I read a lot of bad news regarding US National Parks on The National Parks Traveler blog and, to a lesser extent, on the Park Remark blog.
Increasing user fees, inefficient management, corrupt political manoeuvring. It can be depressing.
Here’s some good news regarding a Yellowstone National Park tourism site:
A grungy layout meant to give a park feel does the job well, and bits and pieces also use flash to add effect and features. What surprised me was the the site is also up a Webby Award – not something many national parks find themselves looking to score.
Excellent!
A way to promote National Parks with the internet.
At first I thought this was the official Park site. Foolish me. Of course this is a private venture supported by advertising and sponsors.
The official government Yellowstone website is surprisingly good as well — but I immediately clicked into one of these:
(Here’s the correct page: Plan Your Visit.)
Lets compare their two hiking pages:
» YellowstonePark.com: Top Things #5
» government site: Hiking in the Park
The government site comes out ahead.
Regardless, I will vote for YellowstonePark.com in the Webby Awards for Best Tourism Site. I like what they are trying to do. With podcasts, RSS feeds and video, it is a richer experience.
Independent National Parks websites have a greater chance, long term, of giving me the information I need to organizing for hiking. Government monopoly bureaucracies are far too inefficient to compete with the private sector in anything.
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