Trails pocketed with natural deposits of marble, limestones, and quartz, also feature mortar holes, knapping sites, and pictographs. This juxtaposition washes away the mythology that this land was untouched and unpopulated.
Instead, I see the National Parks as the result of the forced removal of Indigenous people, eminent domain, and colonial ideas of land ownership. Entrance gates, overflowing parking lots, Aramark run cafeterias, and gift shops full of souvenirs, are reminders that the National Parks are manufactured; their borders are contrived and imply the violence of their construction and continued maintenance.
The longer I ramble in these places, the more I am confronted by this dark history. Yet year after year, I continue to return; for the beauty of this land is undeniable.
In 2025, The United States government proposed millions of dollars to be stripped from the National Parks and for the expansion of mining projects in protected areas. There is a deep uncertainty about the future of the National Parks, and legitimate fears that this land will be privatized.
This seems to be the inevitable trajectory of segregating out what land is worthy of protection and conservation; reducing our relationship to a transactional visit akin to an amusement park vacation. Yet the parks are a critical resistance to corporate overreach, climate disaster, and the loss of all public green spaces.
This project is a quiet contemplation on how we define the wilderness, the interruption of our natural relationship to the Earth, and a question of how to move forward.
