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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 11/06/2026

Q10. #ParkChat Sometimes a park visit creates a transition in your own life--you are not the same person afterward. Can you relate a park visit that changed you?

prominent grand teton peaks in shadow nearing dusk

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 11/06/2026

Q9. #ParkChat Some park entrances feel like a sharp change. What is a park entrance that really feels like a transition from one place to another?

state flags along a promenade before mountain with four presidents' faces carved into it

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 11/06/2026

Q8. #ParkChat Trails in parks can take you from one place to another, transitioning into what seems like another world. What's a favorite trail that takes you to another world?

bridge over chesapeake and ohio canal in georgetown

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 11/06/2026

Q7. #ParkChat Parks can represent two historical moments, marking key transitions of time. What's a favorite park that represents a significant historical transition?

covered wagon along oregon trail in whitman mission national historic site, ruts besides fence

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 11/06/2026

Q6. #ParkChat Consider a park that is itself in dramatic transition--such as after a fire or flood. What have you noticed or learned from seeing a transition in action?

exit glacier in kenai fjords national park showing signs of retreat, gravel and stream left behind

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 11/06/2026

Q5. #ParkChat Some parks also are adjacent to another type of land designation--private property, Forest Service, Tribal, etc. Where is a place where that change is especially apparent and what does it reveal?

property boundary in frank church-river of no return wilderness among brush

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 11/06/2026

Q4. #ParkChat Some parks encompass very clear transitions from one ecosystem to another. What's one of your favorite places to see two landscapes abutti ng?

treed plateau giving way to red rocks in cedar breaks national monument

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 11/06/2026

Q3. #ParkChat Often during life transitions (e.g., parenthood, retirement) we end up heading to parks more. Has this been the case for you and what lessons have you learned from that?

grassy mountainside, south of north cascades national park

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 11/06/2026

Q2. #ParkChat Days transition, too. What are your favorite parks--and, optionally, places within them--for sunrises and/or sunsets?

looking to the sunset in badlands national park, sky changing from blue to gray

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 11/06/2026

Q1. #ParkChat The seasons transition. Which shoulder season--spring to summer or summer to fall--is your favorite and why?

autumn in yosemite valley, leaves changing colors, rock walls visible through trees

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 11/06/2026

I've got at least four in my photo roll--Wind Cave, Crater Lake, Great Basin, Mesa Verde (photo). I'm sure I've seen more, though. #ParkChat

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 07/06/2026

Memory was off...retirement.

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 22/04/2026

This morning I read a 1954 speech by Rachel Carson called "The Real World Around Us." This point about beauty and selfishness resonated. You can see her entire manuscript here. collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/1714...

TYPESCRIPT READING:
such recreational and spiritual values as I have mentioned. Is it the right of this, our generation, in its selfish materialism, to destroy these thing because we are blinded by the dollar sign? Beauty--and all the values that derive from beauty--are not measured and evaluated in terms of the dollar.

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 08/01/2026

Q8: Have you ever experienced disappointment between parks and books? Perhaps the book wasn't as good as you'd have liked? Or perhaps the park wasn't as good as the book? Perhaps the natural history or trail guide was all wrong? #ParkChat

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 08/01/2026

Q7: Books can be revolutionary. Has a book ever forced you to rethink a favorite park or the system more broadly? #ParkChat

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 08/01/2026

Q6: In a time of fleeting media, books can seem more lasting. Is there a park book that you return to again and again? Why? #ParkChat

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 08/01/2026

Q5: 1. Books and parks are inspirational. Are you more likely to be inspired to read about a park after visiting it OR more inspired to travel to a park after reading about it? #ParkChat

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 08/01/2026

Q4: Imagine you are visiting a park for the first time. You go to the gift shop. Based on past experience, how many books are you likely to walk out having purchased and what are they about? #ParkChat

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 08/01/2026

Q3: If I looked inside your daypack, would I find any books? A natural history guide? A trail guide? A book of poetry? A polemic? A history? #ParkChat

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 08/01/2026

Q2: Think back to an earlier time in your life when you knew relatively little about parks. What is a book or magazine you read then that helped introduce national parks to you? #ParkChat

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 08/01/2026

Q1: Parks and books are among my very favorite things--and I love combining them. I bet many of you do too. Can you identify a favorite (or 3!) book about the parks--fiction or non-fiction? #ParkChat

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 03/11/2025

Redwood National and State Parks offer a little bit of everything. Although it was sunny all day, everything was damp!

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 01/11/2025

Point Reyes National Seashore is pretty special. I only got a taste but look forward to another trip (not during a shutdown).

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 30/10/2025

I have found Yosemite to be jaw-dropping, a scale that has to be experienced to be understood.

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 28/10/2025

Kings Canyon National Park this afternoon, touched with autumn.

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 27/10/2025

Moro Rock in Sequoia National Park. Yesterday, a weekend, it was swamped. And clouds were thick enough I couldn't see the top. This morning, I arrived at the top, after 350 steps, to have it entirely to myself.

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 27/10/2025

Found my way to Sequoia National Park today. Quite a place!

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 25/10/2025

Although weekend busy, Pinnacles National Park has been worth exploring.

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 23/10/2025

Rock art (look for the bighorn sheep) in the Mojave National Preserve and Joshua's Trees in their namesake park. It was the last desert day.

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 22/10/2025

From Death Valley badlands to the Mojave National Preserve today. Forming a greater appreciation for the Mojave.

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 21/10/2025

Manzanar on the way to Death Valley today. Two types of inhumanity. (That's probably not fair to the Mojave.)

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 20/10/2025

A glimpse of Half Dome and a stroll through Tuolumne Meadows made for a good day.

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Adam M. Sowards @adamsowards.net · 18/10/2025

Good national monuments today, Lava Beds and Tule Lake. Captain Jack's Stronghold from the Modoc War and what remains of the concentration camp, appropriately behind barbed wire.