National Park Week begins on April 19, all admissions to all national parks in the U.S. are free. AccuWeather speaks with Amanda Pollock of Maine's Acadia National Park about this exciting week.
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00:00National Park Week begins on Saturday. It's the annual celebration of more than 400 national park, national sites across the country. Admission to all parks is free tomorrow.
00:13And joining us now from Maine, Amanda Pollitt, Public Affairs Officer at Acadia National Park. Thanks again for joining us this morning, Amanda. You're in Maine. What are some of the unique features of Acadia that sends visitors northward each year?
00:27Well, thank you all so much for having me. It's always a great day to be a ranger, especially up here at Acadia National Park.
00:35We have so many unique natural and cultural resources that we work to store here in this national park, from our rugged Maine coastlines to beautiful, pristine lakes and ponds, to even historic cabins that we work to tell the homesteading story here in Maine.
00:53So there's a little something for everyone at really any of our national park units across the country.
00:59Now, the national park had severe winter storm damage a year ago. Is the rebuilding and repair complete?
01:06That's a great question. Yeah, we had two back-to-back storms here in January of 2024, literally one day after each other, and they completely devastated a lot of our trails and our roads and even our resources.
01:23So we were able to do some short-term repairs to get everything open in time for last season, but we're still actually, in some ways, even trying to still figure out what has the extent of this damage from those storms has been.
01:37Sometimes it can take several years for some of our natural resources to show signs of this damage, so we're continuing our monitoring programs, and we are going to hopefully be able to work towards some permanent solutions to help restore some of those damaged resources, hopefully in the next few years.
01:56Tomorrow is also National Junior Ranger Day. What is this program for kids?
02:01The Junior Ranger Program is actually how I first connected to the National Park Service, so that's such an important program to me.
02:10This is a program where you can go into the park, you meet a ranger, the most important thing is that you learn something about the park that you're visiting, and when you do, you get a badge, just like ours, and we swear you in as an official Junior Ranger in the National Park Service.
02:27So it's a really unique way for kids to connect to the landscapes that we have and to all of our amazing resources. It's a really fun program that we get to do and a great way to connect with youth all over the country.
02:39It certainly sounds like it. All right, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite come to mind as some of the most popular national parks. What advice do you have for planning a national park visit this year?
02:51Yes, and Acadia is always really busy up here, too. We get about 4 million visits every year, so it's a really busy, a lot of our national parks are really busy places.
03:02The best advice that I can give for everybody is to plan ahead and expect the unexpected.
03:08You want to make sure you have a backup plan so that if the place that you really wanted to go, if there's not parking available, you have another place in mind that you can go and explore instead.
03:17Making sure you have all the right gear, bringing an extra layer or an umbrella.
03:23I joke that we get five seasons in a day sometimes up here in Maine, but it is true.
03:27You want to really be prepared for anything when you're going to be outside in the elements to make sure that you and your family stay safe.
03:35And of course, you have so many great options with national parks.
03:38How do you narrow it down when you're trying to choose between a few? Can you give us any insight to that?
03:43Absolutely. So there really is a national park for everyone.
03:48There's national parks that help preserve historic sites and battlefields.
03:53There's national parks that help where you can go and hike and see these beautiful mountainous landscapes, deserts.
03:59There are forests. There's really something for everybody.
04:02So whatever you're interested in, if you go to NPS.gov, you can search all across the country and find a park that really resonates with you.
04:11Or if you're like me, you just kind of want to see them all and see what everyone has in store.
04:17There's a little gem every place you go.
04:19Amanda Pollack, public affairs officer at Acadia National Park.
04:23Thanks for joining us here in AccuWeather Early.