Obama Creates New National Trail

President Obama recently signed a bill that would create a trail from Montana’s Glacier National Park (above) to the Pacific Ocean at Washington’s Cape Alava. The 1,200-mile Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail is part of the “dream of a transcontinental pathway across America,” according to Ron Strickland, who proposed the Pacific Northwest Trail in 1970. He hopes to see a trail connecting the Pacific to the Atlantic become a reality by the 50th anniversary of the National Trails System in 2018, according to AP.

Portions of the trail already exist, and the Pacific Northwest Trail Association has been maintaining those parts for many years. The complete trail will pass through three national parks–Glacier, North Cascades and Olympic–and seven national forests, and will be the only national scenic trail that connects two other international trails–the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs from Mexico to Canada, passing through California, Oregon, and Washington, and the Continental Divide Trail, which connects Mexico and Canada by way of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.

The Pacific Northwest Trail was officially designated on March 30, when Obama signed a public lands bill that also created the Arizona National Scenic Trail and the New England National Scenic Trail, bringing the total number of national trails to eleven. It has been some 26 years since any additions to the national scenic trails system have been made.

Photo: Steve Geer/iStockphoto.com