More than 100 specially designed picnic tables, four all-terrain wheelchairs and a detailed inventory of trails usable for visitors with disabilities are highlights of efforts this summer to make Rocky Mountain National Park more accessible.

The non-profit Rocky Mountain Conservancy has worked for decades with park officials to improve accessibility. Funding primarily comes from the conservancy, which is the park’s official non-profit partner, along with the National Park Foundation, other foundations and donors. Projects are chosen from a priority list generated by park officials.

This year’s improvements include the replacement of 135 aging and failing picnic tables with concrete tables designed to accommodate wheelchairs according to standards outlined by the federal Architectural Barriers Act (ABA), and the acquisition of an accessible shuttle bus for transporting visitors to the conservancy’s “field institute” educational events in the park. Four GRIT all-terrain wheelchairs, three of which are new this year, can be rented for free at a local mountain gear shop.

The non-profit Rocky Mountain Conservancy, the official support partner of Rocky Mountain National Park, expanded access this summer to its “field institute” educational programs for visitors with mobility challenges who previously were unable to take full advantage of them. A new accessible shuttle, provided by a private donor, has 12 standard seats, two wheelchair spaces and a hoist. The conservancy has been supporting accessibility projects in the park for decades. (Provided by Rocky Mountain Conservancy)

The conservancy also is supporting the compilation of a Rocky Mountain National Park Accessibility Guide, a comprehensive park inventory with descriptions of accessible trails, scenic overlooks, picnic areas and visitor centers detailing their features and level of accessibility. The guide will be published next spring.

While national parks are struggling with budget constraints that have worsened under the new administration in Washington, there is nothing new about the conservancy’s efforts to help the park. They have been part of its work for decades.

“The government funds a lot of this work, but where we can, we go above and beyond and help them to access additional funding sources — like individual donors or foundations — where we have mission alignment to further enhance the visitor experience or resource stewardship,” said Estee Rivera Murdock, the conservancy’s executive director.

Projects that expand opportunities in the park for those with disabilities date back to the creation of an accessible trail around Lily Lake in the late 1990s.

“These are all multi-year, long-term initiatives,” Murdock said. “We are in the business of stewarding the park, for everyone, forever. These calendar year 2025 projects, we set these priorities back in October of last year. It doesn’t stop at the end of this year, either. It continues to be a priority. There is a legal mandate for the park to have some accessibility, and for us there is a mission mandate. It’s fully aligned with our mission to help connect people to the park.”

Rocky Mountain National Park is replacing 135 aging picnic tables with reinforced concrete tables (shown) designed in accordance with the Architectural Barriers Act. The ABA is a federal law that requires federal facilities to be accessible for people with disabilities. The project has been funded through the Rocky Mountain Conservancy, the park’s non-profit support partner. (Provided by Rocky Mountain Conservancy)

This summer 120 reinforced concrete picnic tables were built in the Glacier Basin campground, and 15 more are being built in the Moraine Park campground, which just reopened this month after a more than two-year closure. With an installation cost of $500,000, according to a conservancy spokesperson, they were designed to specifications in the American Barriers Act that stipulate parameters for height, clearance, wheelchair space and other criteria. They were designed to look as though they weren’t specially designed as accessible.

The conservancy acquired an accessible shuttle bus this year for transporting individuals with disabilities to its field institute events, which help visitors learn about the park’s plant and animal life, geology and history. The $150,000 shuttle has 12 standard seats, two wheelchair spaces and a wheelchair hoist.

Working in partnership with the Estes Park Mountain Shop, the conservancy is promoting the availability of four all-terrain wheelchairs that users can take on trails that can’t accommodate standard wheelchairs. There is no charge to use the chairs.

The wheelchair program began four years ago with one chair donated by the family of a son who used an all-terrain chair before he passed away, according to Jenny Coriell, manager of the Estes Park Mountain Shop. The family offered his chair to the conservancy, and the conservancy worked out a partnership with the shop to be the outlet for making the chairs available. The three new chairs this year, each costing $7,000, were funded by donors through the conservancy.

Most days, all four chairs are in use. They can be reserved by calling the shop.

“It’s really neat,” Coriell said. “It’s pretty cool, watching families be able to get out and enjoy the park and have those opportunities.”

The Rocky Mountain National Park Accessibility Guide will be available via PDF, print (and large print), braille and audio with a written transcript when the conservancy publishes it next spring. The aim is to give visitors with disabilities all the information they need to decide which trails and attractions are suitable for their abilities and equipment. Trail information, for example, will include trail width, surface type and grade.

“The accessibility guide is really geared at helping folks understand what they can expect at different locations,” Murdock said. “The technology has just changed so much. What you think of as a wheelchair has shifted a lot. We’ve got off-road wheelchairs and users with various disabilities of varying abilities. Even folks who aren’t in a wheelchair (permanently), but maybe just recently had a knee surgery, might need to know the width of a trail based on what their device’s width might be. Or, what’s the grade? It’s also working with aging populations.”

By JESSICA DAMIANO

As home gardeners become more educated about the benefits of native plants (supporting native insects, birds and wildlife, and the environment as a whole), the focus has mainly been on trees, shrubs and perennials.

Native annuals have somehow gotten lost in the shuffle, likely because most of them aren’t readily available at the garden center. And most of the annuals (and tender perennials treated as annuals) that ARE sold in local nurseries are introduced species from faraway places. As such, they don’t provide much benefit to the local ecosystem.

Native insects have evolved along with native plants, so they recognize them as food. Filling a garden with exotic plants essentially creates a food desert, which can have dire consequences that range from fewer insect pollinators and birds to diminishing food crops and, eventually, livestock.

We know that using native plants of all types can help prevent a plethora of environmental problems. They’re also easier to care for because they’re naturally adapted to local conditions and are generally drought-tolerant.

Unfortunately, most home gardeners don’t know about or have access to native annuals. I hope that changes.

The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, based in Austin, Texas, has a wonderful online plant database that allows users to search native plants by state, lifecycle, bloom time and other criteria. (It’s at www.wildflower.org.)

Consider asking your local nursery to stock them.

This Oct. 16, 2011 image provided by Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center shows the native annual plant blue curls (Trichostema dichotomum) in bloom at Fall Line Sandhills Natural Area in Taylor County, Ga. (Alan Cressler/Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center via AP)

Here are some favorite native annuals.

7 Native annuals worth adding to the garden

Partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata), which is native from Massachusetts south to northern Florida and west to Minnesota, eastern Nebraska, Oklahoma and eastern Texas, is sadly underused. The lovely 1-to-3-foot-tall plant, which produces clusters of 1-inch-wide yellow flowers on tall, slender stems, thrives in both sun and part shade. A member of the legume family, it also releases nitrogen into the soil, which provides a natural and free fertilizer for itself and the other plants in the bed.

American basket flower (Plectocephalus americanus) has a native range that spans west from Missouri to Kansas, then south to Louisiana, Texas and into Mexico. The plant, which boasts 4-inch, honey-scented, lavender-to-pinkish-purple flowers with creamy centers, thrives in full sun to part shade.

Forked Bluecurls (Trichostema dichotomum) are delicate flowers that remind me a bit of Dutch irises. Growing to just over 2 feet tall, the late-summer bloomer is native to Michigan, Missouri and Texas east to the Atlantic coast, from Maine to Florida.

A better-known U.S. native is the California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica), which, as its name implies, is native to California and Baja California. It grows up to 2 feet tall, sending up thin stems that each hold a single yellow-orange flower.

Many sunflowers are North American natives, and some of those are perennials. But the Helianthus annus species, known as common or annual sunflower, is a native annual. Originating in Manitoba, Canada, and Minnesota, south to Texas and west from Oregon to Baja California, Mexico, the multi-branched, bushy plant becomes covered in yellow flowers with maroon centers in summer.

Indian blanket flower (Gaillardia pulchella) is another U.S. native annual that I’ve seen at the nursery. They’re not native to my home state of New York, however, but rather native from western South Dakota to Kansas and Louisiana and west to Colorado and Arizona. The 2-foot-tall plants put forth daisy-like, red-petaled flowers with yellow tips.

This Sept. 23 2015, image provided by Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center shows native jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) blooming on Wine Spring Bald at Nantahala National Forest, N.C. (Alan Cressler/Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center via AP)

Impatiens capensis (Orange jewelweed) should not be confused with the widely available Impatiens walleriana, which comes to us from eastern Africa, or Impatiens hawkeri (New Guinea Impatiens), which is native to the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. Instead, this North American beauty has a native range that covers Saskatchewan to Newfoundland, Canada, then extends south to Georgia, west to Oklahoma and northward to Missouri. Great for shady spots, its speckled orange flowers are a favorite of hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

I look forward to the peach season with culinary glee. Their velvety texture and intoxicating fragrance make ripe peaches a treasure. They are delicious drizzled with Amaretto syrup and topped with whipped cream. If I feel ambitious, I pass a basket of warm cookies, preferably ones laced with toasted almonds.

Peaches with Amaretto Cream

Yield: 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup Amaretto (almond flavored liqueur), divided use

6 large ripe fresh peaches

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Optional: 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Garnish: Sprigs of fresh mint

DIRECTIONS

1. Place Amaretto in heavy-bottomed saucepan. On medium-high heat, reduce the mixture by about half in volume; when cooled it will get syrupy. Set aside.

2. Bring a pan of water to a boil on high heat. Make a shallow x on the bottom of each peach and submerge in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds (the riper the peaches, the shorter the time). Remove and place in cold water. Cut peaches in half through the seam; twist halves in opposite directions to halve each peach; remove pits. Slip off skin. Cut into thick wedges.

3. Whip the cream and 1 tablespoon reduced Amaretto together until just starting to get stiff. If whipping in advance, include the powdered sugar in the mixture to stabilize it.

4. Divide peaches between 6 small bowls or ramekins. Drizzle with remaining reduced Amaretto and top with whipped cream mixture. Garnish each with a sprig of fresh mint and serve.

Award-winning food writer Cathy Thomas has written three cookbooks, including “50 Best Plants on the Planet.” Follow her at CathyThomasCooks.com.

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By REGINA GARCIA CANO, Associated Press

LOBATERA, Venezuela (AP) — Carlos Uzcátegui tightly hugged his sobbing wife and stepdaughter on Wednesday as the morning fog in western Venezuela lifted. The family’s first embrace in more than a year finally convinced him that his nightmare inside a prison in El Salvador was over.

Uzcátegui was among the migrants being reunited with loved ones after four months in prison in El Salvador, where the U.S. government transferred them in one of its boldest moves to crack down on immigration.

“Every day, we asked God for the blessing of freeing us from there so that we could be here with family, with my loved ones,” Uzcátegui, 33, said. “Every day, I woke up looking at the bars, wishing I wasn’t there.”

Carlos Uzcategui, one of the Venezuelan migrants deported months ago to El Salvador by the United States under an immigration crackdown, is welcomed home in Lobatera, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

“They beat us, they kicked us. I even have quite a few bruises on my stomach,” he added before later showing a mildly bruised left abdomen.

The migrants, some of whom characterized the prison as “hell,” were freed Friday in a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Venezuelan governments, but the latter sequestered them upon arrival to their country.

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and other officials have said many of the immigrants were physically and psychologically tortured during their detention in El Salvador, airing on state television videos of some of the men describing the alleged abuse, including rape, severe beatings and pellet-gun wounds. The narratives are reminiscent of the abuses that Maduro’s government has long been accused of committing against its real or perceived, jailed opponents.

As the men reached their homes, they and their relatives shared deeply emotional moments in which sad tears and happy tears rolled down their cheeks at the same time.

Uzcátegui’s wife, Gabriela Mora, 30, held onto their home’s fence and sobbed as she saw the military vehicle carrying him approach after a 30-plus-hour bus ride to their mining community nestled in Venezuela’s Andean mountains. She had set up gifts and decorations in their living room, including a star-shaped metallic blue balloon with a “Happy Father’s Day” greeting that his stepdaughter had saved since the June holiday.

‘We met a lot of innocent people’

The 252 men ended in El Salvador on March 16 after the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to pay $6 million to the Central American nation to house them in a mega-prison, where human rights groups have documented hundreds of deaths and cases of torture. Trump accused the men of belonging to the violent Tren de Aragua street gang, which originated in Venezuela.

Carlos Uzcategui, one of the Venezuelan migrants deported months ago to El Salvador by the United States under an immigration crackdown, holds the hand of his wife, Gabriela Mora, as he is welcomed home in Lobatera, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

The administration did not provide evidence to back up the accusation. However, several recently deported migrants have said U.S. authorities wrongly judged their tattoos and used them as an excuse to deport them.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello on Friday said only seven of the men had pending cases in Venezuela, adding that all the deportees would undergo medical tests and background checks before they could go home.

Arturo Suárez, whose reggaeton songs surfaced on social media after he was sent to El Salvador, arrived at his family’s working-class home in the capital, Caracas, on Tuesday. His sister hugged him after he exited a vehicle of Venezuela’s intelligence service.

“It is hell. We met a lot of innocent people,” Suárez told reporters, referring to the prison he was held in. “To all those who mistreated us, to all those who negotiated with our lives and our freedom, I have one thing to say, and scripture says it well: Vengeance and justice is mine, and you are going to give an account to God Father.”

The Associated Press could not verify the abuse allegations that Suárez and other migrants narrated in the videos aired by state media.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab on Monday said he had opened an investigation against El Salvador President Nayib Bukele based on the deportees’ allegations. Bukele’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Appointment to seek asylum

The men left El Salvador as part of a prisoner exchange with the U.S., which received 10 citizens and permanent residents whom Maduro’s government had jailed over accusations of plotting to destabilize Venezuela.

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Mora said her husband migrated after the coal mine he had long worked at halved his pay and their street food shop went out of business in 2023. Uzcátegui left Lobatera in March 2024 with an acquaintance’s promise to help him find a construction job in Orlando.

On his way north, Uzcátegui crossed the punishing Darien Gap that separates Colombia and Panama, and by mid-April he had reached Mexico City. There, he worked at a public market’s seafood stall until early December, when he was finally granted an appointment through a U.S. government smartphone app to seek asylum at a border crossing.

But Uzcátegui never walked free in the U.S., where authorities regarded his tattoos with suspicion, said Mara. He was sent to a detention center in Texas until he and other Venezuelans were put on the airplanes that landed in El Salvador. Still, she said she does not regret supporting her husband’s decision to migrate.

“It’s the country’s situation that forces one to make these decisions,” she said. “If (economic) conditions here were favorable…, it wouldn’t have been necessary for him to leave to be able to fix the house or to provide my daughter with a better education.”