Travel Beyond Parks

Sun., Aug. 23, 1998

So you’ve “done” America’s national parks - camped at Yosemite, hiked the Grand Canyon, added water to your radiator on Glacier’s Going to the Sun Highway.

But have you visited the Eastern United States Wild Horse and Burro Adoption/Holding Facility outside Nashville? Canoed among the Vermillion Public Islands? Explored the Fish Slough Area of Critical Environmental Concern?

Didn’t think so.

These places and many more are described in “Beyond the National Parks,” a new book created by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management and published by the Smithsonian Institution Press.

The 418-page guidebook highlights properties that fall under U.S. stewardship but aren’t national parks or forests, wildlife refuges or monuments. Some are stretches of wild river. Some are chunks of wilderness the feds couldn’t sell. Many are unpublicized, undeveloped and not easily accessible. But all offer recreation opportunities, ranging from birdwatching to four-wheeling.

Each of the 175 sites, which are scattered through 17 mostly western states, is described, mapped and detailed with information about where to stay, when to visit, who to contact and so on. Price: $20. Info: Smithsonian Institution Press, (800) 782-4612.

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