America’s National Parks Podcast

Anwar Mamon is an award-winning Executive Producer with over 20 years’ experience in TV production who has filmed in some of the most remote locations on the planet, pushing the boundaries of technology to bring viewers closer to nature and our planet than ever before. 

And Ben Wallis has made films all over the world for prestigious outlets such as BBC, Disneynature, Netflix, Discovery and PBS.

Anwar and Ben are a part of Wildstar Films and the team behind National Geographic’s new series “America’s National Parks” premiering on the National Geographic channel and on Disney plus. 

Our new book, the National Parks Journal for Kids!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1685394477?maas=maas_adg_2783358EB9FED180A107AAC11500D118_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas

In this episode, we cover the big reductions in water allocations to several states in order to save two of America's biggest dams, we update you on closed parks due to water damage, and so much more!

For the new explorer, planning a visit to a national park, or even several on a big road trip can be a daunting task. Today on America’s National Parks, we're talking with Jennifer Melroy, a national park lover who has visited nearly all of the 63 main parks and shares her tips and advice over at NationalParkObsessed.com. I talked with Jennifer about the broad strokes of planning a national park visit, pitfalls to avoid, and her resources for helping you get the best out of your trip. 

Make sure to check out Jennifer's blog at nationalparkobsessed.com, and you can get her Ultimate National Park Planning Bundle through this link: https://nationalparkobsessed.store/collections/new-releases/products/ultimate-national-park-travel-planning-bundle

Amidst the rolling hills of Baltimore County, a two-lane road cleaves the sixty-two acres that remain of a former grand estate and plantation that once covered twenty-five thousand acres. The mansion sits on the north side and the remnants of the farm to the south. It’s a storybook picture, set in the middle of what is now a busy suburb of Baltimore. But, as most plantations go — the horrific enslavement of humans mars the earth that helped a new nation prosper. 

Today's show was sponsored by L.L.Bean, follow the hashtag #beanoutsider, and visit LLBean.com to find great gear for exploring the National Parks. 

And by Campendium. Find listings and reviews for thousands of campsites for your next national park adventure at campendium.com.

Make sure to follow the America's National Parks Podcast on Facebook and Instagram, and join us on the RV Miles podcast the hear our travel stories as we journey across America. 

In this episode, we share the news about Hyperion, the world's largest tree, and the attempts at Redwood National Park to keep people from making the dangerous trek to visit it. Plus, Lake Mede is receding, which is creating some interesting surprises, including possible bodies of mobsters at its depths. All that and more on this edition of our National Parks News Roundup.

Today's show was sponsored by L.L.Bean, follow the hashtag #beanoutsider, and visit LLBean.com to find great gear for exploring the National Parks. 

And by Campendium. Find listings and reviews for thousands of campsites for your next national park adventure at campendium.com.

Make sure to follow the America's National Parks Podcast on Facebook and Instagram, and join us on the RV Miles podcast the hear our travel stories as we journey across America. 

National Monuments are some of our nation’s most controversial lands. On April 26, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order to review twenty-seven national monuments, calling them “superstitious land grabs” and “an abusive use of the Antiquities Act,” suggesting he might reduce or abolish them completely. He went on to issue proclamations that reduced two national monuments, Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears, and shortly thereafter, President Biden reinstated the former boundaries of both monuments when coming to office, 

Today on America’s National Parks, we talk with McKenzie Long, whose book This Contested Land: The Storied Past and Uncertain Future of America’s National Monuments, shares her visits to thirteen national monuments established within the last twenty-five years.

Today's show was sponsored by L.L.Bean, follow the hashtag #beanoutsider, and visit LLBean.com to find great gear for exploring the National Parks. 

And by Campendium. Find listings and reviews for thousands of campsites for your next national park adventure at campendium.com.

Make sure to follow the America's National Parks Podcast on Facebook and Instagram, and join us on the RV Miles podcast the hear our travel stories as we journey across America. 

Skagway earns its fame in an enthralling story, as the gateway to the Klondike Gold Rush, nearly fifty years after the California Gold Rush of 1849. It’s easy to get caught up in the daydream of the myriad pioneers and adventurers who made their fortune passing through Skagway to the abundant troves of gold waiting in the wilderness beyond. But the story didn’t actually unfold that way.

Today, Skagway is home to the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. The Visitor Center resides in one of the restored buildings, right on Broadway, close to the docks. Many of those Wild West buildings are, in fact, part of the park, and the stories of the fortune- seekers – adventurers and scoundrels alike – are housed within their walls.

Yellowstone National Park turned 150 this year, but of course, the national park moniker is just a human designation for this exotic landscape.  a massive Caldera formed from a volcano that last erupted 631000 years ago. There are few places on Earth that display the power of nature so eloquently as Yellowstone. A place where the only constant is change. That power recently showed its face in the form of devastating floods that ravaged much of Yellowstone and beyond. On this episode of America's national parks the path forward for Yellowstone after a 1 in 500-year event.

In this month's edition of News from the Parks, a late-breaking story out of Yellowstone, all 5 entrances are closed due to flooding and dangerous conditions. Also, the Interior Department is banning the sale of single-use plastics, a woman gets gored by a bison, and more.

The America's National Parks Podcast episode on California Condors: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/california-condors/id1353308883?i=1000409126037

Yosemite was once a wild land ruled by grit. In the 1870s and 80s, only the hardiest of travelers braved the rumbling wagon road and the twenty-mile trek into the valley on mule or horseback. These were folk acclimated to the wild, people who had lived in mining towns or mountain villages their entire lives. Yet, tucked away in the packs of some of these rugged, hardened adventurers was beautiful, delicate china, artisan soaps, fragile full-length mirrors, and fresh crisp towels. Across the treacherous terrain strapped to stubborn scratchy mules, employees of the Cosmopolitan Bathhouse & Saloon brought luxury to the valley in a juxtaposition that defined so much of this era.