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National Park Quiz 88: Potpourri V

View from the Perpendicular Trail. Can you tell at a glance which national park this is? Photo by N8ster via Flickr.

We haven't had a grab bag quiz for quite a while, so let's go with a potpourri and see what shakes out. Answers are at the end. If we catch you peeking, we'll make you write on the whiteboard 100 times: "Used in this context, the term potpourri does not refer to a mixture of dried flower petals and spices used to impart a pleasant scent to the air, but rather to a collection of miscellaneous questions."

1. The Perpendicular Trail at ______ , a vertical trail that requires hikers to negotiate a spiral staircase cut into granite, offers views like that in the accompanying photo.
a. Acadia National Park
b. Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
c. Voyageurs National Park
d. Isle Royale National Park

2. Opened to the public in October 2010, the newest (393rd) National Park System unit preserves and interprets
a. the birthplace of President Bill Clinton
b. the site of a World War II naval magazine explosion
c. a large deposit of mammoth bones
d. a War of 1812 battlefield

3. An atmospheric phenomenon called "vog" occasionally occurs in the vicinity of
a. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
b. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
c. Point Reyes National Seashore
d. Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site

4. Agate Fossil Beds National Monument is in
a. Colorado
b. Nebraska
c. Montana
d. Texas

5. The elk that live in Theodore Roosevelt National Park aren’t Roosevelt elk. However, visitors can view Roosevelt elk in several other national parks, including Redwood National and State Parks and
a. Glacier National Park
b. Rocky Mountain National Park
c. Olympic National Park
d. Point Reyes National Seashore

6. The National Park Service Night Sky Team found ______ to be one of the darkest places in the country, making it a nearly perfect place for stargazing.
a. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
b. Great Basin National Park
c. Saguaro National Park
d. Biscayne National Park

7. Which of the following is a National Park System unit that is situated entirely on islands (no mainland component)?
a. Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
b. Gulf Islands National Seashore
c. Biscayne National Park
d. Dry Tortugas National Park

8. Which of these four national parks has the largest developed campground?
a. Yellowstone National Park
b. Great Smoky Mountains National Park
c. Grand Canyon National Park
d. Chickasaw National Recreation Area

9. Which of the following correctly pairs a national park with the desert in which it is situated?
a. Joshua Tree National Park -- Great Basin Desert
b. Death Valley National Park -- Chihuahuan Desert
c. Saguaro National Park -- Sonoran Desert
d. Big Bend National Park -- Mojave Desert

10. Each of the following National Park System units is located entirely within the corporate limits of a city EXCEPT (Choose the one that "does not belong."):
a. Roger Williams National Memorial
b. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site
c. Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park
d. Greenbelt Park

Extra Credit Question

11. A young landscape architect was a major driving force behind the creation of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. One of the ideas he promoted was arranging for the purchase of parkway land that was then leased back to farmers for agricultural use. This “forgotten hero” was
a. Frederick Law Olmsted
b. Stanley W. Abbott
c. Michael Van Valkenburgh
d. Elisha Mitchell

Super Bonus Question

12. In the alphabetical listing of National Park System units, the first-listed unit is Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site and the second-listed unit is Acadia National Park. Can you name the third-listed NPS unit in this alphabetical listing?

Answers

(1) a -- The Perpendicular Trail at Maine's Acadia National Park leads to the 946-foot summit of Mansell Mountain on the western side of Mount Desert Island.

(2) d -- River Raisin National Battlefield Park, the newest (393rd) unit of the National Park System, was opened to the public in October 2010.

(3) b -- "Vog" is volcanic smog. This acrid volcanic smoke occasionally affects the Kona Coast, the Hilo vicinity, and other areas near Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

(4) b -- Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, which has a large number of well-preserved Miocene fossils, is located near the town of Harrison in Nebraska's western panhandle region.

(5) c -- Olympic National Park has the largest unmanaged herd of Roosevelt elk in the Pacific Northwest.

(6) b -- Few places in the coterminous U.S. offer better conditions for stargazing than Great Basin National Park. The other listed parks are not "dark sky" parks Like Great Basin because they are situated too close to urban/industrial sources of light pollution.

(7) d -- Dry Tortugas National Park, which preserves seven small islands and adjacent waters in the Dry Tortugas section of the Florida Keys, is administered by Everglades National Park and has no mainland holdings.

(8) a -- Three of Yellowstone National Park's 12 campgrounds are conspicuously large: Bridge Bay (431 sites), Grant (425 sites), and Fishing Bridge RV (346 sites). None of the other three listed parks has a developed campground as big as Yellowstone's third-largest.

(9) c -- Saguaro National Park, whose two units flank the city of Tucson, Arizona, is situated in the Sonoran Desert. Joshua Tree National Park and Death Valley National Park are both in the Mojave Desert and Big Bend National Park is in the Chihuahuan Desert.

(10) c -- Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park preserves the LBJ Ranch, which is located in the Texas Hill Country about 50 miles west of Austin.

(11) b -- Stanley W. Abbott was a young landscape architect (later park superintendent) who played a key role in the development of Blue Ridge Parkway. Some tracts that he bought were leased back to farmers for agricultural use. Where practicable, he arranged for scenic easements, thus "buying the scenery" without paying for the land.

(12) In the alphabetical listing of National Park System units, Adams National Historical Park is the third-listed unit (after Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site and Acadia National Park).

Grading: 9 or 10 correct, rest on your laurels; 7 or 8 correct, pretty darn good; 6 correct, passable fair; 5 or fewer correct, nothing to brag about.

Comments

The course sounds great, but you have to be a student at Univ of SC to enroll.


Alas, tis true. My national parks course is now open only to University of South Carolina students. I've deleted the course advertisement from all quizzes, past and present.


Yay, 11 out of 12 !


Which one did you miss, Sabattis?


Bob - I was tripped up by #11. Despite just having read some of Traveler's coverage of the Blue Ridge Parkway, I didn't always remember the names...


Actually, the Roosevelt elk are merely a race of Cervus canadensis canadensis; DNA testing shows that the Tule elk, Roosevelt elk, and Wapiti or Rocky Mountain elk are so closely related genetically that it's difficult to assign official subspecies status to any of these races.


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