21 One Man’s Wilderness: Lake Clark National Park

No state in the Union has more public space than Alaska; nearly 90% of the land is owned by the state or federal government, and amongst the vast, untamed lands are eight national parks. Lake Clark National Park, about 120 miles southwest of Anchorage, is one of the most remote. It’s also where one man spent three-plus decades living as one with the wilderness in a small log cabin he built himself on the shore of a magnificent mountain lake. In this episode we talk about our experience in the park and visiting Dick Proenneke’s cabin; the man who documented his wilderness experience and became an advocate for preserving Alaska’s pristine natural places.

Some of the topics we discuss in this episode:

  • Where Lake Clark National Park is located
  • How to get to the park
  • Where we stayed when we visited the park
  • How we got to Twin Lakes, the site of Dick’s cabin
  • What it was like to see the cabin in its restored condition
  • Meeting the volunteer rangers who now care for Dick’s cabin

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20 Scenic Drives Through Public Lands

Brilliant, breathtaking, and magnificent are just some of the words we would use to describe the scenic drives we discuss in this episode. That is if we had consulted a thesaurus before recording our discussion about these spectacular drives. But spectacular they are, regardless of how many times we used the word. One of the great things about visiting our public lands is the roads to and through them make the journey worth the trip even if you don’t get out of your vehicle. Here, we talk about a few of our favorite drives that we’ve discovered during our travels and give some tips and history for each.

The drives we cover in this episode:

  • Going-to-the-Sun-Road (Glacier NP)
  • Beartooth Highway (Northeast of Yellowstone NP)
  • Lamar Valley (Yellowstone NP)
  • Needles Highway (Custer State Park)
  • Badlands Loop (Badlands NP)
  • Trail Ridge Road (Rocky Mountain NP)
  • Million Dollar Highway (between Ouray and Silverton Colorado)
  • Highway 24 through Capitol Reef NP
  • Capitol Reef Scenic Drive
  • The Burr Trail (Escalante NM, Capitol Reef NP, and Glen Canyon NRA)
  • Skyline Drive (Shenandoah NP)

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