Enjoying Outdoor Recreation at San Francisco Area Parks
Here are three parks in the San Francisco, California area where you can enjoy a wide range of activities that you might not expect to find so close to an urban setting. This includes one of the largest urban parks in the world that stretches for three miles along the western edge of San Francisco, a bayside park encompassing the National Maritime Museum, and a popular fishing park that was the first California State Park unit developed to bring state park values into the urban setting.
$2.7 Billion Proposed for FY2011 National Park Service Budget
The President’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget for the National Park Service requests $2.7 billion and makes investments of $35.3 million in park operations increases.
A hike along the Florida National Scenic Trail in the palm hammock of Saint Mark's National Wildlife Refuge. Today more than 1,000 miles of the projected 1500-mile "Florida’s Footpath Forever" lies within a protected corridor.
In interviews I conducted with more than a hundred park personnel, one of the questions I asked was: "What advice would you give someone who was interested in working at a park?" One of the most frequent suggestions they gave was to start off as a volunteer. While donating time and being trained along the way, they also learned what other skills and abilities they'd need to be competitive with other job applicants when it came time to seek fulltime employment.
Designated an "All-American Road," the Big Sur Coast Highway (Route 1) follows the California coastline, offering views of steep fog-covered sea cliffs, redwood forests, rugged canyons, and pristine coastline. From north to south, the 72-mile route runs from Carmel to Ragged Point at the Monterey County line.
On this day in 1915 Congress established Rocky Mountain National Park. Set amidst the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, the park features a wide variety of elevations and habitats, ranging from 8,000 feet in the wet, grassy valleys to 14,259 feet at the top of Longs Peak. The 416-square-mile park includes 60 mountain peaks that exceed 12,000 feet. It offers five drive-in campgrounds and more than 200 backcountry campsites.
