as we stood at the point of land where the Green and Colorado Rivers join, each having carved spectacular canyons on either side of us (learn more about Canyonlands here) .

I have to admit that we didn’t make it to Zion.  The expected crowds discouraged us; Americans love our parks so much that to visit Zion in high-season, one must register for a one-hour time slot to catch a shuttle bus into the park. So we detoured down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon—yet another scene that our imaginations can’t even begin to comprehend.

But it doesn’t matter whether you are touring the towering spires and seemingly bottomless canyons of Utah or just taking a walk through your local park.  Now is the best time to get outside and enjoy the natural resources that nature provides.  You don’t have to believe me—the calendar says it is so!

Window Arch in Arches National Park (photo by Larry Nielsen)
North Rim of the Grand Canyon (photo by Larry Nielsen)

This Month in Conservation

March 1
Yellowstone National Park Established (1872)
March 2
Theodore Geisel, or Dr. Seuss, Born (1904)
March 3
World Wildlife Day and Creation of CITES (1973)
March 3
Isle Royale National Park Authorized (1931)
March 4
Hot Springs National Park Established (1921)
March 5
Lynn Margulis, Evolutionary Biologist, Born (1938)
March 6
Martha Burton Williamson, Pioneering Malacologist, Born (1843)
March 7
Luther Burbank Born (1849)
March 8
Everett Horton Patents the Telescoping Fishing Rod (1887)
March 9
The Turbot War Begins (1995)
March 10
Cape Lookout National Seashore Established (1966)
March 11
Save the Redwoods League Founded (1918)
March 12
Girl Scouts Founded (1912)
March 12
Charles Young, First African American National Park Superintendent, Born (1864)
March 13
National Elephant Day, Thailand
March 14
First National Wildlife Refuge Created (1903)
March 15
Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, Born (1874)
March 16
Amoco Cadiz Runs Aground (1978)
March 17
St. Patrick and Ireland’s Snakes
March 18
Nation’s First Wildlife Refuge Created (1870)
March 19
When the Swallows Return to Capistrano
March 20
“Our Common Future” Published (1987)
March 21
International Day of Forests
March 22
World Water Day
March 23
Sitka National Historical Park Created (1910)
March 24
John Wesley Powell, Western Explorer, Born (1834)
March 25
Norman Borlaug, Father of the Green Revolution, Born (1914)
March 26
Marjorie Harris Carr, Pioneering Florida Conservationist, Born (1915)
March 26
Kruger National Park Established (1898)
March 27
Trans-Alaska Pipeline Begun (1975)
March 28
Joseph Bazalgette, London’s Sewer King, Born (1819)
March 29
Niagara Falls Stops Flowing (1848)
March 30
The United States Buys Alaska (1867)
March 31
Al Gore, Environmental Activist and U.S. Vice President, Born (1948)
January February March April May June July August September October November December