National Parks make me think, which makes me write.

OK, so already I've scared off most of those folks who wouldn't like this website, because it has many things that experts tell me people don't like online: Lots of words, not a lot of pictures, and no call to action except an implication that folks should do a little national parking on their own. And doing that is not even clickable.

Here's how it all came about: I was single again, on my own for the first time in 25 years, with nothing to do but go see something. It was Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in Southwest Missouri, and though I'd been there before - back when I was writing a book about the Civil War in Missouri - I'd never really appreciated it for what it was: The preservation of not only a place, but through it all the idea of preservation itself.

Now I've made visiting America's national parks my hobby. In the past few years I've been to more than 150 parks, monuments, preserves and some of the other named sites that make up our national park system. I can't explore them the way some people do because I have polio and that limits, for instance, my ability to climb; nevertheless with the aid of my handy alpenstock I hike around the best I can, fall a few times, take a few pictures, and then write about my impressions.

My pages here record some of those visits. Sometimes I write about the parks themselves, sometimes about what the parks make me think. It's all part of the exploration process, and it goes on long after I get home.

- Preston Filbert