America's national parks are some of the most powerful, beautiful, and inspiring spots on the earth. They are often considered -spiritual- places in which one can connect to oneself and to nature. But it takes a lot of work to make nature appear natural. To maintain the apparently pristine landscapes of our parks, the National Park Service must engage in traffic management, landscape design, crowd-diffusing techniques, viewpoint construction, behavioral management, and more--and to preserve the -spiritual- experience of the park, they have to keep this labor invisible. Spirituality and...

America's national parks are some of the most powerful, beautiful, and inspiring spots on the earth. They are often considered -spiritual- places in which one can connect to oneself and to nature. But it takes a lot of work to make nature appear natural. To maintain the apparently pristine landscapes of our parks, the National Park Service must engage in traffic management, landscape design, crowd-diffusing techniques, viewpoint construction, behavioral management, and more--and to preserve the -spiritual- experience of the park, they have to keep this labor invisible. Spirituality and...