Trail Tales 92 ft. National Park Trust

Summary

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National Park After Dark

Trail Tales 92 ft. National Park Trust
Aired: April 23, 2026
Hosts: Danielle and Cassie
Guests: Annelise & Ailish from National Park Trust

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Episode Overview

This heartwarming and lively episode shifts the National Park After Dark focus from the usual adult-centered, sometimes dark chronicles to celebrating the joy, adventure, and importance of connecting families and children with national and local parks. Cassie and Danielle invite Annelise and Ailish from the National Park Trust to discuss the organization’s mission, their flagship youth and military programs, poignant trail tales (bear and bison encounters included), and how the great outdoors supports healing and fosters stewardship in people of all ages and backgrounds.

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Main Discussion Points and Insights

1. National Park Trust: Mission and History

• Origins and Evolution
  • Established in 1983 as an accredited land trust, initially focused on acquiring privately-held lands inside park boundaries for return to the National Park Service (05:23).
  • Since the early 2000s, expanded into robust community engagement: "parks can't be preserved and protected without dedicated park stewards" (06:58, Annelise).
  • Today: Dual mission—preserving parks via land acquisition, and creating future stewards through youth, family, military, and college programs.

2. Flagship Youth Program: Buddy Bison

• Goals and Structure
  • Buddy Bison connects kids—especially from Title 1 (underserved) schools—to parks through up to three field experiences per year (07:41, Ailish).
  • Supports integration of environmental education across subjects: not just science, but history, art, journaling.
  • Removes access barriers: covers transportation (often prohibitively expensive for schools), provides classroom assemblies with naturalists, sends kits for garden or stewardship projects.
• The Mascot: Buddy Bison!
  • Plush mascot with a carabiner to encourage kids to take him outdoors (11:49).
  • “Buddy Bison isn’t a regular stuffed animal. He’s a cool stuffed animal.” (12:47, Danielle).
  • Annelise and Ailish admit to being mascots behind the scenes sometimes, joking about mascot adventures and seeing Buddy Bison across parks (13:20).

3. Building Connections (Trail Tales Segment)

• Story: Almost Kissed by a Bison
  • Listener Gideon recounts a tension-filled drive through bison herds in Yellowstone, culminating in a near face-to-face with a buffalo by the car window (14:41-20:54).
  • Quote:
    • “If he stuck out his lips he could have kissed us.” — Gideon, story read 18:30
  • Hosts and guests reflect on how intimidating and humbling bison can be up close, sharing their own bison jam adventures (21:06-23:47).
• Story: Bathroom Break to Bear Encounter
  • Annelise shares a personal trail tale: during a backpacking trip in Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy, a bear ransacked another group’s backpack (while she was out for a pre-dawn bathroom break), highlighting the importance of proper food storage (25:27-34:01).
  • Quote:
    • “Enjoy the view but watch your back. Next bathroom break might lead to a bear encounter and PSA: always put your food in the bear canister.” — Annelise, 32:37

4. Kids to Parks Day & School Grants

• Kids to Parks Day
  • National event (third Saturday in May; May 16, 2026) encouraging everyone—not just kids—to unplug and get outside, participate in local park activities, and share moments together (37:20–41:51).
  • Not limited to national parks—state, county, and local parks emphasized, making outdoor access more inclusive.
• School Grants Program
  • Title 1 K–12 classrooms can apply for up to $1,000 for park trips (45:49), funding transportation, programming, and supplies.
  • “If you’re in a big school with five 5th grade classrooms… you can pull together and apply for up to $5,000” (45:56, Ailish).
  • Testimonial shared:
    • “As soon as we stepped off the bus, I could smell trees and flowers and fresh air… It was like we walked into a nature movie...” — 5th grader, Marin Headlands (47:25-49:16)
    • “My brain felt calm and clear, like all the noise went away... I learned more in one week than in a whole week of regular science class.”

5. Inclusivity and Local Focus

• National Park Trust is intentional about reaching first-time and underserved park users, especially in urban and marginalized communities, using local/state parks as stepping stones (42:19).
• “Nature does not, you know, play favorites” (43:31, Ailish).

6. Military and Family Engagement Programs

• Collaborations with military organizations (e.g., Project Healing Waters, TAPS) to provide service members and families with restorative park experiences and reduced barriers (gear, transport, tailored ranger programming) (60:58).
• Touching Story:
  • A Gold Star family weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park, where wildlife encounters provided signs of comfort to grieving families.
  • “...a young boy who had lost his father shared that this weekend was the first time since his father’s death that he woke up without the feeling of dread and the weight of the world” (66:19–68:53, Annelise).
  • “When you look up at the sky, it’s the same sky that connects you to the Rockies, to each other, and to the mountains and the memories we shared and created” (67:30, Annelise).

7. Connecting Listeners with Action

• Find more at parktrust.org and look for the tree logo (73:39).
• Donations can be earmarked for specific programs (Kids to Parks, Buddy Bison, etc.).
• New merch collaboration: National Park After Dark x National Park Trust shirts—adult and youth sizes, with all profits supporting the Trust (75:28).

8. Favorite Park Memories

• Ailish: Coordinated a stewardship event at Big Thicket National Preserve—students planted native bluestem, able to “come back for the rest of your life and know that you changed this plot of land” (77:16-78:41).
• Annelise: Military family climbing events in Maryland; witnessing a 3-year-old’s joy on the ropes, fostering lifelong memories (78:44-79:54).
• Hosts: Reminisce about the magic of seeing kids in nature “covered in dirt” and fully engaged.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On access & inclusion:
  “We want to find people that are maybe a little bit nervous about getting into their parks or outdoor spaces and haven’t traditionally felt welcomed in the past.” — Annelise (42:41)

• On real-world learning:
  “We learned about this in class, but it’s totally different to see it in the real world.” — Cassie, 51:55

• On the healing power of parks:
  “Caring for our parks is caring for each other.” — Annelise, 68:53

• On becoming park stewards:
  “When you love something, you want to protect it. And so that is what we’re trying to cultivate through all of these programs.” — Ailish, 49:32

• On the organization’s role:
  “We are the boots on the ground people that put on these programs... Alish and I are the ones traveling to these different parks and making it happen.” — Annelise, 73:39

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:44–01:53 – Intro to episode theme, guest introductions, and National Park Trust mission
• 05:23–07:04 – Organization's origin and community engagement pivot
• 07:41–12:47 – Buddy Bison program details and mascot discussion
• 14:41–20:54 – Listener’s ‘Almost Kissed by a Bison’ trail tale
• 25:27–34:01 – Annelise’s Yosemite bear encounter trail tale
• 37:20–41:51 – Kids to Parks Day, participation, and inclusivity
• 45:49–49:16 – School Grants program and moving student testimonial
• 60:58–69:57 – Military programs and story of connection and healing
• 72:45–80:15 – How to support, donate, where to find info, and merch collab
• 77:16–80:36 – Favorite, most memorable park experiences
• 81:39–83:20 – Reflections and gratitude
• 83:31–83:38 – “Enjoy the view, but watch your back!” show close with guests

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Memorable, Lighthearted Moments

• Extended, enthusiastic discussion of owl pellets and hands-on outdoor learning fun (09:23–12:47)
• Buddy Bison mascot costume escapades and park “sightings” (13:17–14:13)
• Hosts joking about kids’ grant applications:
  “What do you want to see [at the park]?” “I want to play with my friend Joe.” — (45:49)
• Story of “Granddad Lore”: family lost overnight in snowy Australia, raw onion survival, and Pilates grandpa (52:35–57:16)

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Actionable Info

• Join or Support: Visit parktrust.org, sign up for newsletters, follow on socials (@parktrust), or donate to targeted programs.
• Gear Up: Get and share photos in the new collaborative merch—adults and kids designs—with 100% of profits supporting park programming.
• Participate: Kids to Parks Day — May 16, 2026; check for events at local, state, and national parks.
• Submit Memories: Listeners are encouraged to tag the show and National Park Trust with their own trail tales and Buddy Bison adventures.

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Closing

The episode is an inspiring celebration of the real impact of getting young people, families, and military communities into parks, fostering healing, stewardship, and lifelong wonder. The conversation is lively, deeply personal, and filled with practical pathways for listeners to get involved and give back.
“Enjoy the view, but watch your back.”

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Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to National Park After Dark. I'm Cassie.

[C]

I'm Danielle.

[B]

And we're here with another Trail Tales episode for you all today, but this one is slightly different because we have some guests with us.

[C]

We do. We just wrapped up with them. It's such a fun episode, and it's about something we never really talked about before on National Park After Dark, and that's families and kids. I know.

[B]

It's kind of about time, because you guys have been telling us for years that you do this with your kids.

[C]

Like, listen, we have kids.

[B]

We have kids. We listen. And even teachers have come forward and said, like, their kids listen for some educational stuff. And we're like, okay, we have children here. We want to do something that's helpful for. For them in parks, too, and also for families, not just kids. This is a strictly kids episode, but we just wanted to do a little nod to that. So today we have Annelise and Ailish from the National Park Trust here with us today. And you may have seen them around in national parks. This trust, it's very popular. I guarantee you've seen their logos around. But if you're unfamiliar, National Park Trust is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting parklands and connecting people to the outdoors. So since 1983, they've protected critical parklands across the country, completing 74 projects that have benefited 57 national park sites. And as we celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States, 31 of those projects have helped preserve historic and cultural sites tied to defining moments in our country's history.

[C]

And at the same time, they're expanding access to parks, public lands, and waters through youth, families, family, military, and college programs, connecting tens of thousands of people to the outdoors each and every year. At their core, they believe these places should be cared for, experienced, and preserved by everyone for current and future generations. So today, they are here to share some of their own trail tales, dive into the work they do, and talk about how all of us can play a role in protecting these spaces. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Annalise and Ailish, we're so happy to have you.

[A]

It is insane.

[D]

So cool to be talking with you guys. We are such big fans of the podcast and all of the stories you guys have told over the years. We've been listening for a long time, and it's really awesome to be able to be chatting with you guys.

[A]

Yeah. So surreal to be on the podcast. So, yeah, like Aish said, just been long time listeners always bring it up in conversation. Always brag about you guys, so.

[B]

Well, thank you.

[C]

So you're our unofficial hype girls.

[D]

Honestly, getting a lot of promo, for sure.

[B]

We appreciate it. We truly do. Well, I guess before we dive into all of the stuff about National Park Trust, would you both be able to just introduce yourselves and say a little bit about what your role is within National Park Trust?

[D]

Yeah, definitely. So I am Ailish. I am one of the education coordinators in our youth programs department. At National Park Trust, we do a lot of different things, but within our youth program, I work as an education coordinator for our Buddy Bison school program, which I think we'll talk about in a minute. But basically my job is just to connect kids to parks, get kids outside, get kids learning about the environment, get them passionate about it, and inspire them to be future park stewards.

[C]

And love that.

[A]

Yeah. And my name is Annelise. I'm a programs coordinator for the National Park Trust and my side of the house. I do all of our 18 plus programs. So that includes our college ambassador programs and our military programs. I specifically oversee our entirety of our college ambassador program, which encourages college students across the US to motivate their peers to get outside. And then on the other side is military engagement. So providing military families, including all service members of all branches of the military, including, including veterans and gold star families, National Guard and Reserve, just really meaningful park experiences. And yeah, I think just like a little background on myself is I in college, was actually a college ambassador myself when the program was first created. And I just fell in love with bringing people outdoors that I found myself post graduation, kind of in the outdoors, or not in the outdoors realm, but like this corporate world and just realized how much I missed it. And I found myself returned to the Park Trust to now lead this program and lead other programs. So really, really cool and a little fun story that I like to share.

[B]

Well, it's so cool to have you both here because I feel like we're getting every generation is being covered today, which is really. Which is really fun. So with all of that being said, let's get into the National Park Trust and what you guys do, how it started. We'd love to just learn more about it.

[A]

Yeah, definitely. So the National Park Trust is a national nonprofit organization that is direct partners with the National Park Service. So our mission as a whole is to preserve parks today and create park stewards for tomorrow. And just a little bit of history on how we started. We started 40 plus years ago as an accredited land trust where we buy and acquire privately held lands. In and around our national park boundaries and ultimately return those pieces of land to the Park Service so those missing pieces can be preserved and protected forever. And that was the what the organization was solely created to do back in 1983, when we first started. But in the early 2000s, we actually thought to ourselves, hey, we realize even though our land work is super, super important, parks can't be preserved and protected without dedicated park stewards. So, in turn, that's when our community engagement programs were born. And we now work to engage different communities with our national parks and other public lands and waters through our youth programs, which Alis oversees, which he'll talk more about our military and college programs. And we do this by creating meaningful park experiences through access, education, connection. And so just as a whole, and that was, like, a really large overview. I don't want to get too in the weeds of it, but just to tie it all together with our mission. The park trust preserves parks today through our land acquisition work and creates park stewards for tomorrow through our program work.

[C]

Amazing. So going off of that Ailish question for you, so you are obviously heavily involved with kids and inspiring them to care for and be stewards of the land that you've worked so hard to acquire and preserve and protect. Because, you know, like, preservation is great in the present, but it's nothing without a future. And we all know that kids are the future. So can you talk to us a little bit about the Buddy Bite Bison program and kids and parks and what those programs look like?

[D]

Yeah, definitely. So the Buddy Bison program is kind of like our flagship youth program model. We work with about 100 Title 1 schools across the country. And Title 1 schools are just underserved schools, basically. They, like, receive federal funding. So these are really important communities to be reaching. These experiences, like, aren't innate to their childhood growing up, essentially. And so, yeah, we work with about 100 Title 1 schools across the country, and each school gets between, like, two and three park experiences throughout the school year. So we typically work with, like, one grade level per school. And so I work really closely with, like, a lead teacher, a buddy teacher, if you will. And at the beginning of the school year, they just kind of meet with me and I hear more about their curriculum, what they're going to be focusing on in, like, history or art or science. Like, if the trips aren't always just, like, science focused. I think we think about that a lot with, like, going to the park, you have to learn about nature or something in the environment, but, like, no, you can learn about historical figures or do, like, an art nature journaling thing at a park. So, yeah, meeting with the teachers and learning about what they want the trips to look like. And we cover funding for transportation, which is one of the biggest barriers to access. Some buses are, like, $2,000 for a trip, and a lot of these schools just don't have that in their budget set aside. So park trips, but also, like, assemblies. Like, we have nature centers that bring, like, birds of prey into classrooms and do, like, owl pellet dissections.

[C]

A favorite even to today.

[B]

Owl pellets are so cool.

[C]

I did it. I, like, did it last summer when I found one in the woods. Yeah.

[A]

Oh, my gosh.

[D]

Every time I find one in the woods, I grab, like, the most nearby stick, and I'm just like, what's going on?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I brought it home, and I made bets with friends of how many skulls I would find it.

[B]

How many did you find?

[C]

There were seven.

[A]

No way.

[C]

It was wild.

[D]

Wait, like, how big was it?

[C]

It was big.

[D]

It's crazy.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I need to look harder because I have a couple barred owls that frequent my yard. I see that. I hear them almost every day, and I see them pretty often, too, but I've never found an owl pellet. But to be totally fair, I don't really look. And my dogs are also pooping around that same area, so, yeah, it could be scary.

[D]

Yeah. We do so many owl pellets, and I have, like, owl pellets, like, at my desk at home, and I'm just like, if someone were to clear out my desk, what is this table tinfoil of, like, bone and fur doing in here?

[A]

Yeah. And, like, crazy caveat, but for those that are listening to us talk about owl pellets, like, they're not actually poop. No, they're.

[B]

They're the throw up. It's literally they're a regurgitation.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

That's what we have to tell the kids every time. Like, this is poop. I'm like, it's actually even better. It's throw up.

[C]

So, yeah, it's like, I understand where the confusion came from. Looks a lot like poop is not. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

I. I used to work in outdoor education, and one of the things that the kids loved the most were the owl pellets. They're digging in there. They're finding little skulls and legs and whatever.

[D]

And then. Yeah. I always like to encourage kids to, like, try and make a full, like, skeleton of what they find. So, like, put the head at the top. Try and do all the ribs and, like, see what they have. But yeah, big Alpella fans over here.

[C]

Great. Yeah.

[D]

So, yeah, like, assemblies, where we have naturalists come in, programs like that. And then we also will send out, like, educational kits. So if, like, a school has, like, a community garden or something, we'll supply whatever they may need for that. Seeds or stewardship. Things like trash bags and gloves, really just like, trying to get as much environmental education into the classroom as possible.

[B]

Very cool. And so where does Buddy Bison come into all of this?

[D]

Well, there he is. Held him up to the camera. Buddy Bison, for those who cannot see, Buddy Bison is our lovable woolly mascot at the National Park Trust. And we have these kind of, like, plushy bison stuffed animals that we hand out to kids as well. The coolest thing about them is they have a carabiner on them, because Buddy Bison is not a stuffed animal that wants to sit on your bed all day. Buddy Bison wants to go out with you to the park and experience the adventures with you. So we encourage kids to, like, clip them onto your backpack or on your belt loop or anything like that. But he kind of represents our program and our work to bring kids outside. And he's just like a tangible reminder that the parks are yours. Go outside, explore, enjoy, experience a sense of wonder outside. All of that good stuff.

[C]

Yeah. Buddy Bison isn't a regular stuffed animal. He's a cool stuffed animal.

[D]

We also have. Sorry, he's different. We also have a mascot as well. We have, like, a Buddy Bison mascot costume. So Buddy Bison, full size. Buddy actually makes some appearances at parks as well, which is cool. Not a part of the job description that I realized was, have you ever been Buddy Bison?

[B]

Are you talking to the Buddy Bison right now?

[D]

Is Buddy Bison in the room? Yeah.

[A]

If you. If you go to our social media and you see somebody bison, it may or may not be featuring one of

[D]

us, but we're both like 52 and 5 3.

[A]

So we can't. We can't actually represent Buddy Bison because we are very small. Like, we'd be the size of the children.

[D]

Yeah, but.

[A]

But we can go and dance on TikTok.

[D]

Yeah, we can do that. And we do.

[B]

Now I'm going to have to look out for Buddy Bison when I'm in the parks, because you never know.

[A]

We sell them all up and down the East Coast. We have, like, a very good relationship with the east coast parks. And you can find a Buddy Bison there. Yeah, but I was actually recently in Yosemite, and a park ranger there had A buddy bison attached to him and I was like, where did you get that?

[D]

Did we give it to them?

[A]

No, he just said he, he got it when he was on the east coast and he didn't realize I was like, I work for that organization.

[D]

That's awesome. So no, that was fun.

[B]

That's super cool. Well, in the spirit of bison, because today for this episode we're also reading some trail tales. I thought that it would be fun to bring a trail tale story that involves a bison, please. So this one is titled Almost Kissed by a Bison. That seems a little.

[A]

I want to get kissed by scary.

[B]

Hey ladies, my name is Gideon. Feel free to share and I like so many were introduced to the POD by a friend of mine as I started my journey to see all 63 US national parks. In the past year, I've checked off 15 parks and have plenty more trips planned in the near future. My favorite trip so far was this May where I was able to drive through South Dakota and Wyoming on a four park trip. I left my home in Wisconsin, picked up my grad school classmate Sam from his home in South Dakota and and we explored the Black Hills, Badlands, Wind Cave, Grand Teton and Yellowstone in my little Ford Focus.

[A]

That sounds like such a trip. It was a dream trip.

[B]

Grand Teton quickly became my favorite park with breathtaking views, close encounters with creatures pretending to be moose because moose aren't real, obviously.

[D]

Oh my gosh, I heard you guys talking about that in your latest episode. A recent episode about that.

[B]

Like I have never seen one on the east coast and I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced. But okay, so you see moose that aren't real and the absolute best hikes I have ever been on. We spent four days there and then headed up to Yellowstone for another three days. We were exhausted but dead set on seeing some more wildlife, notably grizzly bears. Leaving from Colter Bay and the Tetons, we drove straight up to our campsite in Mammoth Springs, pitched our tent and headed out to Lamar Valley to look for people with better telescopes and binoculars than us to ask them what they were looking at. Danielle and I can relate to that. So hard pro move. Yeah, we've done it. We saw wolves and coyotes, pronghorn elk and several black bears, but no grizzlies. At this point, Sam and I were getting pretty exhausted, but we were dead set on seeing a grizzly. We drove all the way to the northeast entrance, turned around and sat in my little car playing cards while we waited for the sun to get a Little lower in the sky. As it approached dusk, we started to drive back to Lamar Valley. Once the forest area we were in gave way to open valley, we spotted a car with someone outside with a big camera watching something across the water. We got out and the man kindly told us that he spotted a grizzly sow with her two cubs. I got out my tiny binoculars and Sam and I watched the grizzly family for as long as we could. This was that magical moment that so many have when they come to Yellowstone and I was so, so happy. Now you may be wondering why I'm going into so much detail about seeing a grizzly bear when the title of this story is about a bison. Well, stay with me. Because we watched this bear for so long, the daylight was really fading. To get to where we were in the park, we had to cross a herd of bison as far as the eye could see. Now the this story is just so funny because Danielle and I live to this exact same story.

[D]

Oh no, I see where it's going.

[C]

You don't even have to say anything.

[B]

Now that it was getting dark out, we had to pass through the same herd again. Not too many cars were out at this point, so we took the stretch of road near where the bison were moving. Very slowly we came to a point where we could see a larger bison standing still in the road while the other bison and calves around it started to cross the road. Sam and I were appreciating this awesome sight as the bisons became silhouettes in the setting sun. However, a car came up behind us that did not share our patience. After seeing my car wasn't going to move anytime soon. This white California plated sports car sped around me and right past the bison guarding the road. Uh oh, this was now one mad buffalo. It was clearly startled and angered by the speeding car, but misdirected that fury towards us. It straddled the yellow line and stared directly at me and Sam. Neither of us moved. We just waited and waited. Thankfully, the bison eventually walked off the road. By the time the bison finally moved, the park was completely dark. We still had a long drive ahead of us. We drove on, only seeing what was illuminated by the path of my headlights and nothing else. This whole stretch of road was one lane each direction up until the intersection at Tower Roosevelt and my headlights barely lit up anything outside the gravel shoulders. The drive was uneventful up to this point as we had seen nothing and Sam started to snooze off, snooze off, doze off. And Sam started to doze off. I slowed down as we approached the turn. I shifted over into the right turn lane and I started to make my turn. Keep in mind the road widened here, but my headlights never really went into the corner between the intersecting roads. As I am turning, I glance out of the passenger side window past Sam and a massive figure the size of the window materializes out of the darkness. A buffalo right in the window of the passenger side door a mere centimeters from the car. I completed the process of turning without stopping or saying anything. As it appeared, Sam rose out of his seat and grabbed me in complete shock. I continued driving forward and he said, was that a buffalo? Yep, I replied in shock myself. If he stuck out his lips he could have kissed us, said Sam. I continue to drive all the way back to the campsite while Sam and I, with newfound adrenaline induced energy came up with theories of what happened and what we decided was that the angry bison from before had somehow communicated with his homies down the road and either A that we were threats and that this close encounter was just a reminder for us not to mess with them, or B this was an attempt at a thank you kiss for us being patient. I like to think the second, but either way the image of the bison appearing right beside us from the void is forever etched in our memory. This was the trip of a lifetime and I am so thankful I got a trail tale out of it. I attached a photo of the sunset while we watched the grizzlies and a photo of the angry buffalo before he got so angry. Keep up the awesome stories. I hope that one day I can get caught up enough and hear this story on the pod. God bless Gideon.

[D]

That is so cute. I think it's such a crazy like sweet mindset to immediately think like it could have kissed us instead of like worst case scenario, like sort of terrified.

[B]

It's like, that was intimate.

[D]

That was really romantic.

[A]

I love that. Wait, so you said you guys were. You had the same experience Practically?

[C]

Well, I thought it was going somewhere else, but we were in Yellowstone and classically we got stuck in a massive bison jam. Like the. I mean I've been to Yellowstone before. I've seen her of bison. This was crazy large and it would have been like cool and chill and fine and it was a little nerve wracking because I, I truly feel like bison are one of those animals that you don't think are scary until you're right next to them and surrounded by them and being stared down by them. But we. So we went into Lamar Valley similarly to this story. But we went in the early morning hours. Like, we got up at 3am trying to go see the wolves before we had a meeting at 9am and we didn't have service anywhere except for our Airbnb right outside of the park. So we're like, we'll definitely have time to go do some wildlife watching and then come back for our 9am meeting.

[D]

And no.

[A]

The end.

[C]

Okay, we're just trying to get to our meeting.

[B]

We're just trying to get to work.

[C]

We. When I tell you, we skirted in like the skirt.

[B]

We had like 30 seconds left.

[C]

Just because we were hung up in this bison jam for so long and we couldn't. And I'm like, what are we going to tell these people?

[A]

Which.

[C]

Who we've, by the way, never met. And be like, sorry. We were like, we were in the middle of a bison jam.

[D]

My dog ate my homework. Sorry.

[C]

We'd be like, who are these people? Yeah. So. But yeah, I think that it's similar in the way of, like, you don't realize how intimidating being that close to a bison is until they're staring you down and then suddenly your car doesn't feel that badass anymore.

[B]

No, you're not safe in there. That bison could fold you like a piece of paper. It feels like when they're especially they. They love to make that eye contact. This story was funny to me because when I was in Theodore Roosevelt, I had the exact same encounter where there was just a bison in the very middle of the road just staring at me. And I was like, I'm not moving. And I was alone, too. And I was just sitting there. I was like, I will wait until you have moved on. I was like, I am not messing with you at all.

[D]

It's very humbling. Very humbling.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

I haven't seen a bison in person in many years, but I've never.

[A]

Well, actually, Alish and I are going to go backpacking in Yellowstone and Tetons this summer. Oh, fun.

[D]

Or maybe I will have our own bison jam.

[A]

No, now I'm like, I'm like, wait a second.

[B]

When are you guys going out there?

[A]

Or September. September. I said this summer. Actually kind of early fall. Yeah. Now I'm like, wait, we have to actually kind of rush from Yellowstone to Tetons for our backpacking. Wait, we.

[D]

If we get a budget time.

[A]

If we get stuck in a ice and jam, we might be. Yeah. I don't know. In a pickle.

[D]

We'll have to get.

[B]

Account for that. For your timing.

[A]

Noted.

[D]

This was very helpful. Some recommendations on trails and stuff from you guys, if you have any.

[C]

Yeah, we'll chat after.

[B]

Yeah, we can definitely. Well, we know that you guys have a fun trail tale to read as well.

[A]

Yes, it's another animal encounter. Super exciting. I'll just dive right into it. I named this the Bathroom Break to Bear Encounter as my story because, to

[C]

preface, this is your own trail.

[A]

This is my own trail tale story. And let me ask you a quick question. Am I the first person to read a trail tale story that's, like, in

[B]

real time outside of Danielle, who has written like her own and read them? Yeah, but I never had. You don't count. You always are on the pod. Yeah. You're the first person to ever come on and read your own trail tale.

[A]

I am.

[D]

Nice, Annalise. That's cool.

[A]

I am so honored. I'm, like, so giddy about it. Right into it. And I'm going to read exactly how I wrote it in to you guys.

[B]

So amazing.

[A]

Hi, Cassie and Danielle. It's such an honor not only to write a story, but to be able to read it on your podcast. I've been a longtime listener and a huge fan. I always bring up National Park After Dark if podcasts come up in a conversation. I wanted to share one of my stories from the national parks, a moment that was both terrifying and unforgettable. In the summer of 2024, I went backpacking through Hetch Hetchy on the western side of Yosemite national park with my good friend and college roommate, Maggie. If you ever get the chance. It's an absolute gem. A lesser known part of the park with stunning scenery. Have you guys ever. I know you guys been to Yosemite. Yeah. But have you ever been a touchy.

[C]

Yes. And weird story about that.

[A]

Really? Okay, we're gonna have to dive into that.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Do you know what I'm saying? About to say, Cassie?

[B]

No.

[C]

Okay.

[D]

We found.

[C]

We met someone famous on the trail.

[B]

Oh, yeah. We did meet someone famous on the trail.

[C]

I would name them if I remember their name.

[B]

They were in. What was that? They were out there and they wanted to take a picture for a promo that they were doing. Just like his own personal Instagram promo for. Because he had just been in.

[C]

Finished. They were filming in. What was it? San Fran. And he was like, oh, I'm something bad Moon or blood moon. Something about a moon.

[B]

It was on Netflix where, like, he was so famous.

[C]

And it was like this crazy thing.

[A]

No, but serious.

[B]

And he was crazy. Death scene in it, though. I watched it. Oh, he's like, I met him and. Yeah, and he died pretty horrifically in the first, like 10 minutes.

[D]

You guys met him. That's awesome.

[A]

That is really cool.

[B]

But that was our experience in Hetch Hetchy, so.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Long story short, we've been together.

[A]

Everyone goes to, like the Valley of Yosemite and don't realize Hetch Hetchy is such a gem. Like, I think Maggie and I were originally trying to hike Half Dome in Hints of my favorite episode, a lightning strike rescue on Half Dome that you guys read.

[B]

That one was horrific.

[A]

No, it was. Everyone go listen to that. Because it is my favorite episode. It is. She talks about, but we don't. We didn't get the permits for it. So we went to Hetch Hetchy and it was actually the most amazing time. Anyhoo, just going back into the story, it was a three day, two night trip. We took the hedgehog loop clockwise, starting at Beehive Meadow. After 11 miles, we reached our camping destination, Vernon Lake, a popular backcountry campsite. The granite ground spread beneath us and the reflective lake at sunset was so beautiful. Maggie and I set up camp completely in awe of our surroundings. The scenery and trying to start a fire, flint and steel style pushed any fear of bears to the back of our minds. Flashback to the morning before our trek when we checked in with the ranger station. They had mentioned that a bear had been spotted the previous day ripping open a tent looking for food. Yeah, guys, that was really scary to hear. That definitely raised the hairs on the back of our necks. But panic didn't last long, as once we hit the trail, we were too busy marveling at our surroundings. After dinner, we triple checked our food and scented items, locking everything safely in our bear canister. I stashed it behind a granite boulder 300ft away from our tent and covered it with rocks. No bear was getting anywhere near us. Or so I thought. Later that night, a man appeared at our campsite. We were a bit alarmed. We were a bit alarmed. Two girls alone in the backcountry, no cell service, and a random person shows up. Scary, scary, but he was friendly. He asked if we had room in our bear canister because he. His group's bear canister was full and he held out a large Ziploc bag of trail mix. Maggie and I exchanged glances, but took the bag to our bear canister and jammed it in. And when I mean jammed it in, we literally had to like, punch it in. Our bear canister was so full, his

[B]

trail mix is just Smashed after. It's like here.

[A]

Trail crawl, trail mix. Later that night, we went to sleep, confident that we were safe. 5:00am Nature called and I had to go. I stepped out, blurried, eyed without my contacts and walked about 200ft away. I pulled my pants down and started to go, but that's when I heard it. A dragging sound. Something or someone was moving. Squinting, all I saw was a blob of brown. Oh, my God, I thought, it's the bear the rangers were talking about. Without my contacts, I was helpless, so I ducked and covered, fumbling my way back to the bear canister to grab my contacts, shoving them in my eyeballs as quickly as I could. They were going in there, then duck and covered back to my tent. Like ducking down was ever going to do anything. I woke up Maggie, and as we stood up to get a better look outside our tent, about 300ft away, lay a large black bear tearing through a backpack with ease and chomping on whatever food it had found. We stood there, jaws dropped. After staring for a bit longer, we confirmed that the backpack that was getting absolutely mutilated belonged to the same group of guys that had asked us to store their baggage rail mix for the night. Carefully, we made our way to their tent and awkwardly leaned in and said, hey, good morning. Sorry to wake you, but I think a bear has one of your packs. Three sleepy boys spilled out of the tent, and we all watched as the bear continued eating. Unbothered by her presence, the group tried to scare it off with the typical.

[D]

Hey, bear. Hey, bear. Go away, bear.

[A]

Have you ever done that? Yeah.

[D]

Get on, bear.

[C]

Get on out of here.

[A]

Get out of here. But the bear looked. But the bear looked up for a moment, then went back to chomping after a few more hey, bears. Finally, the bear grabbed the backpack and ran off, disappearing across the lake. We all exchanged. Dude, it took it with him. I have a whole video of it. I'll show it to you.

[B]

We all show it to us.

[A]

Yeah, I'll show it to everyone. We all exchanged looks in disbelief and sympathy for the lost pack. Like, why did we think that if we scared off the bear, he wouldn't take the bag with him? Dumb. Maggie and I returned to our campsite, cooked breakfast, and filled out our bear encounter sheet the ranger had given us the morning before, something we thought we wouldn't need to do in this particular outing. This encounter is brought up to this day, and actually, Maggie recently got the bear tattooed to commemorate the trip. Shout out, Maggie, I love you if you're listening. I know she won't be listening. This experience remains one of the coolest and simple scariest moments I've had outdoors. Enjoy the view but watch your back. Next bathroom break might lead to a bear encounter and psa. Always put your food in the bear canister.

[D]

Yes. No, for real.

[A]

And your scented items.

[D]

The most important thing.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And I didn't say this in the story but now that I'm the person reading it and that wrote it in. The bear actually came back.

[D]

It did.

[A]

Like he.

[B]

Oh again after that.

[A]

Yeah. He strolled back looking for more and the only voice that the bear was scared of was my roommates or Maggie. She has her. It was quite ear splitting. I would also be scared if I was a bear and heard her scream.

[D]

What else was in the backpack? Do you know?

[A]

I think it was a literal. Another bag of Trumix.

[D]

Did it have like their wallets or anything in it?

[A]

Oh yeah. They're somebody sleeping like another tent or something. Yeah, it was something.

[B]

Oh so they lost a bunch of their gear along with.

[A]

Yeah, it was something super important where they had to instead of finishing the loop they had to just turn around and go back. Yeah.

[D]

So.

[B]

Damn. Another reason to put your bear to put your stuff away if you want to keep going on your adventure. It's taken by a bear. That's cool to be able to see a bear that up close but not so much under those circumstances.

[A]

It was quite crazy. And I'll show you the pictures but I have like the little bear. He's like running away with his little pack. The pack is swinging. He looks so cute and fun. Like he's. Want to go up and hug him but you can't.

[C]

Well you. I can see some of the pictures on our document right here.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Looks like he's just having a grand old time.

[A]

He's having such a good time and I hate ruining it for him but

[C]

I mean he is pretty cute.

[D]

But he's so cute. Beautiful.

[A]

His little eel.

[B]

He's the classic. Like he's a black bear but you think he's a brown bear.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Kind of thing.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

I could see how somebody would think this is a grizzly bear.

[D]

Yeah. It's so blonde.

[A]

That's what everyone says when I show the pictures. And what's great.

[B]

But he doesn't have the hump.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. And in Yosemite you're actually not allowed to have bear spray.

[C]

Right, Right.

[B]

Yeah. I didn't know that.

[A]

As aggressive as obviously grizzlies. But you can't have Anything, any sort of thing. So we just relied on clapping throughout the time we were hiking and stuff.

[B]

But yeah, I wonder if that regulation will change one day. Because as we know in stories we've told, black bears can be justice. They can be aggressive and deadly as scared grizzlies.

[A]

When I saw him when I was peeing.

[B]

And then when you have a bear like this one who's habituated and not afraid of you, it's just calling for dangerous something. Yeah, exactly. This is a Monday.com ad, the same Monday.com designed for every team. The same Monday.com with built in AI

[C]

scaling your work from day one. The same Monday.comwith an easy and intuitive setup. Go to Monday.com and try it for free.

[B]

I don't know about you, but I like keeping my money where I can actually see it. Unfortunately, traditional big wireless carriers seem to like keeping my money too. Between high monthly bills, random fees, and those free perks that somehow cost more, it really adds up. That's why I love Mint Mobile. It's built to fix exactly that. Mint Mobile offers premium wireless plans starting at just 15 bucks a month. So if you're used to paying 60, 70, even $80 a month with big carriers, you could be saving a serious amount of money every single month. All plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can bring your own phone and number, activate an ESIM in minutes and start saving immediately. No long term contracts, no hassle. Ditch overpriced wireless and get three months of premium wireless service from Mint Mobile for 15 bucks a month. If I were switching carriers right now, this is exactly what I choose. If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop [e-mail] npad that's mintmobile.com npad Upfront payment of $45 for three months. Five gigabyte plan required, equivalent to $15 per month. New customer offer for first three months only. Then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Well, I guess going forward we wanted to jump into some more things about the National Park Trust and all of the programs that go on. And we wanted to talk about one that is coming up really soon, which is exciting and that is Kids to Parks Day, along with the school grants program. And we just wanted to kind of talk about those experiences, what they are when it's happening, how people can join, all of that good stuff.

[D]

Yeah, definitely. We're glad you brought it up because Kids to Parks Day is happening on May 16 this year, and I'll let

[A]

Annalise talk about it. It's a national day of outdoor play established by the National Park Trust.

[D]

So think about, like, do you remember?

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

And Nickelodeon, where they would have the day of play, where, like, they wouldn't play any, like, shows during the day. And if you turned on the Nickelodeon channel, it was like, day of play because it was like, there's no TV on. You're supposed to go outside.

[A]

Do you guys remember?

[B]

No. No, I don't.

[D]

Okay. It's basically, I hope some people have a fever dream that I have. But, yeah, just going outside.

[C]

And so the network essentially went dark for the day and said, get outside and don't watch tv.

[D]

Yes, exactly.

[C]

That's awesome. I have no idea they did that.

[D]

I know. Yeah. But I think people would still turn on the TV and just, like, watch that screen.

[B]

Anything to glue yourself to a screen.

[A]

Yeah. So this day, we really wanted to emphasize getting everyone, not just kids, but families outdoors to their local parks and just enjoying the day outside. I mean, I think we get always so lost in the hustle and bustle of things, and now that technology has just become so prevalent in our daily lives, we kind of lose that sense of just getting outside and playing and picking up a. A leaf and a stick and making some, you know, mud soup and all that good stuff. So we really want to motivate with this day is finding a local park in your area and getting outside and sharing the moment that you had and sharing the memories that you had with your family during that day. So it's super exciting that, you know, every third Saturday in May dedicated to just unplugging and getting out with your family and just enjoying.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. It's just like an intentional day of being outside, if you want. On our website, we have some, like, published events that certain parks across the country have made, like, in cool connection to Kids to Parks Day. So some of them are, like, volunteer stewardship events doing, like, invasive pools or just, like, an event where, like, we will have tabling here at the park on Kids to Parks Day come out. Just make it more of, like, a intentional event, I guess. And then cities and towns can also proclaim Kids to Parks Day further.

[A]

And they do. They do. And they do.

[D]

And you get, like, a certificate and stuff. So if you have a small town and you want to proclaim Kids Park Day, reach out. We would love to.

[A]

I mean, if. If you wanted to get involved, I would say the best way to do that is to look up parks near you in your local area. And most of them will have a kids to park stay and they'll have fun events in the local park. Whether it's engaging with park rangers or little activities that engage with art or play or learning how to do xyz. It is super, super fun and it's amazing to see. And we encourage everyone, if you do decide to go out to post it on social media and just start that change, start the domino effect. Like, hey, I also want to have a good time outside with my family. So. Yeah.

[B]

So for the National Park Trust, you guys help facilitate these activities that are happening throughout all of. Throughout these national parks. Is it happening at every national park site or is it more of something you're just encouraging everyone who is near a national park to go utilize this day?

[D]

So it's not even just national park. So I know that we are, yeah, any park. We are the National Park Trust. And yes, we, we do work extremely closely with the national parks, but this is like nature centers, state parks, like county parks, regional parks, which we also, especially in our youth programs, work really closely with. I mean, not everyone has a national park, even like within.

[C]

I mean, mine is four hours away. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[D]

I grew up in the Northeast too, and I spent a lot of time in upstate New York where I went to school. And it's all state parks there, really. Like, there's Acadia, I think is like the only national park in the Northeast, maybe.

[B]

Yeah, there's like national park sites, but in terms of the biggest.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And like Cape Cod National Seashore and things. But yeah, Acadia is like the, the big one. It is mostly, mostly national forests or, or state parks that are up here.

[D]

Yeah. So just any parks really in general,

[C]

that's great because we've talked a lot about leaning into local and national parks are great and of course we love them very much. But I think by, you know, focusing in on just national parks, you can miss out a lot on a lot that's just right in your own neighborhood or around the corner. So that's awesome that you guys emphasize that and encourage relationships with lesser known parks. Yeah, that's awesome.

[A]

Yeah. And I mean, it's such like our goal as an organization is not really to find the already pre established outdoorsy individuals. Like, we love to engage with those that are avid backpackers, those that are trying to check off their list to hitting the big 63 national parks, but we want to find the first timers.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

We want to find people that are maybe a little Bit nervous about getting into their parks or outdoor spaces and haven't traditionally felt welcomed in the past. And I think working with local parks, state parks, because maybe a big national park, maybe Yosemite, is really intimidating to someone. You know, maybe their local park right outside isn't. So if we can get them engaged, and especially children engaged with those local parks and state parks, they can start building up to being like, hey, now I'm gonna. When I'm older, I'm gonna backpack at. You know, at. Yeah. So it's really fun to see, like, the growth. And that's what the organization does, is while we do work exclusively with the National Park Service, we're not exclusive to working with the smaller, you know, local, national, or local and state parks.

[D]

Yeah. And that's especially true also with the populations that we work with for our youth programs, which are largely, like, urban areas where the. Their local park is, like, half concrete and, like, you know, just like, a bus ride away. And that's still a park. You can still hang out. You're still outside. You're outside, and there's birds and there's, like, stuff to do and dig in the dirt, and you can experience nature there just as much as you can in Yosemite. Right, right. It is all the same. Nature does not, you know, play favorites, you know? Yeah.

[A]

That was beautiful.

[C]

What is.

[B]

I know you said it's the third. The third week of every May. What date is that for this year? For 2026. Do you not say it was the 16th?

[A]

16th, yeah. Yes.

[B]

May 16th, 2026.

[D]

What are you guys up to this year?

[A]

May 16th.

[B]

It's a big. Going to a park.

[A]

Yeah, that's.

[C]

And you guys brought a couple of just quick little. I hate to say, like, reviews, but just, like, just little quick experiences from some of your grantees that have, you know, kind of boots on the ground experience with this type of relationship that you're talking about.

[D]

So kind of aligned with Kids to Parks Day. We also have our Kids to Parks Day school grants program, which is kind of my side of the house. And the grant program opens every October, and all Title 1K through 12 classrooms are eligible to apply. And so each classroom can apply for up to $1,000 for a park trip. So that funding can go towards, like, the bus. It can go towards program fees. And what's really cool about the grant, too, is it's super collaborative between the teachers and the students. So there's, like, always a student section where they have to answer the prompts that are within the Grant. And this is so cute when we read through these because sometimes there's like first grade classrooms and they're just like flower. And you're like, you're getting a thousand dollars. They're like, what do you want to see? And they're like, I want to play with my friend Joe at the park. And it's like, you're going, you deserve that.

[B]

I want that for you.

[D]

But anyways, yeah. So the grant opens every October and so every individual classroom can apply. So if you're in a big school that has five fifth grade classrooms, you can pull together and apply for up to $5,000 to help cover all of those costs. And this year we had almost like 250 applications and we were able to give out a little over 100 grants. We would love to give out more in the future. So quick plug. If you are passionate about funding park trips for kids, please donate for our Kids to Park State grant program so we can keep it growing. It has grown exponentially every year for the last three years. So spreading the word. Well, but so on that note, we always ask for some kind of testimonial from each of the grantees every year just to kind of like hear about how the trip went and be able to share these stories about the impact of it with you guys and with other potential donors. So this was one trip in particular that. So this was a fifth grade class in San Francisco, California, and they had applied for a camping trip with this really cool organization, Nature Bridge, that we work closely with. And it's at the Marin Headlands. So this is testimony from a fifth grade student who won the grant and went on this, this awesome camping trip.

[B]

Very cool.

[D]

Nature Bridge. Marin Headlands was so cool. Seriously, it was one of the best weeks of the whole school year. We got to leave the classroom, pack our bag bags and head out to the Marin Headlands. And it was awesome. From start to finish. As soon as we stepped off the bus, I could smell trees and flowers and fresh air. It was like we walked into a nature movie. The hike was probably my favorite part. We went down this trail where everything was green and alive and there were birds everywhere and even a square squirrel that ran right across the path in front of us. And we jumped. Then Jeremy, who was usually quiet, bent down next to this mossy log and said, this is alive. It's like a whole little world. We all crowded around and it totally was. There were poison oaks and bugs everywhere. We started talking about ecosystems and decomposers and all that stuff. We Learned in science, but it felt so different to actually see it in real life. I was like, this is what science should be. Then there was the night walk, which I didn't think I'd like, but it was actually really fun. We had to hike at night and find a quiet spot to be silent in nature for a few minutes. It was relaxing. My brain felt calm and clear, like all the noise went away. One of my friends said it felt like the earth was talking, and I agree. Back at school, we had a reflection circle, and everyone shared what they loved the most. I said I didn't want to leave. I felt like a scientist and a hiker all at the same time. Other people said they felt brave for hiking or that they saw stuff they'd never seen before. One person even said they were going to ask their family to go hiking that weekend. Honestly, Nature bridge, Marin headlands wasn't just a field trip. I learned more in one week than in a whole week of regular science class. I felt helpful and connected to nature. I want to go back with binoculars and my family, since they said that there was an area where we can camp, 10 out of 10 would hike again.

[C]

This kid's in fifth grade.

[A]

Fifth grade.

[C]

That was so profound.

[D]

So profound. I know. My brain felt calm and clear, like all the noise went away. Yeah. I was like, okay, beautiful journal entry.

[B]

An old soul.

[D]

But I mean, it's like, you know, those are the experiences that we're striving for. Like, we are trying to get kids outside, outside so they can have those connections and experience that calm and just love of nature. When you love something, you want to protect it. And so, like, that is what we're trying to cultivate through all of these programs, the grants, all of it, and

[B]

getting kids out there, like, how this person was saying out here, they felt calm and they were excited, and it cleared their mind. This is setting up a relationship with the outdoors for children for the rest of their lives. So further down the line, when they do need their head to feel calm and they need to be relaxed, they're like, you know, I know where to do that. I know what I need to do. I want to go for a hike. I want to go for a walk or whatever. That looks like you're kind of facilitating the beginning of those relationships with the outdoors.

[D]

It will only ever be a positive and, like, good experience when you go outside and tune into your mental health, tune into your senses. And Elise and I were talking about how we didn't really grow up as, like, nature kids like I didn't really get into nature until college and stuff. And then I like took that trajectory towards environmental education. But like to have established that relationship with nature already in fifth grade, like you were just extending the time period of that love of nature and that relationship that like a student has with nature. And it's just awesome. The earlier.

[C]

Yeah, I think Cassie and I talk about that all the time. About how we wish we leaned into our relationship with nature earlier for whatever reason we did not is. I mean, varied.

[D]

But I don't know either.

[C]

Yeah, it's. It's just. It is such a nice opportunity for children because beyond all of that, even just the part where they were mentioning, you know, like, we learned about this in class, but it's totally different to see it in the real world. And making that connection between what you're learning in a classroom and its real life applications and seeing it unfold in the natural world is just that connection is great for seeing decomposition and knowing what that is. But also it extends beyond that of like, oh, the things I'm learning really do exist and matter. So that's really cool.

[B]

Of course you say decomposition.

[C]

That's what they. That's did. Is that not what that kid talked about?

[D]

They did. He said thank you.

[B]

Just funny that that's the one you picked. Not like the scientist hiker or

[A]

just

[C]

saying it stuck out to me.

[D]

Decomposition.

[C]

Okay, well, moving on. I have a trail tale that involves children. So let's get into. Is titled Granddad Lore. Lost and Found with Kids. I also love lore stories.

[A]

I heard Laura and my ears.

[C]

Let's get straight into this wild story involving my granddad, who has since retired from his granddad lore level adventures to now making use of his E bike on more sedate trails and his local Pilates gym. And one of many misadventures.

[D]

You guys on the trail.

[C]

There's a lot going on immediately.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

So grandpa is now taking Pilates king, if you will.

[D]

Yep.

[C]

And this story is about one of their many misadventures involving three of four of his kids. Picture it. It's in the mid to late 1970s. My grandparents were a young family with four kids living in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. They were very much involved in the outdoor community, so skiing both in competitions, training and pleasure in the Australian alpine area every winter, hiking, rock climbing and swimming in the summer. Also befriending prominent mountain climbers of the time when they had an outdoor supply store in the city. One of the first of its kind. A story for another email. When I get those names. I love when people just drop. Also, like things. They're like, we'll get back to you. It's like, I'm waiting.

[B]

Please do. That was crazy.

[D]

Like, we're not going to text about it. What do you mean?

[B]

It's a crazy mic drop, but okay, continue.

[C]

Moving on. I suppose my dad and his siblings were between the ages of 2 years old and 10 years old at the time of the story. The family was taking a trip to the Thredbo Parisher area in the Alpine region for a week of snow. And one day, Granddad took the three older kids, my dad included, for an afternoon ski lesson near the Perisher Pass, leaving Grandma and the youngest child at Thredbo Village to relax. Granddad had planned to be back before sunset for dinner, but when it got dark, with no sign of him or the three kids, Grandma started to worry. She managed to get to a ranger station to tell them about her missing family, and since it was already dark, not snowing and in the 70s, the search was delayed until dawn. I'm confused at the landscape of this air. We're in Australia, but it's snowing, but it's also 70 degrees. Oh, the 70s. Like, time the 70s.

[D]

I was like, wait, how did she know?

[B]

I was like, wait, when did we say it was 70 degrees and the 70s? Not in the 70s.

[C]

In the 70s.

[B]

And the 70s.

[C]

And the 70 s. Okay. Anyway, the search was delayed until dawn. The thinking was that since Granddad knew the main trails and it was not snowing, that he and the kids were probably not far and hopefully made it to one of the emergency trail cabins to bunker down for the night. Wrong. Grandad had misjudged the time and had taken the kids along another side trail, leaving him and the three kids stranded in the middle of seemingly nowhere. He dug a hole in the ground and pulled the tarp out of his bag, and the four of them sat down with their legs in the hole with the tarp pulled over their heads and the skis like a makeshift tent, and they spent the entire night there, bundled together. In the morning, they managed to find that the main road was just a couple minutes walk down the hill from where they were and started walking down the road. Classic.

[B]

That's an awful night's sleep to be like, oh, wait, the road's right there.

[C]

I can throw a rock and hit it. One of the rangers out searching for them happened upon them on the roadside. He called it in on the radio and they bundled into the car. Grandma was not too happy but glad they made it out alive, albeit a little cold and very hungry. At least they got a memorable adventure out of it and it didn't put the kids off of some skiing or camping in the snow.

[A]

Heck yeah, they.

[C]

Which is great. It's like it could have gone the other way.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

They were even mentioned in the local paper as a family missing overnight story. Since it was a very small community where these types of stories were always a juicy talking point. There's one other granddad lore story involving getting trapped in a snowstorm overnight while ice climbing in Tasmania with nothing to eat but a raw onion. But that's a story for another email.

[D]

Oh my gosh. Again.

[A]

We need to find them. Come on.

[C]

That's like some like all these Stanley Yell Onion.

[A]

I just love the details that they've

[D]

chosen to include with the E bike

[A]

and the onion and like Pilates.

[B]

Pilates.

[C]

Pilates grandpa. Oh, okay. Because they need to go to the granddad to retell it for extra details. All right. We'll be eagerly waiting. Thank you for all you do, ladies. Can't wait for more Australia stories. Noni. They them cool.

[B]

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[C]

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[D]

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[D]

Have you guys ever had like a camping trip gone wrong story? I don't know.

[B]

I feel like on wood. Not like not search and rescue rangers are out looking for us. Yeah. Type of situation. The first thing I can think of which is not a camping gone wrong story. It's just hilarious is when Danielle and I were in the badlands and we have a video of it. We didn't. We talked about this recently actually and I forget what where we were talking about it on.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

But I had packed our tent and I forgot our tent stakes, and it was a crazy windy night.

[D]

Oh, no.

[C]

On the grasslands, open plains of the Badlands with no tent stakes.

[A]

Wait, so what did you. What did you do? You just, like, let it fall on you while you were sleeping?

[D]

Well, we were.

[B]

The way that, like, we had. Well, we should say we had the stakes to, like, hold the tent up. We didn't have the. No, we did have in the ground, the stakes.

[C]

We had the tent poles

[A]

just, like, lying on top of you.

[B]

No, we. We had the poles, not the stake, so it could blow away if we were in it. So we were the weight. However, because it wasn't like, part of the role of those stakes is to make it so Your tent is really tight on every side and steady. And because we didn't have that, ours was really flimsy and in the wind. Our whole tent was just going all night, pretty much. And we were just sitting there like, is this. Are we having a good time?

[C]

Yeah, it's like, Brian, is this our vacation? Yeah.

[B]

Yeah, that's exactly. And it was. We got some really funny videos and not great sleep, but good memories.

[D]

I feel like you either have, like, the best sleep of your life camping, or, like, you get one hour and 16 minutes of sleep, like, spread out throughout the night.

[C]

Yeah, I always have wild dreams.

[A]

I do, too.

[D]

I always dream about owls when I'm camping.

[C]

Oh, really?

[D]

Yes.

[A]

Very special.

[C]

Cool. It's going back to the owl pellet thing.

[D]

We're all a big fan. No, I just like to see them in the trees and I hear them.

[B]

Well, moving forward, back to talk about the National Park Trust a little bit more. At the very beginning of this episode, we mentioned a little bit, or you guys mentioned that you have a program that helps benefit military families and people who have been a part of the military. So we'd love to learn a little bit more about what that. What that looks like.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

So our military programming, it largely falls on the partnerships that we have with military affiliated organizations and direct partnerships that we have with the US Military, including their bases and the programs that they already have in place. So, for example, some of our amazing partnerships include the National Military Family Association, Project Healing Waters, that gets veterans out fly fishing. Our Military Kids, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, which is one of my personal favorite organizations that we partner with, which I'll share a story about a little bit later. We work with the US Air Force Outdoor Recreation programs. We work with the Single Marines programs, and we Work with these groups exclusively to create memorable park experiences. And they can range from a day trip to multi night trips at their local national park. So the reason that we partner with these affiliated organizations is to make sure that we're reaching audiences that have access to these parks and can make them as more accessible to them. So we also really prioritize on reducing barriers, things like transportation. We keep kind of like mentioning that

[D]

transition to take yourself to the park.

[A]

It can be expensive to take take yourself to a park. And we give gear support and structured ranger programming. So make it a little extra special, like a nice welcome from the park itself and really get into the nitty gritty of history of the park and why they're here from park rangers and superintendents, so families simply can just show up and just enjoy and unplug. And what I always like to say with our military service members is they not only serve to protect us, but serve to protect the natural beauty in our parks that we love. So to give back and as a thank you from the National Park Trust, just giving them the time to enjoy what they've protected.

[B]

I love that. I love that outlook on it too. And to bring it around to also be like, enjoy this. You know, you work so hard for this. You, you fought for our country for this. Come to it, enjoy it. You deserve it.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

And it's heal in it. Exactly. Yeah. So special to see. And most of what we work with are families and it's children of service members that don't get to see maybe their parents very often when they're deployed. And just being able to create those memorable experiences outside is super, super special to see.

[B]

Well, I know you brought a story today that kind of coincides with all of this.

[A]

It did. Yes, I did. So I wanted to share kind of a story that encapsulates two things. One, how much I love my job as a programs coordinator working with military service members. And also how much nature truly heals us as people. So as a programs coordinator with the National Park Trust, working to connect military families with the outdoors, I have had the privilege of meeting some of the most resilient and inspiring people across the U.S. but one trip in particular touched me in a way I will never forget. In the summer of 2024, again, the same year as my Yosemite bear story. Yeah, crazy big summer. Yeah, they happened like months apart from each other, which was crazy. In the summer of 2024, the National Park Trust partnered with TAPS, or the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, and coordinated a weekend full of Camping, hiking, and exploring Rocky Mountain national park for Gold Star families. So if you're not familiar, TAPS supports families that have lost a military service loved one, helping children, spouses, parents and siblings of these fallen service members navigate grief through mentorship, counseling, therapy, and programs that offer care and connection. The National Park Trust Partnership with TAPS supports these families through healing and connection in the outdoors and our national parks. We spent three days and two nights surrounded by the Rocky Mountains, offering a group of families an escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life and a space to reconnect with nature and with others going through the same hardships. Together, we hiked, camped, and explored the park with park rangers and took all that the Rockies had to offer. One of the final hikes of the trip to Spruce Lake, two moose suddenly appeared, quietly wading through the water. Several participants shared that seeing these moose felt like a visit from their loved ones, a gentle, unspoken reminder that they were not alone and that our loved ones can speak to us in many forms. And I love this because listening to your podcast with some other trail tale stories, I've heard just the same stories from people and it's really touched me because I got to see that in real time. So that was just gorgeous in itself.

[D]

Yeah. I think that like, motif of seeing loved ones or like meanings, animals or just other experiences that you see in nature is just, just. Yeah. It was so real.

[A]

It was so beautiful. Yeah. On the last day before saying our goodbyes, we stood in a large circle sharing highlights of the weekend. Memories of loved ones and ways reconnecting with the outdoors in the park helped them find some peace. Something that I will never forget was a young boy who had lost his father. Shared that this weekend was the first time since his father's death that he woke up without the feeling of dread and the weight of the world. He shared that he had felt a piece of himself be restored just by walking through the trees and being surrounded by the mountains and lakes in the park, hearing him speak, witnessing families who have not known each other before the trip hold each other while sharing these stories and experiences with grief. I felt the weight of their loss and the courage it takes to be present with it. Someone in the circle asked me about the tattoo on my arm that says look up, which is this one. You can't see it, but it's there. To me, it has many meanings. To lift your chin up when life feels heavy, to find connection in the eyes of others and to lose yourself in the beauty of what's around you. That Weekend, I realized it meant something more. I told the group after sharing my own interpretation of my tattoo that even after we say goodbye to this weekend of healing and connection within the park, as we return home, realize that we are never too far from these mountains and forests or to each other. Because when you look up at the sky, it's the same sky that connects you to the Rockies, to each other, and to the mountains and the memories we shared and created. While it's a bit cheesy, looking back, I meant every word. I was so inspired by the strength of each of these families and individuals and helpless that I couldn't do more for each of them. It only felt natural to share a motto that connects me to the outdoors and to the people around me in hopes it could resonate with someone and help them on their journey through grief. Weeks later, I received an email from one of our trip participants. They wrote, and I quote, I wanted to share a copy of the tattoo I got after the Colorado weekend. Anneliese from the National Park Trust inspired it with the one she has that says look up. It always reminds me of that weekend. End quote. I'm so grateful and blessed to experience the beauty of our parks with communities across the country and call it a career. That weekend of the Rockies, surrounded by strength, courage, and love, is something that I will carry with me always. Caring for our parks is caring for each other. Enjoy the view, but watch your back, because someone you love always has it.

[C]

Ah, Annelise, way to make me tear up. I mean, that's not hard to do, but it was a really beautiful, like, such a beautiful, profound experience and such an important program. Not to say that I think what I'm impressed by the most with the National Park Trust and the plethora of programs that you guys offer is just how many communities and groups of people that you're servicing and touching and working for and with, and just the profound change in people's lives that they're facilitating. It's not just a, hey, we really like nature. We think you should like nature, and, like, let's protect nature. It's more of, how do you connect with the outdoors? How does it change your life? And how can you connect with each other through it? And this is just such a beautiful example of that.

[D]

Yeah. Thank you for saying that. Yeah. I think that we do try and make it a personal thing for each and every student, college ambassador, college student, military family, military child, whatever it may be like. Just speaking for myself, my relationship with nature is so coveted and personal and special. And important to me. And, like, I strive to inspire that in other students. And, like, seeing that sense of wonder, that sense of connection, peace, calm, whatever it may be that we can help inspire through these, like, kids trips or military program outings. Like, there's so many positive benefits to be had when you just start connecting with your local park, your local trail, whatever it may be. Like, we just need to protect these lands. And that's another thing that we do. We are an accredited land trust and we protect lands.

[A]

We haven't really gotten into that yet,

[D]

but, like, yeah, it just is also really cool to, like, be in this community of, like, outdoors people and be outdoors women who are, like, confident and able to facilitate these things.

[A]

It's.

[D]

It's just great.

[A]

Yeah. It's such a special organization with. It's very apparent on who we service and how special it is through the anecdotal stories, through our staff, the individuals that actually take part in our outings. But even so, it does give back to us. I hope that when we're talking, we are really talking from such a place of passion. Yeah. And we love the outdoors so much, and we just want to share it with others and all the communities and find different ways and outlets that the outdoors can heal us and different ways we can enjoy it and just take from it and learn from it. And everyone in the National Park Trust is so passionate, and it's so fun to see just the passion radiate through our work.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

And just being able to. I would have never experienced this if I was never working with the National Park Trust or.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

And going even further back before, I found this as an ambassador program. So it all dominoes. It's all a big butterfly effect, but, yeah, super special.

[B]

Well, I definitely feel the love that you guys have for the parks and for the outdoors. I mean, you can feel it, but it's also contagious. I'm in my own mind now being like, okay, what's my next adventure? What am I going to do next? So I guess my next question here is for. For other people who are listening right now who are feeling the exact same way that are like, okay, I'm inspired. I'm ready to go. How do I join this? Where do I look for this? How can people join these programs that we've talked about today?

[C]

Or.

[B]

I know the National Park Trust is a lot more even than what we've covered so far today. So for people who are really feeling inspired right now, where can they go to find more information on all of this?

[D]

Well, you can go to our website. We are all over social media, TikTok, Instagram. You can donate to us. You can even specify where you want your donation to go. So if you are super passionate about our kids youth program, you can say, I would like to fund towards the Kids to Parks day grant program. I'd like to sponsor one of the Buddy Bison schools and fund field trips throughout the school year. Like, you are more than welcome to do that. And we also have our lands department. And if you own land that you're looking to donate to the National Park Service, we can help you facilitate that transaction. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

I would say the biggest way to connect with us definitely go on our website. We have a newsletter that keeps you up to date with everything and all of our projects that we're working on. And the best way to just support our work is donating. And I just want to share that there are many amazing organizations that work to protect and preserve our national parks. I want to differentiate ourselves as the National Park Trust. The trust. T. Trust, not foundation. No, we love the foundation. We love the foundation. They're the charitable partners of the National Park Service. We don't get as much of support is the wrong word, but donor dollars as they do. They're the big partners of the National Park. The charitable partners of the National Park Service. We are the boots on the ground people that put on these programs. We are the ones. Alish and I are the ones traveling to these different parks and making it happen. So not to discredit anyone or any other entity that does similar work, but supporting our work specifically really empowers us to continue the work that we're doing. And the passion that we said are we're, you know, trying to present to the world. So just look for when you're looking us up, and I know you'll have it hopefully in the show notes, but [e-mail] and look for the tree logo. We're looking for the tree. Not necessarily like a tree. The. The shield that everyone knows and loves. Look for that little tree that we have.

[B]

Well, also, speaking of donations, we're doing something fun collaboratively and together.

[D]

Everyone wants a new shirt.

[B]

Yes, we all do. We all love merch. So we are doing a merch collab with the National Park Trust where we have some really fun designs. And in the spirit of youth programs, we have some youth sizes for kids, which we know that a lot of our listeners have been like, hey, get me more youth stuff. Because we've only done a couple things so far. So we do have some designs and every for this specific design in the merch. All of the profits from this are going to the National Park Trust. So that is a direct way that listeners can donate.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

And it'll be a design that is similar for an adult size and a youth size so you can fulfill Cassie's dream and match

[A]

family matching.

[C]

Family matching, that's right. Yeah. And so we would love to see people, you know, not only support the National Park Trust, but tag us and them in your photos in the merch and with your buddy bison and out and enjoying the next adventure that you're on and maybe share with all of us what you learned or pieces of your experience that were life changing or just a happy memory.

[B]

Send us a trail memory.

[C]

Yeah, we would love to know.

[D]

Send us a trail tale from a time going to the park wearing your new merch with buddy bison clips.

[C]

Yeah, that's right. And just I guess to close out, we would love to hear from you guys, like, either you can answer either your favorite. I hate when people ask us this, so I won't frame it of like, what is your favorite park like, because I know it might be hard, but maybe your favorite park experience or something that was memorable on a park trip.

[D]

Yeah, definitely. I can go. So we work with a school out in Beaumont, Texas through our Buddy Bison school program. And last year I went on one of their field trips to Big Thicket National Preserve. Have you guys ever been there?

[C]

No.

[D]

Okay. It's really cool. They are. They have a lot of like carnivorous plants there. They have like a carnivorous land trail. That's really awesome.

[C]

Oh, fun.

[D]

Yeah, it's cool.

[B]

That's really cool.

[D]

But yeah, this trip was really cool because it was eighth grade students and I worked with the park and our lead buddy bison teacher to coordinate a stewardship project where the park had just done a controlled burn. And so they were looking to like replant the understory in front of the visitor center. And so the students were able to actually plant little bluestem grass, which is like a native restorative grass. And like, we were just framing it in such a way where like, you can come back here for the rest of your life and know that you changed this plot of land and you helped restore this plot of land. And like, yeah, we just like all the kids were just like laughing with their friends and it was just fun to see them all on a field trip doing this like, awesome. Some stewardship project around rangers and like knowing that them leaving the park that Day was literally changing the ecosystem of that park. Yeah.

[C]

Making a difference the rest of their life.

[D]

And so that was an awesome trip.

[A]

That's amazing that kids can come back to that park and porn forever and be like, I did that.

[D]

I planted that.

[A]

I planted that. Yeah. That is so fun. I wish I could say that that would be. No, that is so much fun. It's so hard to just use one. One of my favorite outings that we do is at Carter Rock. I'm a huge rock climber. And it's Carter Rock in Maryland, part of the Great Falls national park, or you know, our local park, National Park Service site. And it gets families out rock climbing on the cliff space in Maryland. And it is just so great to see, see military families just come together, get out of their comfort zone climbing rocks. And there is this like three year old girl strapped up in her full body body harness having just the absolute best time in her life. Was she actually climbing the wall?

[B]

No.

[A]

Was she more like being pulled up it? Yes. But you could just see the, how special it was to her. And it's gonna be a memory that lasts for a lifetime.

[D]

I probably feel like a roller coaster.

[A]

And she's honestly probably gonna be in the Olympics sometime. Yeah.

[B]

That was just the beginning.

[A]

I was like, just, I was like, remember me when, when you're climbing the big, big boulders.

[B]

Yeah, like I was here.

[A]

Yeah. I created this. Yeah, There's. It's so special.

[D]

There's like so many funny stories though too, from the kids at parks, like on fishing trips, like getting ear piercings. Like we were on like a salamander hike out in Natahala in North Carolina and like the salamanders were going into this kid's cast and he's like shaking them out. Like, I don't know. There's so much. Kids are a riot. Kids are a riot. Yeah.

[B]

And seeing kids in the outdoors is. When I worked in outdoor education, I specifically worked with kids from like they were around 8 to 13 years old. And a lot of them, it was some of their first experiences in, in nature. And just to see kids with their eyes wide, just looking at everything around them and really taking it in. And they're so funny and creative when they're out there. And they're totally. I mean, I remember kids would come out and they'd be like, so where do I use my iPad at the beginning? And by the end they're covered in dirt, they're climbing stuff. They're trying to, you know, they're like, it's Just so cool to see how well kids connect with nature and just the stories that come out of them.

[D]

Totally.

[B]

And those spaces.

[D]

Yeah. Even in the course of like a two hour field trip outside, like that sense of wonder. And it helps me to reignite like my inner child and my sense of wonder being out in nature to see that. Like, it's very refreshing to see that so often.

[C]

Well, thank you ladies so much for joining us and sharing your passion and all the information about the National Park Trust. We will share all of the things of where people can find you and hopefully we see some Buddy bisons out there in the wild. I'll have my eyes peeled now. I legitimately did not know anything about it before and now I'm going to be be like scouring crowds for this keychain. I mean, I have mine actually right on the desk because you sent it and I'm gonna actually give it to. He's not listening because he's like 4. But I'm going to give it to my nephew for the right gifts and hopefully get him out somewhere because his mom is pretty indoorsy.

[D]

Gotcha.

[C]

I'll be the coolant to get him out there.

[D]

Yeah, we'd love to see where Buddy Bison's been. Tag us us on social media.

[A]

Park Trust.

[D]

And thank you guys so much for speaking with us and asking your questions and giving us the platform to like share more about our work and just get people excited about parks. You're really great. Of course.

[A]

Yeah. And just closing out. You guys play such a big part in people's experiences with the outdoors and you guys being able to share stories and tell stories so well about the outdoors and it, it really does encourage people to explore more. Maybe be a little bit mindful of bears and the scarier things, but it does get. It motivates people to get outside. And we can't thank you enough for the work that you all do. Just speaking about the national parks and your passion for telling stories and other people's stories. So really cool that we could work together.

[B]

Thank you. It's our favorite part.

[C]

We appreciate that. Thank you so much. All right, everyone. Well, do you guys want to help us close out?

[D]

Yeah, I would love to.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

All right, well, we will see everyone next time. In the meantime, enjoy the view.

[A]

But watch your back.

[C]

But watch your back. Amazing. I didn't prep you for that, so. You did great.

[D]

And scene.

[B]

Thanks for joining us for another episode. We hope you learned something new and have another location to put on your list. If you want more npad content. Make sure to follow along with our adventures on all socials at National Park After Dark.

[C]

For more stories just like this one, with the added bonus of exclusive content, you can join us on Patreon or Apple Subscriptions. If you prefer to watch our episodes, head over to our YouTube channel. And if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment moment to rate, review and subscribe on your favorite listening platform. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you may not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressive save over $900 on average. Pop over to progressive.com answer some questions and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. In fact, 99% of their auto customers earn at least one discount. Visit progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates national average 12 month savings of $946 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary to Covis is

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