California state parks officials plan to install ATMs for park admission

California park officials are planning to speed up the park entrance process by installing ATMs that will allow visitors to pay fees by debit or credit cart. Funding for the new equipment was set aside by legislation which provided $750,000 to “modernize the system in hopes of increasing revenue.”

From the article:

Plans call for the automation to be installed soon at about a dozen locations, including Emerald Bay State Park at Lake Tahoe, Point Mugu in the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area near Pacheco Pass. The machines are equipped with encryption devices to deter ID theft, Stearns said.

The new machines will allow park visitors to pay for admission hourly or part days.

You can read the whole article HERE.

Nook Seeks an Edge With $2 E-Books

Lauren Indvik is reporting on Mashable that Nook has unveiled a new program, Nook Snaps, that offers short subject ebooks of 5,000 words for $1.99.  These ebooks are 60-day Nook exclusives, which seems similar to Amazon’s 90-exclusive Select program.

From the article:

“It’s an editorially driven program that reflects our ongoing commitment to high-quality short content,” Theresa Horner, vice president of digital content at Nook Media, said in a statement.

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MOUNTAIN BIKING: Big Bear trail foreshadows Idyllwild changes

Bob Pratte wrote an article that appears today on the PE Bloggers website about the changes taking place in Big Bear, where the Big Bear Valley Trails Foundation working in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service and the International Mountain Biking Association have been building out the Skyline Trail.

The Skyline Trail will be 15 miles running along the south ridge of Big Bear Valley.

From the article:

Recently in Big Bear, I saw the positive result of the Forest Service approach when I sampled the first five miles of the new Skyline Trail. When finished, it will run 15 miles along the south ridge of Big Bear Valley, the Snow Summit side of the lake. More of the trail since was opened.

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CNN Highlights Yosemite – “A crown jewel of the national parks”

Katia Hetter posted an article in the Summer In The Park series on the CNN.com website.

From the article:

(CNN) — Yosemite National Park has almost everything a nature lover could desire: Glorious waterfalls, spectacular meadows and valleys, groves of ancient sequoias and the wildlife that call the park home.

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NPS Introduces Healthy Food Policy For National Parks

Vacation. The time to let go, relax, and enjoy the scenery. Go where you want, eat what you want … no, wait, can’t to that anymore.

The National Park Service has announce a new ‘healthy food policy’ as part of the “Healthy Parks, Healthy People” initiative. New food standards and ‘sustainable’ food guidelines will now change what you can eat at our national parks.

What is the “Healthy Parks, Healthy People” initiative? Another nonsensical government program … brought to you by the same people who think taking trash cans out of national parks will ‘encourage people to take their trash with them.’

According to the NPS website, “Healthy Parks Healthy People” is a holistic approach to promoting the health and well-being of people and the sustainability of the planet.

Healthy Parks, Healthy People US  is a National Park Service initiative working to reintegrate human, environmental and ecological health into the mission of public parks and public lands.

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