Trailblazer 25
Dear Friend,

Every April, we celebrate National Park Week with the National Park Foundation, the official charity of the National Park Service. If you have a young human or furry friend in your life, this Saturday is National Junior Ranger Day and Sunday is BARK Ranger Day.

Friendship Friday celebrates all park partners, including the Fund and the local friends groups we support. YOUR generosity, as a special friend of the western National Parks, enhances the welcome and inspiration parks offer to visitors. We have recently committed to three additional projects, including one with a new partner park, Capitol Reef. Our grants make tangible improvements that help turn park visitors into park friends for life.

Thank you!

Kevin Hendricks
Executive Director
Trail System Extension
Joshua Tree National Park
This trail project is a classic win-win-win for people, wildlife, and park managers. Mojave Desert Land Trust has established five miles of trail on around 1,600 acres of park-adjacent land they will be conveying to the National Park Service in the very near future. In a first-ever partnership with the National Park Foundation, the Fund has made a grant of $25,836 to mark five locations as new foot entrances to the park.
Five new trailhead signs will open up the land beyond its current use by local residents to benefit many of the park's 3 million annual visitors. Crews will install "stay on trail" signs and improvements to control erosion that will make for a better hiking experience and help protect prime habitat for endangered desert tortoise and bighorn sheep. The properties lie within a wildlife linkage network, creating a buffer zone between the park and the growing communities of Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley.

The grant also covers equipment to be installed at the trailheads to collect and analyze visitor use data so that park managers can develop informed strategies as the new lands are absorbed into the park's trail system.
Night Sky Viewing Expansion
Capitol Reef National Park
Remote from city or suburban lights in southern Utah, Capitol Reef is a gold-tier International Dark Sky Park. It is increasingly renowned for star gazing, as well as cliffs, canyons, domes, arches, and cultural resources. To expand the astronomy programs and collaborate with local partners on astronomy education, the park needed new equipment.
A Fund grant of $18,000 will purchase a tracking telescope, broadcasting equipment, night safety supplies, and a trailer to store and transport these items. Many more visitors will soon be able to enjoy the awe and wonder of the stars, stunningly clear as true darkness falls over the land.
Cannon Carriages
Fort Vancouver National Historic Site
Two cannons outside the Chief Factor's house face the front gate at Fort Vancouver. As visitors arrive, the cannons are often the first thing they see, giving a palpable sense of the power and control of the Hudson's Bay Company during its colonial occupation. These reproduction British Naval 18-pound cannons are iconic of the site's history as a fur trading post established in 1825. Though the cannons, installed since the 1970s, are in good shape, the carriages that support them have deteriorated to the point that they can barely support the heavy cannons and can no longer be repaired through simple fixes.
A Fund grant of $17,500 will enable National Park Service staff, assisted by some of the park's many volunteers, to build new wooden and iron-wheeled cannon carriages. In this way, the historic display will remain a focal point for visitors as they learn about the way Hudson's Bay Company ran its extensive fur business from Russian Alaska to Mexican California, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
Fun for People in Parks Sans Vehicles
Because every day is Earth Day!
Hike into the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site via Las Trampas Regional Wilderness Preserve, a route so many visitors discovered during shelter-in-place that this park saw a 450% increase in visitors in 2020!

Ride or hike the Bay Trail or take the ferry from San Francisco to Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park's waterfront exhibits, including the Visitor Education Center, which just reopened for groups on timed visits.

Watch our latest Great Day "Out", a behind-the-scenes tour at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, featuring an up-close look at a rare seal skin kayak in the park's incredible collection.

Ride, run, or walk East Rim Drive on vehicle-free days at Crater Lake National Park, September 11 and 18.
The Fund for People in Parks is an official philanthropic partner of the National Park Service and a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives.