Ken Burns national parks day2

Here's a couple more pictures from a national park we were able to visit.  This one is on the island of Maui.  It's called Haleakala. 

This is my second post inspired by the PBS series The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Ken Burns.

This second night of the series did NOT jump to this Maui park, but I couldn't quickly get my finger on pictures from places they did cover.  Two places they covered in the second episode were Mt. Rainier  and the Grand Canyon.  We visited those places  before I used a digital camera.  I need to scan those pictures which involves digging them out and setting up the scanner.  I'm a little lazy at times.

Also, I'm not a morning person.  When my wife strongly (no option type of idea) suggested that we sign-up for the bike ride down the volcano, I thought cool, do they have an afternoon run?  Well I failed to catch-on that watching sunrise was part of the big deal.  (sunrise gets my mind thinking of tequila sunrise and well you where that goes)

I tried to convince her that sunset and sunrise are basically the same you just look in the opposite direction.  Didn't work.

Two things on the downside of this idea:

1. it starts in the middle of night - a van picks you up at the hotel (our pickup was 2 or 3 am)
2. it's cold on top of a volcano at 5 in the morning (wife still teases me about not dressing properly)

One great thing about this idea:

1. really cool, exciting, fun, all downhill - just a blast
   

The bottom picture is also from this same park but on a different day and very different location.  The park goes all the way to the ocean where the beautiful seven sacred pools can be seen.  We hiked up to see the waterfalls.  It was very very muddy that day but the views were worth the effort.

Back to the PBS program -
In the second episode the continuing story shows how conflicting views and political influence make national parks controversial at times.  You also learn about the difference between a national park vs. a national monument.  The big difference - our President can declare a place a national monument without any say from congress.  The Grand Canyon started as a national monument.

I'm enjoying the series.  It certainly devotes much of the time explaining the history behind the parks.  If you were JUST looking for scenes from the parks then you might be disappointed.

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