Look! Up in the Sky. It's a Canopy of Stars!

Summer stargazing in Utah national parks

The clear, dry desert air makes for great astronomical opportunities. Below are three programs you can take part in with National Park Service rangers and volunteers to help you identify and understand what you are seeing through the telescope.

Cedar Breaks National Monument. With some of the nation's darkest night skies, Cedar Breaks National Monument celebrates and shares the beauty of these "ebony skies." Monthly “star parties" (June 10, 12 and 14; July 8, 10 and 12; August 7, 9 and 11; September 6, 8 and 10) are conducted by park staff and astronomy volunteers with a special evening program in the campground amphitheater, followed by star viewing through several large telescopes at Point Supreme. Admission is free. For more information, call 435-586-0787 or 435-586-9451.

Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce Canyon National Park's Night Sky Team is a national program stationed at Bryce Canyon that has, in the park service's words, "an attitude toward the conservation of one of the last great sanctuaries of darkness." Each night 100 to 300 visitors gather around telescopes to look up at the universe. Viewing programs are offered three times a week and monthly full moon hikes end with stargazing through telescopes. The cost is $10 - $20. The 10th Annual Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival (July 7-10) is a four-day event packed with activities for all ages. They include the planet walk, model rocket building and launching, presentations by national park rangers, and of course, star-gazing and constellation tours. 435-834-5322.

Natural Bridges National Monument. The National Bridges National Monument spanning southern Utah and northern Arizona is known for three of the world’s largest natural stone bridges, originally formed by stream action in White Canyon. Of course, if the Colorado River had not been dammed to created Lake Powell, there might be more such bridges that are now submerged. In any case, the Monument was designated as the world’s first International Dark Sky Park by the International Dark Sky Association. Each summer the Astronomy Ranger conducts Night Sky Programs at The Lees Ferry Campground in the Glen Canyon Recreation Area. For more information and a full schedule, call 435-692-1234.

Arizona Travel Boycott Gains Momentum

Associations and municipalities pull meetings in Arizona; some individuals simply won't go

Municipal employees in Boulder, a very liberal place that has been described as a city with its own foreign policy, will not be traveling to Arizona on city business in the wake of stringent regulations seeking to identify and detain illegal immigrants. Specifically, it is now a state crime to be in Arizona illegally and requires police and other law-enforcement agents to check documents of people they "reasonably" suspect to be illegal. Those opposed to this law, which requires local law enforcement agencies essentially to act as an adjunct of the federal government and stop individuals with or without additional cause (like a traffic violation), with a demand to produce papers has all the signs of racial profiling.  Mexican citizens have been cautioned against visiting Arizona, and a number groups have begun pulling meetings out of the state.

Arizona has suffered self-inflicted tourism wounds before. It reportedly lost some 170 conventions and the Super Bowl in the early 1990s from boycotts because it refused to approve the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday holiday. Overlapping that boycott was one against Colorado, after state voters approved a confusing, anti-gay constitutional amendment that was never put into effect but that earned it the nickname, "The Hate State." It seems as if Arizona is poised to take that mantle, with social media calls to avoid Arizona going viral. The Arizona hotel industry trade organization has launched its own defense Facebook page.

In addition to the Boulder City Council vote to boycott Arizona, Boston, San Francisco and Oakland have done so. An immigration lawyers convention has pulled out of Scottsdale, ABC reported that the law, if not repealed, could cost Phoenix the 2011 All-Star Game. The 2009 All-Star Game brought on the order of $60 million. It is estimated that up to 40 percent of Major League Baseball players at all levels (including Minor League and farm organizations) are Latino. Some interviewed on camera say the law does not disturb them, but some of them might well come from countries with random police stops and a requirement to carry a nation identity card.

While some entities and individuals are avoiding Arizona while this law is on the books, others predictably think it's a damn good thing, by God! A USA Today online  poll currently shows that two-thirds of the respondents clicked on "I'm more excited than ever to visit the state." The remaining third split their clicks among four other opinions.


Repressive policy. Support from some. Anger from others. Backlash and reverse-backlash. Defensive actions. Posturing politicians. Innocent people (low-wage hospitality workers in particular) caught in the cross-fire. Business as usual.

National Parks, Part II

An up-to-the-minute website and a great guidebook series spotlight our parks

Yesterday, I wrote a potpourri post that started with a description and photos from a just completed hike in Rocky Mountain National Park and ended with a plea to participate in National Public Lands Day coming up this Saturday. Here are two invaluable national parks information resources:

National Parks Traveler Website

National Parks Traveler does an excellent job of balancing breaking news, advocacy and visitor information to the country's 391 National Park Service-administered sites. The two most recent posts, as I write this, involved Teddy Roosevelt, one a report about a kerfuffle raised about the proposed addition of 12,000 acres of ranchland in and near Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota to the National Register of Historic Places and the other visitor information to Theodore Roosevelt Island, a hidden gem in Washington, D.C. I have this site on my blogroll so that I check it often.

Lonely Planet Guidebooks

There are all sorts of guidebook series out there. Many of them are very good, but my favorites are Lonely Planet's, which relaunched earlier this year with four North American gems: Yosemite, Sequoia & King’s Canyon National Parks, California; Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, Wyoming; Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, and Banff, Jasper and Glacier National Parks in Canada. I wonder whether they are planning Rocky Mountain too.

Features of the Lonely Planet parks guides include:

•New full-color highlights section shows the best of the parks at a glance, with stunning photographs, author tips and a clear map.
•Detailed itineraries help visitors plan their time, whether they’re exploring well-loved sights, traversing back-country terrain or driving around the region.
•More than 40 hikes in every book, which is scratching the surface of what these parks have to offer but is more than most visitors will do in a week. Follow in the footsteps of LP authors on easy hikes, day hikes and backcountry hikes. Topographical hiking maps accompany the tricky routes, and reformatted hiking charts make it easy to compare hikes and select your favorite.
•New chapters. "Kids & Pets" with information for families, such as the best hikes for the little ones, and advice for pet-owners -- key since travelers won't go anywhere without their pooches but except for service dogs, canines are generally prohibited anywhere but parking lots and perhaps campgrounds . "Clothing & Equipment" with essential information for hikers and campers. "History and Environment" give visitors vital background information on the parks’ past and present.
•Opinionated descriptions of campgrounds large and small, modern and primitive--and an easy-to-reference camping chart to compare features and facilities of each. Plus the trustworthy reviews of other accommodations, restaurants and sights in or near the parks that you come to expect of a Lonely Planet guide.
•A range of other activities including cycling trails, driving routes, climbing, swimming, rafting, skiing, hang-gliding and more.
•Sustainable options and green travel ideas throughout. A “Support Your National Park” feature gives information on how to give back to the parks and promotes sustainability and volunteering.