A Walk in the Parks: Photographs from North Carolina State Parks. Beginning October 2, you can take a walk through North Carolina’s state parks without leaving Raleigh. Chapel Hill’s Niche Publishing LLC announces an exhibition of photographs at Lee Hansley Gallery at 225 Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh from October 2-16. Read the press release.

North Carolina State Parks: A Niche Guide is First Updated NC Park System Guidebook in Almost 20 Years. Read the press release.

Niche News

North Carolina State Parks: A Niche Guide is First Updated NC Park System Guidebook in Almost 20 Years
In 2007, North Carolina's State Parks reported record attendance: With 13.4 million visits, visitation increased by 6.5 percent from 2006 and by 260 percent over the past 25 years, according to the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. North Carolina State Parks: A Niche Guide, offers a helpful guide for the growing number of park visitors and is now available for purchase from traditional and online booksellers.

Published by Niche Publishing LLC, the full-color publication is the first guidebook to North Carolina state parks to be published in almost 20 years. The guide builds on the work of the comprehensive State Parks of North Carolina by Walter C. Biggs Jr. and James F. Parnell, which was published by John F. Blair, Publisher in 1989.

The Niche guide features photographs and key information about all of North Carolina's state parks, recreation and natural areas, as well as chapters covering "Parks in Progress," which highlight soon-to-be opened parks and natural areas.

Organized geographically from the mountains to the coastal plain, each chapter includes a general description of the site and detailed information about the park's location, amenities, and unique features. The book provides GPS coordinates for each park, as well as safety tips, a list of nearby natural areas, and links to related websites.

The authors included 185 full-color photographs in the book that capture a sense of the parks' unique character and natural features.

As of February 2008, the North Carolina state parks system comprised nearly 200,000 acres, including 31 state parks and four state recreation areas that are open to the public, and a system of state natural areas dedicated to conservation of natural resources.

North Carolina State Parks: A Niche Guide is distributed by John F. Blair, Publisher and can be purchased for $14.95 at www.blairpub.com, and in bookstores and online book retailers.

The companion Niche Publishing website at www.nichepress.com is under construction in 2008 and will include additional anecdotes about state parks, video content, updated information, photographs, and other features. Niche Publishing LLC is a partnership between Ida Phillips and Bill Pendergraft.

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