National Parks / Ken Burns Review

Here's yet another post about American holiday destinations.  As you may have already guessed, Hans and I are usually more interested in a walk in the woods than an evening spent checking out new night life pursuits.

Lately we've been watching bits of Ken Burns' series on the national parks.  He presents a small selection in his usual style of wide sweeping shots, interviews with historians and rangers, historic footage, and stories of their foundation.  Nowadays it's hard to imagine the political opposition faced by those who strove to preserve such treasures as the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone.  In fact, there was so much local uproar over Grand Teton, the Atiquities Act was amended to restrict future land withdraws in Wyoming.  If you find it on your local PBS, I'd recommend it to anyone.  Especially those like us who have been meaning to make a pilgrimage to the "big ones", but haven't made the effort or found the time yet.  It just might be the push out the door you need.  For example:

Since we're looking at possibly moving east this year, we were especially inspired by the feature on Acadia National Park in Maine, and we're fairly set on spending a week up there.  As an early birthday present for Hans, I picked up an annual park pass and a guide book published by National Geographic.  It contains some really useful introductory information, as well as suggested side excursions to lesser-known monuments nearby.  The maps are fairly easy to get acquainted with, and I hardly need mention the glossy eye-candy photographs.

We also hope to make use of our access to Shenandoah fairly regularly.  We'll be lucky to cover even a fraction of its 500 miles of trails.

That said, I plan to share reviews of some of my favorite travel series.  I don't typically keep track of the multitude of shows found on the Travel Channel, as many of them don't really appeal to me or have much relevance, eg:

But I do enjoy the narration that goes with many others, and I'm fond of vintage travel series.  Just be prepared to see a lot of posts about Michael Palin, you silly fairy.