National Parks Traveler

The new Osprey Variant 37 pack is good for casual, and intense, outdoor use.

In generations past, survival may have depended on a person's ability to "read sign" in the natural world to secure food, detect the presence of friends or foes, or find the safest route to a destination. Those skills are rarely needed by most of us in today's world, but the ability to sort out what happened by interpreting tracks or other evidence on the ground—or in the snow—can be a fun and sometimes challenging activity.

Christmas came a little early for Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona, where The Trust for Public Land transferred 40 acres to the park to help preserve the look of its entrance corridor.

Over the past century and more, tourists to Yellowstone National Park have marveled at the colors in the park's hot springs. Unfortunately, some of those visitors can't resist tossing coins, trash and other foreign objects into the thermal pools. Scientists have wondered how all that activity may have changed the composition and appearance of those springs, and a recently-released study offers some answers to those questions.