If you aren't lucky enough to be spending the holiday in a national park, today's newsletter is meant to transport you to one through photographs. — David Leonhardt |
Good morning. It's getting harder to prepare national parks for their busiest season. |
 | | Bryce Canyon National ParkErin Schaff/The New York Times |
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Getting ready for Memorial Day |
Today is something of a curtain raiser for the U.S. National Parks system, ushering in its busiest season. |
Last year, nearly 312 million people visited the parks, hiking across the Grand Canyon, posting Instagram stories from Joshua Tree and waiting for Old Faithful by Yellowstone's rainbow pools. (Reminder: Don't touch the bison calves!) On Memorial Day last year, so many people headed to the sites that many of their parking lots were full by midmorning. |
At Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, home to 50-million-year-old rock formations, park rangers start clearing the way for visitors weeks ahead of the busy season. They restore dozens of miles of trails — removing debris and navigating steep cliffs on foot before the snow even melts, as my colleague Linda Qiu reported in a story with photos by Erin Schaff. Similar preparation plays out at the system's parks around the country. |
 | | A crew clearing rocks and damage from storms. Erin Schaff/The New York Times |
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Over millions of years, wind and rain have shaped the limestone in Bryce Canyon into maze of spire-shaped rocks shooting into the air at 8,000 feet. The process is responsible for the park's dramatic beauty. But it's also a pain for rangers. |
Each winter, the rain and snow sand down the rock faces and degrade trails. Each spring, crews clear hiking paths of debris, mostly by hand to limit destruction to the natural habitat. |
"The amount of physical labor used to clear the trails was so surprising to me," Erin said. "The rocks they lift are incredibly heavy. Like, how can you repetitively do this all summer to your back?" |
Unusually intense storms and a wet winter this past year wrought severe damage, delaying trail openings and complicating cleanup. One side of the trail remains closed as crews continue repairs, digging out the surface of the route and installing wire baskets filled with large rocks along the perimeter to divert water and facilitate drainage. |
 | | Search-and-rescue training.Erin Schaff/The New York Times |
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The rock slides and high elevation pose a risk for visitors, too. |
Bryce averages around 40 search-and-rescue operations a year, often to help people who have fallen. Rangers and local volunteers undergo basic technical rescue training, learning to use ropes and high-angle equipment for more complicated rescues. |
Here's one example: Last summer, a visitor could not complete a strenuous eight-mile hike. She tried to take a shortcut to return to the starting point and became separated from her grandchildren. Hours later, rangers found her clinging to a precipitous slope, unable to move. Securing ropes, they descended and lifted her to safety. |
 | | A ranger looking through a telescope.Erin Schaff/The New York Times |
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The rangers have to fit all of their cleanup and prep work into daylight hours. At night, their job is to keep the lights off, protecting Bryce's status as a dark-sky park: After sunset, less than 1 percent of Bryce Canyon is lit by artificial light. |
"It's clear how proud they are of the uniqueness of Bryce's night sky," Linda said. "They're conserving the park, but they're also preserving a view of the Milky Way." |
 | | Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, and his wife, Emine.Ali Unal/Associated Press |
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- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey won re-election in a runoff, overcoming a reeling economy and anger over an earthquake's devastation.
- NATO countries are worried about his grip on the country and his ties to Vladimir Putin. Here are five election takeaways.
- Erdogan has played up Turkey's Ottoman past, using monuments and TV shows to rally his voters.
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 | | A service member visits the gravesite of his friend.Pete Marovich for The New York Times |
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The Games Sale. Limited time offer. |
Want to play all our games? Subscribe to New York Times Games for 50% off your first year. Reach Genius on Spelling Bee, strengthen your Wordle strategy with WordleBot, and play The Crossword, Tiles and more. |
Lives Lived: George Maharis was a 1960s television heartthrob, starring in the series "Route 66." He died at 94. |
| SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC |
N.H.L.: The Stars will face the Golden Knights tonight after forcing a Game 6 in their Western Conference final series. |
 | | Logan Roy and Tom in "Succession."David M. Russell/HBO |
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HBO's "Succession," which aired its finale last night, was in many ways the late-capitalist heir to "Dallas," the Times TV critic James Poniewozik wrote, a prime-time saga that used delicious dialogue and sibling rivalries to explore the nature of wealth. What made the shows different, though, was the ways that wealth has changed since the 1980s — namely, the rich are now much richer. "The holdings of Waystar Royco," James writes, "make Ewing Oil look like a franchise gas station." |
- Read a recap of last night's final episode (it contains spoilers).
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 | | James Ransom for The New York Times |
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The pangrams from yesterday's Spelling Bee were finitude, infinitude, unfitted and unidentified. Here are today's puzzle and the Bee Buddy, which helps you find remaining words. |
Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. |
P.S. On Memorial Day in 2004, a memorial to World War II veterans was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. |
 | Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Amy Fiscus News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Lyna Bentahar, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lauren Hard Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch |
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