Herb Terns and his daughter slide down a dune at Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.

Nikk Scott is sworn in as a Junior Park Ranger at Acadia National Park in Maine.

Where do we go now?

Spring is a time of possibility. The summer spread out before us, clean pages on the calendar waiting for us to fill them with meaningful experiences we’ll remember.

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A chunky guide to America’s national parks sits on our living room coffee table. The pages demonstrate the best impulses of our nation – freedom, natural beauty and the foresight to preserve those places. I flip through the book in the evenings after work, looking at trail maps and photos, and dreaming.

Last year, our national parks received a record number of visitors. According to reporting from Pro Publica, the National Parks Service has been instructed not to publicize those numbers. It’s likely those instructions were issued because over 1,000 national park staff have been terminated this year.

If........

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