Happy Hundred!

Today, August 25, 2016, is the 100th birthday of the founding of our country’s National Park  Service (NPS).   On this day in 1916 President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill into law to create an organization to care for the National Parks.  The mission for the NPS was “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

At that time we had just 12 national parks including our first, Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872 under President Ulysses S. Grant.  Today we have over 400 national parks, monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House all managed by over 20,000 National Park Service employees and rangers.

In honor of the NPS’s 100th birthday, Google has put together an INCREDIBLE collection of virtual tours combining 360-degree video, panoramic photos and expert narration. PLEASE click on the following link from your Google Chrome browser to experience five great national parks: Bryce Canyon, Kenai Fjords, Carlsbad Caverns, Dry Tortugas and Hawaii Volanoes.  Start by DIVING IN to the Dry Tortugas 🙂

The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks

How many national parks have you visited?