An old-fashioned, cross-country road trip

I went to Tucson in November, to gather with my sisters at my mom's house for Thanksgiving. While there, I worked on the project, finally getting a peek inside a part of the National Park System that I had been been attempting to see all year: the Western Archeological and Conservation Center, a place containing millions of pieces of American history, shipped there from parks all over the West to be preserved and restored. Getting a tour inside the nondescript building, located in an office park not far from downtown and typically not open to the public, was fascinating. And the story of some...

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October: the sound of silence

When I began this year, trying to think about the future of the national parks, I struggled with how to approach the idea of technology and its effects. Not because technology won't affect the parks in the future, but because technology is changing so rapidly that by the time I finish typing this sentence everything about it -- including the device I'm typing it on -- probably will be outdated. And unlike with my newspaper job, I'm not working on something that will be published tomorrow or the next day. The ultimate goal is to have a book published before the National Park Service celebrates its centennial...

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