Free entrance to national parks and forests for Veterans Day

National parks and forests across the country will waive entrance fees Tuesday in honor of Veterans Day. For the first time, California state parks are waiving fees too. The connection between the healing powers the outdoors has on members of the military was underscored in 1948 when troubled World War II veteran Earl V. Shaffer turned to nature to “walk off the war.”

Shaffer walked to forget the stress of combat with each footstep and became the first person to document his more than 2,000-mile walk from Georgia to Maine on the Appalachian Trail.

Two years ago, another veteran named Sean Gobin, who had done stints to Iraq and Afghanistan, followed Shaffer’s lead and walked the trail too. He also learned firsthand the benefits of long-distance hiking and founded Warrior Hike, an organization that supports veterans on a number of U.S. through-trails.

Former U.S. Marine Kevin Black, who finished the Pacific Crest Trail with the help of Warrior Hike, wrote about the profound effect completing the 2,660-mile trail from Mexico to Canada had on him.

“It was like a reset button for my emotions had been hit,” he writes in the October issue of the Pacific Crest Trail Assn.’s newsletter. “Things that didn’t really impact me before were having an impact. I felt like I did when I was young.”

National parks, wildlife refuges and Bureau of Land Management lands will waive entrance fees for all visitors Tuesday. National forests’ fee-free days are Saturday through Tuesday.

Far from the outdoors, Lois Pope of Los Angeles worked to heal and remember veterans in another way. She raised more than $80 million to create the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington.

The nation’s newest veterans monument was dedicated Oct. 5, with President Obama in attendance. The granite-and-glass monument pays tribute “to the hidden and visible disabilities from all conflicts and all branches of service,” the memorial’s website says.