Ross Lake Journey (Ross Lake National Recreation Area and North Cascades National Park)
Fireside Talk: Ross Lake Journey (Ross Lake National Recreation Area and North Cascades National Park)
J. William T. Youngs
10/25/2012
I’m doing a lot of travelling this fall while teaching my online course on “The History of the American National Parks.” My postings and grading has taken place in national parks and in Walmart parking lots. While travelling I’ve been working on ways to take you along on these travels, insofar as images and videos can provide at least a “virtual” experience of those places. (Well, not the parking lots – you can visit those on your own!)
The idea of a “virtual experience” of parkland was very much on my mind when I filmed this journey on October 25, 2012. Partly I simply wanted you to see a natural setting in two national parks only a few score miles from Cheney. I’m hoping when you view the video below that I just uploaded to YouTube you will take the time to “just let it flow.” What do you see? What do you hear?
As I say in the narrative I posted on YouTube with the video: “During the 1920s parks director Stephen Mather pushed hard to make the parks accessible by that comparatively new invention, the automobile. Many opposed the idea, but roads were built, bringing millions of visitors to the national parks. Today we see debates about snowmobiles in Yellowstone and helicopter tours over the Grand Canyon. In national recreation areas such as Ross Lake, where this film was made, there is a long tradition of allowing motorboats. The lake is part of a separate national park located in the heart of the North Cascades National Park, one of the most remote wildernesses in the "Lower Forty-Eight." In this film we see mountains in the Cascades park as well as the waters of Ross Lake National Recreation Area. My question to myself, my students, and anyone else interested in viewing my short film is this: can one EXPERIENCE nature and wildness from the thwarts of a motorboat while cruising on a man made lake? On October 25, 2012, when I made this trip with my son and granddaughter, my answer was, yes indeed!”
OK, here’s the video. After watching it, try to answer the questions below.
J. William T. Youngs
10/25/2012
I’m doing a lot of travelling this fall while teaching my online course on “The History of the American National Parks.” My postings and grading has taken place in national parks and in Walmart parking lots. While travelling I’ve been working on ways to take you along on these travels, insofar as images and videos can provide at least a “virtual” experience of those places. (Well, not the parking lots – you can visit those on your own!)
The idea of a “virtual experience” of parkland was very much on my mind when I filmed this journey on October 25, 2012. Partly I simply wanted you to see a natural setting in two national parks only a few score miles from Cheney. I’m hoping when you view the video below that I just uploaded to YouTube you will take the time to “just let it flow.” What do you see? What do you hear?
As I say in the narrative I posted on YouTube with the video: “During the 1920s parks director Stephen Mather pushed hard to make the parks accessible by that comparatively new invention, the automobile. Many opposed the idea, but roads were built, bringing millions of visitors to the national parks. Today we see debates about snowmobiles in Yellowstone and helicopter tours over the Grand Canyon. In national recreation areas such as Ross Lake, where this film was made, there is a long tradition of allowing motorboats. The lake is part of a separate national park located in the heart of the North Cascades National Park, one of the most remote wildernesses in the "Lower Forty-Eight." In this film we see mountains in the Cascades park as well as the waters of Ross Lake National Recreation Area. My question to myself, my students, and anyone else interested in viewing my short film is this: can one EXPERIENCE nature and wildness from the thwarts of a motorboat while cruising on a man made lake? On October 25, 2012, when I made this trip with my son and granddaughter, my answer was, yes indeed!”
OK, here’s the video. After watching it, try to answer the questions below.
1. How would you answer this question: “Can one EXPERIENCE nature and wildness from the thwarts on a motorboat while cruising on a man made lake? (A “thwart,” by the way, is a seat in a boat.)
2. Robert Sterling Yard complained about “park ideals being sacrificed on the altar of gasoline.” Do you see evidence of that sacrifice in this film?
3. If you were “thinking like a mountain” would you object to this little party of three invading your territory?
2. Robert Sterling Yard complained about “park ideals being sacrificed on the altar of gasoline.” Do you see evidence of that sacrifice in this film?
3. If you were “thinking like a mountain” would you object to this little party of three invading your territory?
