Ken Burns Tours National Parks on PBS

Film maker Ken Burns, who teamed up with PBS in 1990 to bring us an epic series on the Civil War, chronicles the development of our country’s extraordinary national parks system in a 12-hour PBS series debuting at 8 p.m. this Sunday. The National Parks: America’s Best Idea will run on PBS stations at 8 p.m. on consecutive nights from Sunday, Sept. 27 through Friday, Oct. 2 (check your local listings). This series is a must see for RV travelers who enjoy camping at national parks. Each two-hour episode will explore the park system’s rich history, from its evolution to the people whose efforts turned dream into reality to the history and development of individual parks. Expect plenty of gorgeous film footage of scenic park vistas. The series promises to enrich your next RV trip to a national park while showcasing parks you may want to visit.

Many of our national parks were simply tracts of preserved land until President Roosevelt used the CCC to put people back to work during the 1930’s depression (see our last post). Roads, trails, campsites and visitors’ centers built by the CCC opened America’s national parks to the public, for the first time providing easy access to these natural treasures. Shenandoah National Park in Virginia was the first park to benefit. CCC-built Skyline Drive provides sweeping vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains as it twists through 105 miles bisecting the park. The beautiful RV campsites and great hiking and biking trails we enjoy at Shenandoah now began with the CCC.