{"id":7498,"date":"2013-04-24T16:57:52","date_gmt":"2013-04-24T22:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=7300"},"modified":"2017-02-20T12:03:28","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T19:03:28","slug":"national-parks-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=7498","title":{"rendered":"White House marks National Park Week"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
President Barack Obama greets Suzanne Lewis, then superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, during a 2009 family vacation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With National Park Week running from Monday through Friday, April 22 to 26, the White House blog took note<\/a> of the annual tradition by reposting a video from President Barack Obama’s 2009 family vacation to Yellowstone National Park.<\/p>\n

According to the White House, Obama first visited Yellowstone “on a summer-long cross country trip\u00a0he took as a young boy with his mother, grandmother and sister,” all of whom also joined him on the 2009 trip.<\/p>\n

The video features\u00a0some archival footage<\/a> of Presidents Ford, Clinton, Carter, Roosevelt (both of them) and other chief executives in the park, plus background from Yellowstone historian Lee Whittlesey, filmmaker Ken Burns and others.<\/p>\n

\"Theodore
Theodore Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman and enthusiastic big game hunter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s no secret that Theodore Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman and enthusiastic big game hunter, as well as a proponent of parks. But in a great excerpt unearthed by author and historian M. Mark Miller<\/a>, Roosevelt conveys a passion for hunting that few holding high office can match. He describes catching a whiff of an elk while on the hunt in 1891. (Roosevelt even offers an account of the animal’s differing aroma while in rut.)<\/p>\n

The tale is from Roosevelt’s book, “The Wilderness Hunter: An Account Of The Big Game Of The United States And Its Chase With Horse, Hound and Rifle.” T.R. tells the story of hunting an elk on Two Ocean Pass<\/a>, just south of Yellowstone in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. He writes:<\/p>\n

“In a moment I saw him walking through an open glade; he had not seen us. The slight breeze brought us down his scent. Elk have a strong characteristic smell; it is usually sweet, like that of a herd of Alderney cows;<\/a> but in old bulls, while rutting, it is rank, pungent, and lasting.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For the rest of the tale, visit Miller’s wonderful blog<\/a>, where you’ll also find other great tales of Yellowstone’s early days<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ford\u00a0worked during the summer of 1936 as a seasonal park ranger at Yellowstone<\/a>, calling the experience \u201cone of the greatest summers of my life.\u201d Among his duties during that summer, Ford was an armed guard on the bear-feeding truck, a practice no longer observed in Yellowstone.<\/p>\n

<\/a>National Park Week is observed very year, though, and admission to Yellowstone and 400 other national park units is free through Friday.<\/p>\n

<\/a>President Barack Obama visits Yellowstone Park in 2009<\/h2>\n