Across the National Park System, declines in park staff are paired against soaring visitation levels in a discordant dance that challenges the National Park Service to accomplish its mission.

The tallest mountain in North America is known for making its own weather. Now its weather patterns and temperatures are the subject of scientific scrutiny in a warming climate.

In northern Minnesota, tucked up against the Canadian border, thousands of furry engineers are at work.

Biscayne National Park's mesmerizing bay is slowly suffocating from urban wastes that are depleting the bay's oxygen.

Thirty-one species of cacti live in the starkly beautiful Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in the Sonoran Desert, along with bighorn sheep, pronghorns, javelinas, kangaroo rats, rare pupfish and all kinds of reptiles and birds. But the green desert is also home to a 30-mile stretch of America’s steel border wall and warning signs had this traveler anxious that “smuggling and illegal immigration may be encountered in this area.”

Peeking through the viewing slots on the wooden observation platform at Étang de la Baie Lucas, we don’t need binoculars to see an embarrassment of wildlife. Large iguanas are nestled in the mangroves, including one bright green female and two males that have turned reddish-orange to display dominance and attract mates. There’s a Brown Pelican on the rocks. In the water, a Snowy Egret looks for food near a Great Egret and Spotted Sandpiper as four White-Cheeked Pintail ducks putter merrily about.

“You can die out here and nobody would know it for a week, or longer,” the BLM ranger warned after I mentioned we were headed to Basin and Range National Monument.

Each cactus had more personality than the last as we road tripped through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona and admired all the organ pipes, saguaros and senitas. But it was a singular cactus with a striking deformity that stood out.

Author and professor John Elder envisioned the ideals for Vermont’s only national park at the opening of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in 1998, calling it "...an entirely new kind of park. It must be one where the human stories and the natural history are intertwined..."

We had left sunset behind us in the New Mexico village of Cuba and headed up into the Santa Fe National Forest when the cat crossed our path. The splash of the pickup's headlights briefly illuminated the long and sinuous body, with a tail to match, before the mountain lion vanished into the ponderosa pine forest.

At Fort Raleigh, archaeology holds the answers to many enduring questions about the disappearance of the Roanoke Island colonists, a source of ongoing speculation and fascination.

After decades of being despised, trapped, and killed, beavers are being brought back to Bandelier National Monument with hopes of reviving life in Frijoles Canyon.

Arches National Park in Utah is the undisputed champion of its namesake formations. But another, less celebrated, national park site across the country has one of the highest concentrations of arches in the eastern United States.

It's not exactly the place where Hell bubbled up, but the steam wafting from the crusty white soil was a reminder that the volcano that created Valles Caldera 1.25 million years ago is not extinct, but rather in a deep, deep sleep.

It was a collection of photographs, now nearly 60 years old, that helped justify creation of North Cascades National Park.

Almost 70 percent of Lassen Volcanic National Park was engulfed by the 2021 Dixie Fire; you can’t miss the in-your-face views of the aftermath. Now, park management continues working to remove hazard trees and restore and maintain forest health by reintroducing natural fire regimes.

The Atlin Barge was usually the last thing that people noticed when they came to the banks of the Yukon River to gush over Whitehorse’s most iconic attraction — a vintage, steam-powered paddlewheeler.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park can be an explosion of rich sensations—wildflowers bursting into colorful bloom; creeks, streams, and waterfalls alternating between quiet serenades and crashing cymbals—and all perfect inspirations for haiku.

Weighed down by my camera gear and clearly not as fit as the pika crew farther up the trail, I stopped to catch my breath and wonder why I had agreed to go in search of plague in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Toxic scums glistening blue, green and other colors are surfacing in waters across many parts of the National Park System, challenging National Park Service staff to find ways to combat them.