Transcript of Podcast #13: California State & National Parks
In Attendance: Aimee Jiang (she/her) & Yang Yue (he/him)
Aimee: Hello, everyone welcome to another episode of the GIC podcast. My name is Aimee Jiang. I’m the International Student Support Officer for Graduate Division and I am really excited for today’s topic. I’m pretty sure I’ve said this in like every single, podcast but this is one of my favorite things is, we talked about traveling and a few of our podcasts, but National Parks are some of my favorite places to travel to as well as our State Parks. And so that is what we’re going to talk about today, and I am going to pass it over to my co-host and have him introduce himself.
Yang: Hi, everyone. My name is Yang, I’m from China and currently, I’m a Ph.D. candidate in Software Engineering. And I’m also participating in like GIC for like over 4 years. So I’m kind of like return, like GIC mentor for this program and I really enjoy this process. And also, I’m also kind of excite you to this topic. We are talking about the National Parks and State Park in California, so we can also do enjoy the beauty natures while we are around and have some kind of time.
Aimee: Yeah. And we’ve talked about National Parks. You and I have talked about them, and we’ve talked about them with a few other mentors as well. It’s some of the most amazing places to visit in, in the U.S. So these National Parks are throughout the nation. Can you talk a little bit about what the National Park system is, what it looks like? Kind of more of a global sense of it.
Yang: Yeah, sure. So for the National Parks, they actually preserves the nationally and the globally significant areas and nature reserves. Like, for example, the Yellowstone was actually the first National Park in U.S., and so far we have 63 National Parks across the United States in total. And these National Parks, is actually managed by the National Park Agency. And an interesting thing is that besides this National Park, they also manage other places like National Monuments, which preserve a single unique, cultural or natural features, and also include some like National Preserve, National Reserves, National Historical Sites, and National Historic Parks. So they actually have a variety of a collection of places you can visit.
Aimee: Yeah, it, it can get confusing to, because some of them sound similar. So there’s like some National Forests, and sometimes the National Forest is named the same thing, or has a similar name as some of the other places. Sometimes the National Monuments are like next to a State Park or a National Park. So there’s lots of different opportunities for you to get out and see some of the places that we’re preserving as a nation. I know that 63 number just keeps growing. I have a National Park book that that we got in, I think 2019, 2018, and it had 60, 61 parks, I think, somewhere around there. So there’s been 2 additional parts that have been added since, since that timeframe. So you’ll hear about new National Parks. Generally the National Parks that get added have been like a National Preserve or part of a National Historical Site before, maybe a State Park that’s been now nominated to receive additional Federal funding in order to become a, a listed National Park. There’s a couple of really cool videos on like Disneyplus, I think, has some maybe Netflix that are about the National Park system, and, like you mentioned, it started with Yellowstone, and kind of how it’s grown and how we’re preserving these spaces from being used for logging or housing. and it’s not just something within the U.S. We’re really proud of our National Parks, but you’ll find National Parks and Preserves all over the world, as well. So it’s a very cool system to look into if you haven’t before. Lots of videos out there on it. There’s a lot of Youtube videos, too, about the history of certain parks or the larger scale. National Parks aren’t free, so the national funding that comes from the Federal Government to these parks does supplement it. But it’s also based on visitors coming to the park and enjoying the beauty of the landscape. Can you talk a little bit about some of the fees for the National Parks and the opportunity for a National Park Pass?
Yang: Yeah, sure. So first, they, they will provide like interagency pass, that’s usually like $80 so far. And that means within that the pass you can like have, you will have the access to most of the National Parks for free, so that, cause you already pay for the you don’t need to pay for the entrance fees again, and that’s, that’s your, the value for one year. So that means with $80 for one year you can visit as many National Parks that you want. That’s very convenient and well for some of us, probably that’ll be like exhausting to visit all like 60 National Park within one year. So if you want to like, just like follow your own pace and visit some National Parks, one by one each step, and they also provide the entrance pass that they will sell at the entrance station of the National Park, or with the visitor centers, and the the price is actually cheaper compared to the interagency pass. That’s your only like $10 to $30. That depends on the type of the vehicles your access like if you are just visit per person, that you’re like $10 per person. But if you’re visiting by vehicle like there’s driving your own car or rental car they will charge you $30 for this whole vehicle, and they won’t charge you separately for any visitors within the car. So the, that’s entrance pass, actually very convenient. So you can just go there with your friends just by one entrance pass and usually that past will be valid for 7 days, so the National Parks, tend to be very large, and sometimes it’s impossible for us to visit all of the places in the park for one day. So that means you can either camping inside the park, or you can just stay around the parks, and you can visit another day. So cause that’s a bit, that’s the pass is valid for 7 days, so you will have plenty of time to enjoy the beauty. Besides these passes, sometimes they also offer the fee free days like add some kind of the definitely holidays, like Veteran Days, or the first day of a National Park week. This National Park will be free for everyone. So you can just choose these days to visit, and you don’t need to pay for any like entrance fees. But you should know, that’s it’s usually be very popular for some National Parks so that could be crowded for that day. Besides these, like some of the parks like Joshua trees, they actually provide this annual entrance this single park. It’s currently charge you like $55. That means with that pass you can visit Joshua tree that single park within one year. So any any days you want within that one year. So in case you just have some, your favorite National Parks around, so you can just purchase that pass as well, and for the places you can either like purchase online from the National Park Service website. They provide that options there and, or you can just so like visit to the visitors centers or the park entrance of the National Park. You can also purchase a pass there.
Aimee: Yeah, I have the interagency pass because we try and at least go to a couple of them, and I always figure I’m supporting the National Park system in the nation that I live in, and so I’m always excited, even if I only go once or twice, go to maybe 2 different parks, and maybe that would have been $60 if I just went 2 of them. I’m at least giving $20 towards the National Park system this year, I’ve been to 4 Parks already, so I’m getting my money’s worth out of my annual past this year. But I know, like you said, if, if you’re just going to maybe take a one week trip to Joshua Tree, which is going to be the closest, or maybe go up north and see Sequoia, or the Redwood National Park, or Yosemite, is a really very crowded, but very popular and beautiful park. It’s a great option to just buy the single trip. A lot of people camp at these parks, too, and it can be really hard to get a reservation. I know we went to Yosemite in kind of an off season we went. I believe it was in like April or May, so it wasn’t the busiest season. Summer at National Parks is always going to be the busiest and we were able to get a campsite. But there was some flooding in one of the campsites, so they canceled one of our nights. So you do have to look at weather, road closures. The National Park website, you can select the park you’re going to, and it will give you any updates like road closures, warnings about bears in the area, or flooding at campgrounds things things like that. It’ll definitely give you some warning. So that’s always really helpful, as well. Have have you been able to go camping at any of the parks?
Yang: yeah, I actually went to Channel Islands if you heard that one, I camped there. So that’s a really like exciting different experience for me. And I think it’s also similar to most of the National Park, because we just to try our best to preserve that, that natural land. So there’s limited infrastructure there, like in most of the time when your in National Parks because you don’t have any cell phone surveys. So when that tips is, that’s just get all the necessary information, especially like, which road will be closed, which area is kind of dangerous, so risks you should just avoid, get that necessary information before you enter the park, because once you enter there is, will be limited or no cell phone service. So that means you don’t have any contacts like channel to the outside world. And for the camping. So you actually like, we reserved that line. So we just we, we actually need to like bag all our camping gears and carry to the Channel Islands and the they will actually give you a designated camp side you can just set up your tents and the stuff, so they will provide some like a water, there is like the water hose over there, so I can just use water to cooking and wash. But there’s no like shower or other facilities because it’s National Parks and unlike the fancy hotels.
Aimee: Yeah, I I’ve only ever seen showers at one National Park. Outside of some of them do have like bigger hotels in them that you could stay at if you’re not more, more of the camping, kind of person. But Shenandoah in Virginia had showers, and my husband and I were both shocked because we had never seen showers at a campground in a National Park before. But, like you said, it’s to preserve nature. So the purpose of the park is to be less intrusive on the natural land and to really protect the environment and that does come with some things that can be a little, we want to plan ahead. So things like bears. A lot of the parks in California are in the woods like Sequoia and Kings Canyon and the Redwoods, and Yosemite, bears, they have bear boxes where you put your food and any like toiletries that have a scent to them, because bears will eat your toothpaste to and they will break into your car. They will definitely get into your tent. And so you really want to be safe when you’re there. Make sure you’re following any of the rules and regulations. When you enter Yosemite they give you like a tag that says that you got the talk about the bear talk about what to do with your stuff. So just make sure that you’re listening to those, because people have been injured by wildlife at parks. You see it very commonly at places like Yellowstone. There are lots of different kinds of wildlife. So it’s about protecting the land and also the animals that live on the land. Understanding that this isn’t a zoo. These are natural animals in their habitat, and so you want to protect yourself and any children and pets. Some parks allow dogs to come with you. You have to be cautious about certain trails they might not allow. But there can be additional rules. for example, when I was at Shenandoah recently, again, that was in Virginia. The dogs that were in the park had to be on a leash that was less than 6 foot, so that your dog was close enough to you that if a bear came into your area that you and your dog could be protected and get away, so those are things you definitely want to look into. But our National Park system is very cool. In California, which we’ll talk about our State Parks, too. We have a lot of parks just in California. In general, we have a very diverse landscape here, and so we have very cool options for parks, and we kind of briefly mentioned a few of them. Yosemite, Channel Islands, Redwoods, Death Valley (Aimee forgot Pinnacles & Lassen Volcanic National Parks). But Joshua Tree, I think, is, as you mentioned, it has the annual pass. I think it’s also one of the most popular ones that I see students go to. Can you talk a little bit about Joshua tree?
Yang: Yeah, because Joshua trees kind of popular like here around our campus, because first is kind of like a near on our campus side. It’s just on the east of Orange County, and it’s you’re usually around 3 hours drive from our campus to Joshua Tree. And it’s actually located within San Bernardino, and the Riverside counties. The unique part of the Joshua Tree is at first it is includes the 2 parts of the desert you might heard, like Mohavi Desert and Colorado Desert. So it’s created that unique landscape within the National Park. And also on the land, there’s like that’s a unique plan to call it Joshua Tree. That’s the park is actually named after that plant. You will see plenty of a joshua trees within the park. So that’s the very amazing. And you can barely see that plants anywhere else. And for the activities in the Joshua Tree, so besides the camping, that’s kind of normal for most of the of National Parks, you can also do some hiking because the landscape is different. There’s some kind of small hills. And also there’s some kind of desert. So you can just do hiking within different trails and also do the photography as they to different views and different plants. And also there are a lot of like the animals the actually creates that symbiotic areas within the park. So that’s interesting. If you are like the expert in biology or interested in that part, you can just find a lot of like semi-biotic areas within the parkland. For some of the sports friends, and they could also do the rock climbing because they have various places for the rock climbing side, but just to make sure to follow the rules and policies and make sure about your safety, while doing this exercise. And another amazing thing about Joshua Tree is that it’s it’s kind of a large National Park and far away from the towns, so it would be less affected by the air pollution around the cities. So that’s it’s a perfect place to do the stargazing. If we have any audience, that’s interested in that activities. So you can just takes any, take a lot of pictures about the stars and even galazies at the correct the time of the year. And another like amazing thing about the stargazing in Joshua Tree that, Joshua Tree National Park is actually open at 24 hours, and if you enter the park at night, you don’t need to pay for the entrance fees. So cause I actually do that several times, like my first 2 visits, was actually entered after the Park Ranger off duty, so that’s I don’t, I didn’t need to pay for the entrance fees. I just enter there, take some pictures, and then we just left. That will be very convenient, because they want to provide much opportunity for you to explore the nature. But you should be, but just know that when the Park Ranger, are on duty they will check your tickets. No matter when you’re entering or exiting the park. So if you, if you didn’t have the ticket, with you while you are living the park, you need to pay for that.
Aimee: Yeah, I hear a lot about stargazing there. I’ve only ever been to Joshua Tree during the day to take pictures. There’s a bunch of cacti gardens, and like you, said the joshua tree itself is very cool, and they’re all over the park, and a very unique looking plant. I am really excited to try and go to see the stargazing. We’re trying to line it up with the Moon calendar. So it’s where there’s no moon visible so that you get even more stars. I see that reservations on Joshua Tree are always booked out for campgrounds closer to places where there’s less moon, because that’s what people a lot of times are going to camp there to be able to see the the stars. It’s very known for that. I hear a lot of students bring telescopes and and have a really nice time stargazing. That’s not something we see a lot in Orange County or in LA, because, like you said, there’s so much light pollution, that it’s very hard to see stars here. So that’s a place that’s pretty well known. One of the cool things about Joshua Tree, too, is that it’s near Palm Springs and Palm Desert, which are 2 pretty big populations for people to go visit. And so if you’re not a big camper and you’re not interested in being out in nature. It’s just like a maybe half hour, 45 min drive into the park from Palm Springs and Palm Desert area so you can always get a hotel maybe get an airbnb or something, and then head into the park for the day, or, like you said, maybe go at night time, see the stars, and then to go back to, and maybe a more comfortable place for you. if you aren’t interested in camping, or it’s this time of year. We’re recording this during summer. I’ve looked at the parks the other day because I was like, Oh, maybe we should go this weekend, and it was like 107, which is somewhere in the forties, I believe Celsius.
Yang: Yeah I think 43 Celsius degrees.
Aimee: Yeah, it’s hot. So I was like, oh, maybe not. But if I was staying in a hotel and I could stay cool at a pool or something all day, and then maybe go look at the stars at night. That would be kind of another way to do the Joshua Tree, National Park. With this podcast, we will post some things on our Instagram of people at Joshua Tree. So you can kind of see what that park looks like. But some of the other National Parks that some of our GIC mentors and I have been able to go to. If, we’ve all really had great conversations about how much we love our park system here but, like I mentioned a little bit earlier, we don’t just have National Parks. We also have State Parks, so National Parks are federally funded, our State parks are funded and supported by the State. So can you tell us a little bit about State Parks and what it is like to pay to go to those?
Yang: Yeah, we are in the beautiful California State so the California State parks includes over 279 separates parking (transcript unavailable). So it’s actually the largest park system, State Park system in the U.S. So we have a lot of pretty views here. And for the State Park, it’s similar to the National Park. Just so like preserves this national and globally significant area and besides that, we also have this State Historical Parks like I know there’s one in Los Angeles Historical Park, and there are also some State Recreations Areas, Natural Reserve, State Park Properties, and these various selections as well.
Aimee: Yeah, I, I know the beach, a lot of the beaches are State Parks that are supported through State funds and we definitely, I think especially looking at the National Parks, we have here, as well as the State parks, we have a desert climate, we have mountains, we have lakes and rivers and big trees and smaller trees and cacti. So we have a very diverse climate, and structure here of the State of California, and that is why we have so many of our landscape areas saved and preserved through the National and State Park system. State Parks also cost money to go visit and so there are annual passes, day passes. Most of the time that covers like parking as well. Can you speak a little bit about the parking, not parking, pass structure for paying?
Yang: Yeah, for the parks. That depends like which parks you are visiting like for some of the State Beach like San Clemente State Beach the, there’s actually no entrance fee for the beach, so that you can just access for free. But you do need to pay for the parking if you’re going to park, at their parking lot. So there’s with the fee for the parking lot only. And for some other places like Chino Hills, that is also a parks, State Park that’s near, near our campus. And you actually need to pay the entrance fee that is around like $20 per entrance. That’s a similar to the National Park. You just to pay per vehicle, and you can just go there with your friends together. And at that Chino Hills State Park, the parking actually includes in the entrance fees. So you don’t need to worry about pay the parking lot again. And similar to the National Parks, the State Park also provide the annual pass, but the, this time the California like State Park is this, they, they have to provide various types. The price range is from like $75 to $195. So that’s way more differentcompared to that $80 national Park Pass. Because the reason is that they actually have different level of access, like, for example, if you pay is the most that $195 that you means you can access to literally all of the State Parks, including the most popular beaches in Southern California areas like Crystal Cove and Clemente, the State Beaches that’s already included in this expensive park pass. But for some others, if you think that’s like too expensive. Well, there are some other levels but that means you can access, you can have the access to some selected parks and destinations. So that’s why they provide these different types of the annual pass for the State Parks.
Aimee: Yeah and one thing that I learned about it, it wasn’t that long ago I was talking about how expensive it was to go to Crystal Cove. We really like to go there. It’s one of the closest kind of quiet beaches. I think it’s quieter because it costs money to go to to Crystal Cove and so I was talking to somebody about it, and they were like, Oh, did you know that you can get a library pass for the State Parks and be able to use that as like, it’s like an annual pass that you can check out at the library. So one of the reasons that you should definitely get a library pass is not just to have, like another place to go and study, or another section of books to access within California. It’s also because you can go in and try and request access to the State Park pass, checking it out like you would a book, and that would give you free access into the State Parks. They are limited. I’ve heard it’s really hard to get during the summer, so it definitely depends on when you’re going or or how often you plan to go but that’s definitely something to look into as well. yeah, I think that it.
Yang: Yeah I actually also have that pass because I got that library card. And I also try to reserve for one annual pass. So yeah, it’s too very like competitive during the summer times. Because currently, I’m in, I think I mean, line around 800. So, yeah, that’s kind of some kind of a wait. But the, the benefits of that park pass that the first it’s free. So you can just use that while you’re holding that the park house and that is actually includes some kind of the poplar destinations in Southern California, like the Crystal Cove that we already mentioned, and also the Chino Hills. That’s a very pretty state park, you had to some hiking over there, and it’s already included in this park pass. So you just, you don’t need to pay for that pricey annual pass and you can still visit to these beautiful places.
Aimee: Yeah and I will say the State Park Pass is definitely more expensive. Obviously the lowest level one is $5 cheaper than like the National Park. But if you’re going to go quite often to these very specific places, if you’re like an avid hiker and you want access to other places. It definitely can be a beneficial to think about it, because I think Crystal Cove is like $30 to park and go into the Crystal Cove area so it can add up pretty quickly if you go often. We talked about Crystal Cove. We’ve mentioned it a few times, and it is one of the closest ones. I know Chino Hills is as well. But I would say, Crystal Cove is the one that I hear students going with their families, or when they have relatives coming into town bringing them to that area. Can you talk a little bit about Crystal Cove?
Yang: Yeah, for the Crystal Cove. That’s sort of like the closest State Park to our campus is just west of the Irvine, and between the Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. So you’re only like 15 to 20 min drive, you arrived at places. The entrance fee is, I think, sort of like $20 or $30 per vehicle, and some times, at some point, at some parking lot, you can actually like pay per hour, so that will be lower fees. But, like Aimee just said, if you like want to visit the Crystal Cove frequently, a park pass is not bad, actually, because that will give you the access any time within one year. So if you want to like, be there frequently, and for there is not just the the beach, so it’s it’s a park that, including the hills and also the beach and the cliffs. So you can just chill on a beach with a friend, family members, or do surfing if you love that sports on the ocean, and of course that is a pretty land, so can do the photographies, and besides these, there are also some hills included in the Crystal Cove State Park, so you can do this some hiking and also camping. But the different part is that the Crystal Cove not open 24 hours. That means, after the says that the park will close and the entrance will be also be closed, so you can’t have the access overnight, unless you are a a camper, unless you are camper that you could stay at the campsite.
Aimee: Yeah, yeah, I know it. It closes. I mean the, and the the closing time changes throughout the year, based on when the sunset. So you always want to kind of check on that. I’ve seen a lot of people. I’ve done some hiking over there, but I’ve seen a lot of people hiking like you said Surfing, just hanging out, having a picnic at the beach. But I also see a lot of people get engaged at the beach and do like photography, for, like you can tell they’re getting married, or they have or their pregnant, or they have just had a kid. So it’s definitely a very great place for very scenic views of the kind of cliff and beach area that we live in, in Irvine. I yeah, it’s one of my favorite places to go, but we don’t go very often, because we haven’t buckled down and bought that annual past. So we avoid paying to go but definitely recommend visiting. Any other last thoughts. I think that was pretty much everything that we had to cover.
Yang: Yeah, I think we just covered most of like all the National Parks and State Parks here. So I think probably just some tips, like just to do some research before you go, and to be aware, like what kind of the, which area you are going to have the access, since like that sort of information, and also just like, be careful while you’re there because that’s like the wilderness land so there would be some like this, sometimes you’ll be some kind of dangerous things happen. So just to be careful over there, and also please follow the rules and respects of land. And this is a, a reserve to place that we should all like respect and protect by ourselves.
Aimee: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I know that’s on a lot of the things you’ll see from the National Park services. Their motto is like to protect the park but we also want you to go and explore it. So safety first. But, but do enjoy the beautiful landscape of California especially, but also throughout the nation. I try to go to conferences, and when I’m at a conference I try and check and see like how far away is the nearest National Park. So if you haven’t opportunity to go to, you know the East Coast, or to go somewhere in Central U.S., and you haven’t been to a National Park over there, there’s some really great options. I mean we have very popular ones, I would say Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone are probably the most, and maybe Zion, are probably the ones that are the most well known. But there’s 63 of them that, to explore, so check something out that might be unique and different. The most unique one that I’ve been to is called Congaree and it is in South Carolina and it is like a boardwalk through a swamp, and I thought it was just beautiful, it has lots of mosquitoes, and it was so unique and different compared to like the other big parks that we’ve been to that are really popular. So I had a really wonderful time getting to see something very different and learn about a very different part of the U.S.’s History, and why this land was being preserved. So I do recommend that as an additional tip is, try and check out one of the more off the beaten trail, less well known parks. Because you’re gonna be surprised by how cool they are. But thank you for joining us. I have loved talking about the National and State Parks, and I really hope that we hear from all of you that are listening on where you end up going as you explore our nation. Thank you!
Yang: Thank you.