A winter paradise: Florida's Gulf Islands National Seashore

The National Park Service News service features Gulf Islands National Seashore in its latest release.

The park is welcoming visitors again after being threatened by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

This is the best time to visit as the hot, humid weather between June and September softens to a comfortable warmth.

National Park Service Ranger-led tours include barrier islands, local birds, and the forts found at Gulf Islands that represent colonization by the Spanish, and events from the Civil War and World War II.

The park also boasts sugar-white beaches, marshes full of wildlife, and hiking and biking trails winding through saw tooth palmettos and live oaks. Snorkeling also opens up a world of marine life in the Gulf's blue-green waters.

Check out Bob Difley's Boondocking and Snowbird Guide eBooks at RVbookstore.com

Clinton home birthplace added to National Parks holdings

If you're like many RVers who have a National Park Service "passport" book, you'll soon have a new stamp to acquire: After the turn of the year, the Service takes over the childhood home of President Bill Clinton. The modest home in Hope, Arkansas will hold the formal title, President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site.

The Clinton Birthplace, at 117 S. Hervey Street. in Hope, Arkansas, is a 2 ½ story American four-square home. The President's grandparents owned the home from 1938 until the mid-1950s. The future president called it home from his birth until he was age 4, but the place centered in his life for as long as his grandparents owned the home.

While the Park Service will take over official operations of the new National Historic Site in January, a formal dedication will happen sometime in Spring.

Photos: Clinton home, clintonbirthplace.org; Clinton at age 4, photographs of the White House Photograph Office (Clinton Administration

National Parks Event Tips Report for December 3, 2010

Here’s a sampling of events coming up soon nationwide in U.S. National Parks.

* At Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site (La Junta, Colorado), the holidays come to a fur trading post of the 1840s on December 3 and 4. The celebration includes wagon rides, games, toy making, a piñata break, and two evenings of candlelight tours of the fort.

* From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on December 11, come to Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site (North Carolina) for Christmas at Connemara. This free celebration will honor Carl Sandburg and the family holiday tradition of music. Singers, instrumentalists, a Cherokee Indian storyteller, and others will perform.

* Join this year’s “Trek to the Nation’s Christmas Tree” at Kings Canyon National Park (California) on December 12. The destination is the General Grant Tree, which President Calvin Coolidge designated as the “Nation’s Christmas Tree” in 1926 and which was established in 1956 as the only living national shrine to those who gave their lives in service to our country.

* On December 19, come to Valley Forge National Historical Park (Pennsylvania) for “The Army Arrives! Annual March-In of the Continental Army Commemoration.” There will be candlelight tours, a “march” to the Muhlenberg Brigade huts, and good old-fashioned 18th-century festivities. At the Muhlenberg huts, park staff and volunteers in period clothing will demonstrate camp life while the Colonial Revelers rejoice in the visitor center.

* Explore the natural side of the solstice holiday—stars, evergreens, wildlife (for example, cardinals, turkeys, and roadrunners)—on a unique nighttime drive through Saguaro National Park’s Rincon Mountain District (Arizona). The auto tours that make up the Holiday Car Caravan will be offered at half-hour intervals on the evening of December 30.

A New Year Everywhere, a New Century in Fruita, Colorado New Year’s Eve will usher in a second century for Colorado National Monument, established in 1911. On the evening of December 31, visitors will gather for an evening of fun and family-friendly activities culminating in a fireworks extravaganza. Entrance fees will be waived, and the day’s events will launch the beginning of a festive centennial year. In the next 10 months, the Monument will offer a wide variety of events, activities, and opportunities to reflect and honor this special place’s past while gearing up for a second century of conservation and service.

Coming Up
Dedication of Pearl Harbor Visitor Center (December 7)