Features

There are, within Great Smoky Mountains National Park, more than 150 graves of veterans who fought as far back as the Revolutionary War. A small group of volunteers is working to identify all the graves and search for others that might exist in the hollows of the park.

Residential Environmental Learning Centers across the country introduce youth to national parks and the nature they hold, and give them the opportunity to better understand the issues that confront the environment. While the coronavirus pandemic postponed many active programs this year, at North Cascades Institute staff thought outside the box to keep youth in their leadership program connected with those issues.

Mount Rainier can be deadly, but death is hardly what prevents most from succeeding up the glacier-shrouded volcano. Although climbing carries inherent risks, it’s not how most deaths in the sprawling Mount Rainier National Park occur. Of the 425 fatalities recorded over more than a century -- 1897 to 2017 -- about 90 were summit climbers, in addition to 35 or so climbing accidents that were non-summit related, park data shows. The rest of the deaths run the gamut through the park.

There is just one road through Petrified Forest National Park, a road that most visitors stick to as they stop at overlooks, maybe hike to Agate House, and check out the Rainbow Forest Museum. But if you're adventurous, the Painted Desert with its backcountry trails holds surprises if you take the time, and have the skills, to explore this wild side of the park, as Barbara Jensen did.

If you've only been capturing horizontal imagery of your national park visits, then you should think about also adding a few verticals to your park photo gallery. A great place for getting vertical photos is Redwood National and State Parks in northern California. Photographer Rebecca Latson visited this cooperative of national and state parks and returns with tips on capturing photos of some very tall trees, with meadow and coastal vistas thrown in for good measure.

The 1988 wildfires that drew the nation's attention to the world's first national park were considered simply part of the fire regime that historically has existed in Yellowstone National Park. But in the aftermath of the fires, "climate change" entered the country's lexicon and increasingly intense wildfires have forced the National Park Service in the West to both evaluate and refine its approach to battling flames that are arriving with greater and greater ferocity.

Ninety years after it was first blazed across the roof of Grand Teton National Park, the Teton Skyline Trail, better known today as the Teton Crest Trail, is getting some much needed repairs.

In Three Rivers, California, a historically white census-designated place, too small even to be incorporated as a town, a brewer is redefining multicultural dining so his beer hall on the doorstep to Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks can survive the Covid-19 pandemic.

While on assignment for the Traveler, photographer Rebecca Latson visited Redwood National and State Parks in California. She returned from her trip with many photos and the realization that while Redwoods is mostly about the trees, this collaboration of national and state parks also offers prairie and coastal venues, all with enough to do and see for at least three days.

The distinctive silhouettes of the “Three Sisters” are an Albuquerque landmark, low peaks on the high West Mesa. Part of Petroglyph National Monument, this free day use area is jointly managed by National Park Service and the city. Instead of turning left out of the visitor center parking lot to go find ancient rock carvings, I turn right in search of volcanoes.

There are places in nature where the loss of a species or two won’t send shudders through the ecosystem or even cripple it. In the tropics of Central America, for instance, new research shows that having robust diversity among mammalian species will allow for the loss of a good handful or two of species without upsetting an ecosystem.

There are well-known units of the National Park System, and then there are those that are publicity forsaken outposts. But that doesn't make them any lesser. Indeed, they are overlooked jewels. Barbara Jensen, a self-described wanderer, recently found her way to one of those jewels.

My wife and I are staring at a lizard that must be four feet long, holding our breath in astonishment. Light tan in color, this creature is vividly outlined against an overhanging wall of sandstone. Painstakingly chipped out of the rock by some nameless Native American artisan, it has been on display here for at least seven hundred years, or longer than the Giotto frescos in Florence’s Santa Croce church.

Nothing beats a day spent hiking a trail through the spectacular subalpine meadows of Mount Rainier National Park – except maybe combining that hike with the opportunity to contribute to important research by volunteering as a citizen scientist. That’s how a small group of donors and Board members from Washington’s National Park Fund spent a recent Saturday, hiking from Paradise down to Reflection Lakes with Mount Rainier’s aquatic ecologist, Rebecca Lofgren and collecting data on streamflow along the way.

As efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay continue, with the help of the National Park Service, there's also an effort underway to see a Chesapeake Bay National Recreation Area added to the park system.

National parks in one state are subject to wildfire smoke wafting in from other states on fire. This smelly, thick haze affects more than just one's ability to view the scenery. It also impacts human health along with the health of wildlife and plant life. But how? After a recent trip into Mount Rainier National Park, where smoke from wildfires in California and Oregon hid much of the landscape, turned the sky and atmosphere a dirty yellow, and smelled strongly of burning wood, photographer Rebecca Latson tried to find some answers to her questions.

The park’s website tries to warn you off. “Sections of this trail are extremely steep and there is limited flat or level hiking.” As a result, “The route is extremely strenuous and is not recommended for inexperienced hikers.” Many people do not finish the route because they underestimate the challenges; some require rescue.

We all have bucket lists for places in the National Park System we’d like to visit. No doubt many have, or had, Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon or Shenandoah on their bucket lists. But what about Parashant National Monument? Have you ever heard of it? Would you recognize it if we called it Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument?

When John D. Rockefeller Jr. went to work constructing a 45-mile network of carriage roads at Acadia National Park, he envisioned bucolic paths where riders and horse-drawn carriages could travel away from motorized vehicles. Today, however, riders on legal, and illegal, motorized bikes on those roads are spooking and even harassing horses that pull visitors serenely through the park.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Park Service have submitted a plan to a federal judge that calls for air tour management plans to be set by May 2022 for 23 units of the National Park System.