TRAIL TRACKS EDITORIAL

Celebrating our National Trails The National Park Service Centennial, trails, and the human spirit

By Bob Ratcliffe, Chief, Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Programs, National Park Service

The National Park Service Centen- nial is an excellent opportunity to  and values provided to us by all parks, public lands, and the trails that con-  to celebrate a century of what some call “Americas best idea”— but to also imagine possibilities for what the next century of parks and trails will mean and can be for the future of our com- munities and nation. Trails— the idea of trails— as path- ways and connections between people and places, is much older and more engrained in the human experience and spirit than parks. They are part of our being, part of our collective

Like parks, trails renew us, they re-energize us, and they inspire us.

DNA. Trails have connected people and places for millennia. People have been walking, paddling, or riding horses for fun and enjoyment, for self-discovery and exploration, and for pilgrimage and spiritual enlighten- ment, for generations. Trails connect kids to the outdoors and have helped inspire generations of recreationists to become conservationists. Trails are primary pathways for stewardship of parks. Some have even said that trails helped lead us to the idea of parks. More recently human ingenuity and invention have provided many ways

Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Olympic National Park, Washington 36 SUMMER 2016 AmericanTrails.org