The good news:

It will soon be possible to visit national parks without driving a car.

Federal officials awarded grants Monday totaling almost $20 million to reduce traffic in national parks and public lands by providing alternative transit, including trains, shuttle buses and bicycle trails.

Congestion is a growing problem in the nation’s national parks and public lands, which have 700 million visitors annually, Simpson said.

“By and large those visitors currently have only one way of getting in and around our national treasures: by car,” he said.

The goal of the Alternative Transportation in the Parks and Public Lands program is to reduce pollution and congestion, preserve parklands and wildlife areas, and increase access for visitors, including the disabled.

– “Transit grants awarded to national parks,” Associated Press

The bad news:

Mount Rainier National Park won’t be one of them.

The biggest of the 42 grants included $4.7 million to buy rail cars for the Chugach National Forest in Alaska, $1.7 million to buy four buses for Colorado’s White River National Forest, $1.4 million for propane-powered buses for Maine’s Acadia National Park and $1.2 million for a replacement boat dock at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska.

Looks like I’ll have to continue Flexin’ on the annual pilgrimage.