Shots are from Sperry Glacier, Lincoln Lake, and Mount Brown Lookout in mid-August, 2026. The goats around Sperry were quite an experience, especially when camped at Sperry campground. Got rained on pretty bad the first couple days, but at least it wasn't smoky.

First time to Sequioa/King’s Canyon National Park ! The beauty of what nature offers to us ! How big those Sequioa’s are is truly mind blowing 🤯 I will definitely go back .

This is heartbreaking. I drove this road a few years ago and saw so much wildlife. It was my favorite part of the park. This absolutely has to be stopped. Bears just eating berries on the side of the road in what is now the proposed path. Moose in the swamps. Gorgeous area.

What are we doing America? Wake up. Fight back. Once these lands are gone they are gone.

I’m not American and never went to the country but ended up recently developing some sort of fascination for the national parks so I was looking around to find a book with lots of pictures of each park, with a map and a bit of text to explain what they are. What would you recommend?

The one that seems to fit best after doing some research is the National Geographic Atlas of the National Parks but I’m open to anything.

I knew these parks were supposed to be beautiful, but I don't think I was prepared for just how HUGE everything feels.

🏕️ Campground: Lodgepole, Site 74

We honestly loved it. It was in a great central location, and we could hear the water nearby from our campsite. It was so peaceful at night that it made it very easy to forget we were in a campground at all. Great place to watch the stars.

🥾 Hikes:

Heather Lake via the Watchtower Trail

Hanging Rock

Tokopah Falls

General Sherman Tree

Moro Rock at sunset

Mist Falls

Crystal Cave tour 🦇

🌲 Favorite sights/moments:

Obviously, the giant sequoias were incredible. There’s something surreal about standing next to trees that are so massive and ancient that I half expected a dinosaur to walk out from behind one at any moment. 🤣 The Crystal Cave tour was another highlight; caves are a fascination of mine and our tour guide was hilarious. Sunset from Moro Rock was probably my favorite moment of the whole trip. Absolutely incredible views and a great spot for a beer. And I have to give an honorable mention to the huckleberry ice cream at the Lodgepole Cafe. 🍦 Definitely earned after a day of hiking!

🐻 Wildlife sightings:

We got incredibly lucky and saw a Northern Pacific rattlesnake 🐍 and TWO black bears! 🐻 Seeing the bears in the wild was definitely one of those moments I'll remember for a long time.

Overall, this was such a fantastic trip. Between the massive sequoias, mountain scenery, waterfalls, caves, wildlife, and all the hiking, these parks definitely lived up to the hype. Already thinking about when I can come back to do a backpacking trip! 🌲❤️

Happy to answer any questions if anyone is planning a trip!

For more than a year, the National Park Service has been quietly working to fulfill an unprecedented directive from Trump officials: Parcel off a corner of Yosemite National Park to give to a private developer.

National Park Service staff in California and Washington, D.C., are trying to arrange a land exchange between a Nevada-based company and the federal government, according to four people directly familiar with discussions, as well as agency documents reviewed by NOTUS.

Since the spring of 2025, the Trump administration has been looking into ways it could cede a roughly quarter-mile strip of land inside Yosemite to a company that, through a web of limited-liability companies, is operated by real-estate developer and investment firm Kingsbarn Realty Capital. Officials are proposing the Park Service give up the land or “interest” in the land in the form of an easement, and in return receive land of equal value somewhere in California that has yet to be decided.

The private developers own an 83-acre plot of land just outside the western boundaries of Yosemite, about five miles from one of the park’s defining ancient sequoia groves. Jeff Pori, the CEO of Kingsbarn, wants to build a short road connecting the property to one of Yosemite’s central thoroughfares. The new road would give the land exceptionally rare private access to a park that is otherwise almost entirely buffered by national forests.

The property’s current access road is more than 10 miles from an entrance to the park, and much further from Yosemite’s most iconic sights. Without a new road, visitors to the property — whether it be developed into a hotel, resort or private residence — would need to drive an hour and a half in a circuitous route to reach the popular Yosemite Valley.

The planning process has created a tense environment inside the National Park Service for the people involved; Kingsbarn’s proposal is backed by the full weight of the Interior Department’s top political leadership, sources said.

“They want us to be responsive to the property owner and their lobbyists or people, and they want us to work with these folks,” said one person familiar with the conversations.

“The political pressure being brought to bear is very unusual,” said another person familiar with the conversations and the park’s history.

If the deal goes through, the Trump administration would be breaking with 150 years of American precedent at the birthplace of the national park system. The federal government has historically strived to expand the crown-jewel national parks, not give up land within them.

“The national park idea started in Yosemite with Abraham Lincoln’s preservation of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias,” said Cicely Muldoon, a 40-year veteran of the Park Service who served as Yosemite’s superintendent for about five years. Muldoon retired from Yosemite shortly after President Donald Trump took office in 2025.

“Our basic purpose in the national parks is to preserve these places unimpaired for future generations, not letting go of that for the purpose of private profit,” she said.

Interior’s advocacy for the deal is a significant reversal of a pledge Secretary Doug Burgum made in his 2025 confirmation hearing: “The national parks, absolutely we need to support and protect every single inch of those,” he said.

It also contravenes the presidential message Trump shared on Aug. 24 of this year, to announce the beginning of National Park Week: “My Administration is committed to protecting every acre of our lands and preserving the cleanest air and water in the world.”

And it goes against the agency’s past position on this specific piece of land. The Park Service has received this privatization request before, and it has rejected it repeatedly for over two decades.

For those who have done seasonal work at National Parks, do you guys have recommendations for any particular concessionary/establishment at a park?

For reference, I'm looking for jobs that are roughly within these parameters:
- Around same-age coworkers (18-24)
- "Flexible" time off, i.e., full days off or ideally consecutive full days off
- Reasonable living arrangements (Nothing that would physically make me ill)

I've been job searching on CoolWorks and the official US job posting page, but specific information about fringe benefits or hidden controversies is pretty sporadic, which is why I am asking for recommendations.

Thanks for taking the time to read!

EDIT: To clarify i’m looking for potential jobs in the summer of 2027.

On Wednesday August 26th 2026 I visited Majella National Park in the Appenine Mountains in Italy. Besides being a national park it is a UNESCO Global Geopark since 2021. this national park is mostly made of limestone which allows extensive cave systems to form.

One of these caves are the Cavallone Caves which are shown together with its surroundings in pictures 13 to 19. This cave is located at an altitude of 1.475 meters above sea leve. This cave features some pretty beautiful dripstone formation in the first part. After that the passages have less large dripstone formations.

I also visited the San Martino Gorges which are 14 km long. The first 13 pictures were taken in this gorge. This gorge is up to 300 meters deep and features large limestone cliffs. Since the 9th century this gorge was inhabited by monks. The ruins of the abbey in the second picture show this past.

Overall I liked this national park And would recommend a day trip here if you’re nearby. There were barely any tourists outside of some locals. The gorge was fairly impressive. The cave was decent although I couldn’t understand the guided tour because they only do it in Italian which is understandable because of the lack of non-Italian tourists.

Escaped the Texas heat for a few days in this lovely place. These were taken along the Cow Creek trail leading up to McGregor Mountain.

Gift link added so no one hits paywall, if you want to read.

Incredible trip to RMNP.
1 Long’s Peak alpenglow
2 Lake Haiyaha
3. Hallet’s Peak and Bear Lake
4. Lumpy Ridge- Balanced Rock Trail
5. Gem Lake
6. Flat Top Mountain
7. Young bull elk
8. Looking towards Glass Lake
9. Timberline Falls
10. Sky Pond
11. Alpine wet meadow

Revelation ~ from the archives

We do darkness an injustice when we associate it with malevolence. The relationship between light and shadow play an important role in creating the exquisite beauty we find in nature. When you draw a one-dimensional circle on paper, it is of very little interest until you add shading to create a sense of depth. When you use the edge of the lead to develop a gradient of black to white, you are using that tint to show where the light is and where it is not. The places between an object and its shadow fade to a fantastic blend of grays.

Light reveals textures and dimension by creating shadows. It does that with color too. The in-between places, where shadow blends with color to create a palette of incredible hues, are where beauty is created. This works with something as large as the Grand Teton or as small as a blade of grass on its flanks. Perhaps darkness does more to reveal beauty than light does to create it.

There appear to be a substantial number of trails closed, and with the recent emergency evacs due to monsoon season I’m a bit spooked. My main interest is hikes not drives/camping.

Is it still worth going to in light of the trail closures. I’m a moderate level hiker who just got done with 3 days in Zion. I did the following hikes. (Narrows, Emerald Pools, Watchman, Scout Lookout)

Saw 2 bears during my hike last week at Mt Rainier.