(NEXSTAR) — There are currently more than 400 National Park sites throughout the country, with at least one in every state, meaning there's a good chance you've been to at least one.
Even if you haven't visited some of the larger parks, like Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, you're probably familiar with some of their more iconic features — El Capitan, Old Faithful, and the literal, expansive canyon, to name a few.
While these have been in the parks since before they were parks, visiting these sites didn't always look as it does today.
Planning to visit these national parks? You may need to make a reservation to get inTake, for example, this view of Old Faithful in 1901. Changing attire styles means you likely won't see dress-clad women observing Old Faithful, especially at this proximity.
Old Faithful geyser, Yellowstone National Park, USA, 1901. Stereoscopic card. Detail. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)Here's what viewing Old Faithful is like today. Notice visitors, none of whom seem to be wearing a dress, are distanced from the geyser on a boardwalk — and using their phones to record the eruption.
The Old Faithful geyser erupts and shoots water and steam into the air as tourists watch and take photos in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo., Wednesday, 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)Navigating in and around the parks has also changed immensely, thanks to technology. In the early 1900s, you could arrive at Yellowstone in a four-horsepower stagecoach, like those seen in the slideshow below. Later, cars would be available, of course. They were much smaller, though, narrow enough to navigate through the base of a massive redwood tree near Yosemite.
Wyo. - Yellowstone National Park: two stagecoaches passing on mt. road, 1903. Artist Frances Benjamin Johnston. (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images)Two Horse-Drawn Carriages along Snowy Trail, Rocky Mountain Divide, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA, Magic Lantern Slide, circa 1910. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)UNITED STATES - JANUARY 01: Great Canyon And His Waterfalls In Yellowstone National Park (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)Cars passing through the Wawona Tunnel Tree, cut into a giant sequoia in Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, Northern California, circa 1925. By enlarging an existing fire scar, the tunnel was cut through the tree in 1881. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)A car driving through the Wawona Tree tunnel, cut into a giant sequoia on Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park, California, circa 1925. A sign beside the tree reads, 'Mariposa Grove of Big Trees, California, the Wawona Tree, height 227 feet, diameter 26 feet', with the tunnel cut through the tree in 1881 by enlarging an existing fire scar; image is one half of a stereoscopic image. (Photo by Graphic House/Archive Photos/Getty Images)View of the Detroit Electric, an early electric car, as it travels a mountain road from Seattle to Mount Rainier, Washington, circa 1920. From the Cress-Dale Photo Company. (Photo by Interim Archives/Getty Images)A man points down as a second man sits astride a Harley Davidson motorcycle as they peer into the Halemaumau ('House of Everlasting Fire') Crater of the Kilauea volcano, on the southeastern shore of Hawaii Island, Hawaii, circa 1925. (Photo by FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images)Motorcycles also became a useful method of transportation, as they are today, but you would likely be advised against driving up to the edge of the Halema‘uma‘u Crater like the Harley-Davidson rider in the slideshow above.
Visitors to the National Parks are also directed to avoid disrupting wildlife. That would include feeding the animals, especially the bears. In Yellowstone's earlier years, it wasn't uncommon for bears to be intentionally fed by humans. As the NPS recounts, hundreds would gather to watch bears feast on garbage. Some would even feed the bears by hand.
A woman confidently feeds a bear in the forest, making it stand on its hind legs to reach the food in her hand, circa 1933. (Jim Heimann Collection/Getty Images)Bears in Yellowstone National Park, United States of America, 1931. British Offical Missions to the US . (Photo by Royal Geographical Society via Getty Images)America, california, visiting the national park yosemite seen a bear, 1930-40. (Photo by: Touring Club Italiano/Marka/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)Bear management has since changed, and feeding wildlife is prohibited. It is also prohibited to be within 100 yards of bears and other predatory animals such as wolves and cougars.
These national parks saw record attendance in 2024, but they may not tell you about itThe bears and other wildlife are still spectacles for visitors:
Bud Curtis and Terri Curtis of Montgomery, Texas, take pictures of a bison herd in the Hayden Valley, Wednesday, June 22, 2022, in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. The park partially re-opened Wednesday after being closed for more than a week because of flooding. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)Bison are seen crossing a road in Yellowstone National Park, Thursday, June 13, 2024, near Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyo. Visitors have been trying to catch a glimpse of a rare white buffalo calf that was seen in the park earlier this month. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)Brown bear (Ursus arctos) standing by the side of the road looking at the tourists that have stopped their cars to take pictures in Yellowstone National Park. Wyoming, United States of America. (Photo by: Tom Murphy/Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)A young black bear with cinnamon colored fur cross the road in Yellowstone National Park. Wyoming. (Photo by: Paolo Picciotto/REDA/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)BROOKS FALLS, ALASKA - AUGUST 11: Visitors view brown bears at Brooks Falls on August 11, 2023 at Brooks Falls, Alaska within the Katmai National Park and Preserve. Many come to see brown bears between July and September each year, as millions of sockeye salmon swim upstream to spawn. Many of the same bears return to the falls annually, gorging on salmon to fatten up before hibernating for winter. The bears have become something of an internet sensation, as "bearcams" livestream bear activity at and around the falls to viewers worldwide. Commercial salmon fishing in Alaskan waters has often pitted business interests against wildlife conservationists in the state, which has more national park and wilderness land than anywhere in the United States. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)Not all beloved features, or parks, remain, however.
Roughly a century ago, an expansive national monument in South Dakota, Fossil Cycad, attracted visitors hoping to catch a glimpse — and sometimes, take home — fossilized cycads. Between erosion and predatory collectors, Fossil Cycad soon found itself devoid of its namesake. It would later lose its status within the National Park Service and be declared an area of critical environmental concern.
Yale paleobotanist George Wieland and NPS officials oversee a CCC field crew in a test excavation at Fossil Cycad National Monument, South Dakota, 1935. (NPS photo)Still, there are many other practices and traditions of visiting the national parks that haven't changed.
You can still stand on many otherwise precarious points without many restrictions. The photos below, one from 1902 and the other from 2016, show people standing at Glacier Point in Yosemite — the clothing has changed, but the unrestricted view hasn't.
'Overlooking Nature's Grandest Scenery - from Glacier Point (N.E.) Yosemite Valley, Cal.', 1902. A woman stands on a rocky outcrop looking towards the Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, California, USA. Stereocard. [Underwood & Underwood, 1902]. Artist Underwood & Underwood. (Photo by The Print Collector via Getty Images) People wait for the trailhead at Glacier Point to re-open after the Obama family headed down a trail for a hike at from the mountain at Yosemite National Park, Calif., on Saturday, June 18, 2016. In the distance in the Half Dome rock formation. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)You can still hike through the national parks, though you may not be as well-dressed as President Theodore Roosevelt (seen in the center of the photo below) and his companions.
It was a popular national monument, until it was robbed to extinctionTo the right of Roosevelt is conservationist John Muir, often referred to as the "Father of the National Parks."
President Theodore Roosevelt and conservationist John Muir (to the President's left) in Yosemite Valley, California, 1903. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)As they are today, full parking lots were hardly a rare sight at some national parks.
Visitors walk among the cars in the parking lot of Sequoia Village, part of Sequoia National Park in the southern Sierra Nevada, California, circa 1935. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)And, of course, many of the stunning features and views that attracted those early visitors are still present and inspiring more visits more than 100 years later.
Hiking through Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA, 1964. (Photo by Erich Andres/United Archives via Getty Images)Travelling throuh California, Zabriskie Point at Death Valley National Park, 1962. (Photo by Erich Andres/United Archives via Getty Images)Grand Canyon, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Arizona, 1962. (Photo by Erich Andres/United Archives via Getty Images)Unknown Artist, Mr. and Mrs. George Rink, Zion National Park, Utah, 9/16/1945, gelatin silver print. (Photo by: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)A dog stands in the shade of a Joshua Tree in the Mojave Desert, Joshua Tree National Park, southeastern California, circa 1945. The Mojave Desert is the special habitat of Yucca brevifolia, the Joshua tree for which the park is named. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)View from within the entrance to the Wawona Tunnel, looking out toward cars parked on Tunnel View, an observation area offering views of Yosemite National Park, Northern California, circa 1945. The overlook, which opened in 1933, offers views of the southwest face of El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Fall. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)Wawona Hotel in Yosemite Valley with Half Dome in the background in 1936. (Photo by Albert Moote/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)A 35mm film photo shows a Great Northern Bus passing beneath a bridge as it leaves Grinnell Glacier, 1941. (Jim Heimann Collection/Getty Images)The Morning Glory, Yellowstone National Park, 1902. Artist Detroit Photographic Co.. (Photo by Royal Geographical Society via Getty Images)Man fishing in Swiftcurrent Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana, 1966. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)Delicate Arch in Utah, 1960s. (Photo by Erich Andres/United Archives via Getty Images)Lake View Point, Lake Mead, Arizona, 1970. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)Since Yellowstone was established as the first national park in 1872, the U.S. has established more than 400 national parks, reserves, parkways, monuments, seashores, scenic trails, historic sites, battlefields, and units. Nearly all are free to visit, while roughly 100 charge an entrance fee. That fee is waived several times during the year, with the next free fee day scheduled for June 19 in honor of Juneteenth Day.
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