Finding peace on Earth in our national parks

Looking for the reality show of a lifetime? Want to dance under the stars instead of with them? Then immerse yourself in nature: the trees, mountains, rivers, lakes, swamps, deserts and glaciers that lie within the boundaries of our national parks.

Called “America’s best idea,” the national park system was celebrated last week on PBS in a new documentary series by Ken Burns. If you watched it, I’m sure it made you feel good.

But don’t settle for an armchair. The way to really experience the parks is to get out there and walk, hike or drive the thousands of miles of roads through the wilderness, lands set aside for eternity, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Alaska’s Denali to the Florida Everglades.

As our world gets busier, noisier, dirtier and faster, the parks call us back to a quieter time, stripped clean of grime and smog and ambient light and roaring jets. We walk a trail through Acadia National Park in Maine and all we need is some water and food, the ability to move ourselves along and the willingness to indulge our senses. We go there to see forests and crashing waves and stunning seascapes whipped into a fury by water and wind. We shed the burden and distractions of civilization and feel, for a moment, our modest place in the universe.
John Muir, the great conservationist, said, “Keep close to Nature’s heart ... break clear away once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”

More gets found than lost in the parks, I believe. Through the years I’ve traveled to Glacier, Yosemite, Sequoia, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Everglades, Great Smoky Mountains, Arches, Canyonlands, Kenai Fjords, Death Valley, Redwood, Saguaro and Grand Teton. There are about 350 others on my to-do list. The rhythms of the seasons and the grandeur of the scenery — its vastness — tether us to reality, to a better understanding of our small place in the universe and our short time here.