As many of you surely do, I get seemingly hundreds of letters each week asking for contributions, donations, gifts, or pledges. I have an infinite supply of address labels, a collection that grows by the month.
This week I received a fundraising letter from one of my pet causes, the U.S. National Parks. So I thought I would echo the call here.
Before I go any further, let me say this: This is not primarily a fundraising diary.
It is an appreciation diary. In the same way I think an argument needs to stand on its own to merit attention, I think a cause needs to stand on its own to make it worthwhile. So I hope to share my love of the Park system, and hope that you will all contribute your stories and pictures too.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So don’t pay attention to the little Scoop word counter; despite what it says, there are thousands of words below the fold.
This place is bad, like, not Michael Jackson bad, but bad as in ‘not fit for habitation’. It’s very impressive. The only environments I’ve read about that seem similar are on other planets.
Many people consider Bryce to be more impressive than the Grand Canyon. I wish I could have gone on a day that wasn’t very foggy (and very cold), but you can see that even if it doesn’t have the vastness of Grand Canyon, the spires are certainly intriguing.
This is one of the most all around beautiful parks I’ve visited. Unfortunately, some inclement weather rolled in while I was there, and I had to cut my visit short.
One of the few parks that has a point in 3 different states, the Smokies are absolutely gorgeous.
If you do care to make a donation, you can check out the National Park Foundation donation page here.
Another highly deserving organization is the National Parks Conservation Association (thanks AndiF!).
