National Parks / State Parks

[Painted Turtle]

I have been searching the net to find out the answer to one what I though was a simple question.. How many National Parks and their names does the "AT" go through? Also the same with State parks. Does anyone have the answer?

[jfarrell04]

Not sure about State Parks but as far as NP "units":

Great Smoky NP

Blue Ridge Parkway

Shenandoah NP

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park

C&O Canal National Historic Park; Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail

Delaware Water Gap NRA

[Painted Turtle]

Not sure about State Parks but as far as NP "units":

Great Smoky NP

Blue Ridge Parkway

Shenandoah NP

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park

C&O Canal National Historic Park; Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail

Delaware Water Gap NRA

Thank You.. I don't know why but I was thinking that there would be a lot more... Thinking would Civil War Battle fields be a different category? Thanks again it is a start.

[tdoczi]

Thank You.. I don't know why but I was thinking that there would be a lot more... Thinking would Civil War Battle fields be a different category? Thanks again it is a start.

does it actually literally go through any battlefields though? i dont think it does. it comes close to antietam and i guess sort of close (if you were driving) to gettysburg, but through?

if you were to try and list all the named and designated areas of any type the trail goes through itd be quite a lengthy list.

[Painted Turtle]

does it actually literally go through any battlefields though? i dont think it does. it comes close to antietam and i guess sort of close (if you were driving) to gettysburg, but through?

if you were to try and list all the named and designated areas of any type the trail goes through itd be quite a lengthy list.

I am very close to finishing the trail only 8.6 in GA and the 33 in the Northern Smokies and I am done. So I am, as you seem to know, trying to put together some sort of list of Iconic places. You are right close to Antietam and only 30 miles from Gettysburg.

[HooKooDooKu]

Not sure about State Parks but as far as NP "units":

The AT itself is an NP "unit":
"Appalachian National Scenic Trail"

[Painted Turtle]

The AT itself is an NP "unit":
"Appalachian National Scenic Trail"

LOL ah yes you are so right. But it is made up of smaller parts. And even smaller parts like, Spy Rock, the 27 miles of the Western Boundary of Mosby's Raiders and a lot others.

[Another Kevin]

There are so many categories of public land "units," and so many authorities that manage them, that the question is almost meaningless.

For what it's worth, here are public land units that I see in New York, south to north. New York doesn't even have that much trail mileage. I'd find it daunting to prepare a similar list for Virginia!

Orange County Appalachian Trail Corridor - NPS. (Actually consists of several discrete parcels, since the road crossings are, for the most part, county and state rights-of-way.

Sterling Forest State Park - only a very short section near Route 17, although a few miles of the Federal corridor has Sterling Forest on both sides. (Uncle Sam owns the corridor there, but the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation administers it and provides emergency services).

Harriman State Park (NYS OPRHP)

Bear Mountain State Park (NYS OPRHP)

Camp Smith (New York Army National Guard) - a strip of public-access land on the north side of the military reservation that is administered by NYS OPRHP.

Hudson Highlands State Park (NYS OPRHP)

Putnam County Appalachian Trail Corridor (NPS again - multiple disconnected parcels)

Clarence Fahnestock Memorial State Park (NYS OPRHP)

Dutchess County Appalachian Trail Corridor (NPS)

Taconic State Parkway - legally, the freeway is a park! (It belongs to OPRHP, not the Department of Transportation.)

Depot Hill State Multiple Use Area - not a State Park, and under the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation rather than the OPRHP.

I've lost track of who now owns Nuclear Lake. It used to be a county reservation but I think the NPS bought it at some point.

Swamp River Fishing Access Corridor - privately held, but the NYS DEC holds a deeded easement for recreational access.

Harlem Valley State Psychiatric Center - the hospital has been shuttered for quite a while, but the land still belongs to the NYS Office of Mental Health

The trail recrosses into New York a bit farther north, near the Schaghticoke Indian Reservation. I see in the parcel database that the land on the New York side is government-owned, but the files that might give me a title for it are at home and I'm at work.

(Plus, I don't have land ownership data for the ridge west of Quaker Lake and the immediate area of the Wiley shelter.)

[Tuckahoe]

does it actually literally go through any battlefields though? i dont think it does. it comes close to antietam and i guess sort of close (if you were driving) to gettysburg, but through?

if you were to try and list all the named and designated areas of any type the trail goes through itd be quite a lengthy list.

Harpers Ferry for on which which included the single largest surrender of US troops until the fall of the Philippines. The trail then follows the ridge of South Mountain, and the battles at Crampton's Gap, Fox's Gap and Turner's Gap together make up the South Mountain phase of the Sharpsburg Campaign.

[Alleghanian Orogeny]

The Blue Ridge Mountains now within Shenandoah NP played a prominent role throughout the Civil War due simply to the geographic barrier slowing passage from the Shenandoah Valley to the Piedmont and the relatively few places a large force could cross the Blue Ridge.

Jackson found himself about to be cornered while on the move from Port Republic to Staunton. Heavy rains had made the roads almost impassable and he contemplated being overtaken and overwhelmed by a superior pursuing Union force. He sent his fairly small army east from Port Republic to Brown's Gap, through which a privately-owned turnpike had operated for some years prior to the outbreak of hostilities. A train was summoned and met the force at Mechum's Station, partway between Charlottesville and Crozet, at the base of the Blue Ridge on the Piedmont side. Wounded and sick personnel crowded the train cars and those able to walked the tracks west, through Crozet, up the mountain to and through Rockfish Gap, and the train passed beneath the Gap via the Crozet Tunnel. Three days after "disappearing" from the Valley, Jackson's army "reappeared" back in the Valley, just 30 miles from where they'd started, and were able to resupply and regroup in Staunton.

AO

[gpburdelljr]

No need to reinvent the wheel. This NPS map of the AT, shows National Parks, State Parks, and National Forests the trail goes through.

https://www.nps.gov/appa/planyourvisit/maps.htm