Talk about a bright propane lantern, this one is it. With variable controls, the Northern Nova will put out 3,000 lumens that will light up the entire neighborhood.

Parks Canada has issued a trail closure for the Canadian side of the Chilkoot Trail in response to a bear incident at Lindeman City earlier this week. Response teams from Parks Canada and Yukon Conservation Officers are working to identify the bear and return the trail to open status as soon as possible.

A few months ago, when Mongolian national park director Tumursukh Jal was on an official visit to the Grand Canyon, one of his hosts asked a simple question: “How many national parks do you guys have there in your home country?” When Tumursukh mentioned there were 99 of them, his U.S. colleagues seemed a bit nonplussed. “That many, really?”

Crossing the powder-blue bridge spanning the Potomac River at Point of Rocks, Maryland, I feel like I’ve time-warped to another century. With my husband and two children in tow, we have left behind the bustling Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., to stay in a historic lockhouse along the C&O Canal. For one weekend at least we hope to experience what life was like for a 19th-century lock tender and his family, whose livelihood was tied to the daily rhythms of moving boats and goods. If history had gone in a different direction, however, our stay would have been impossible.