Catering to ‘Last Chance’ Travelers Who Seek Disappearing Marvels<br />The educational component is important, Ms. Jewell said, because shifting climate conditions at significant American sites like Sequoia National Park, Joshua Tree National Park<br />and Glacier National Park are endangering the very things those parks are named for.<br />At Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska, physical markers show the glacier’s retreat each year,<br />and “as you walk up the trail the signs just get farther apart because a larger amount is melting each year,” Mr. Lyons said.<br />They’re “more and more conscious that things are disappearing.”<br />Dan Austin, owner of the travel company Austin Adventures, said he fielded questions almost daily<br />on the current state of glaciers in Alaska, the Canadian Rockies or Glacier National Park.<br />Travelers want to do more than witness the habitats and ways of life<br />that are changing, Mr. Sankhala said, so they seek out immersive experiences like eating in someone’s home rather than in local restaurants.<br />The number of glaciers at Glacier National Park is down to 26, from about 150 in 1910, when the park was created.<br />During her tenure, National Parks superintendents were asked to create plans to address the impact of climate change on their parks.
