National Parks Traveler

A dispute over the National Park Service's authority at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Washington state has led a congresswoman to introduce legislation to remove a museum and seven acres of land from the park.

Travel season is here in some parts of the country, and quickly approaching in others. With that in mind, which lodges within the national parks would you gladly return to, and which will you never set foot in again?

This coming April 6 is Park Day for Civil War battlefields and historic sites. Started in 1996 by the Civil War Trust, Park Day is a nationwide event during which Civil War history lovers contribute a day of volunteer work to help maintain the war's historic sites.

Three front-country campgrounds at Great Smoky Mountains National Park won't open this year due to the budget cuts brought on by the federal government's inability to resolve taxing and spending differences.

Quick, can you name the national historical park that greeted more visitors in 2012 than Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Grand Teton national parks, not to mention 383 other units of the National Park System?

Wildlife-based tourism is vital to the economy of several African nations, but a surging demand for ivory is putting some elephant populations at risk. Can the animals in and out of the continent's national parks survive the combined power of poachers, ivory markets--and the Internet?

It’s no secret that we birders tend to do things a little differently than “normal” travelers. Valentine’s Day weekend at the sewage treatment plant? Getting up at 4 a.m. every morning of your vacation? Perfectly acceptable behavior for the seasoned birder. But Saguaro National Park in August???

A stately component of Bathhouse Row at Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas is moving from soothing patrons with hot waters to slaking them with microbrews.

If you were to ask Americans to compile a short list of wildlife most associated with Africa, it's a pretty safe bet that elephants would be included. Unfortunately, it's gotten a lot harder lately to find as many of the iconic animals in central Africa, and a just-released study has confirmed a "devastating decline" in the population of forest elephants. Could they be headed for extinction?

Antietam battle was the single bloodiest battle in the Civil War. The landscape, which is the most important artifact, is being protected almost like it was in the 1860s.