Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I learned about the Civil War through books, movies, and plastic action figures. There just weren’t any battlefields in Oregon for a ten-year-old to experience first-hand. So, when I started traveling east, I was drawn to iconic battlefields like Gettysburg and Antietam. Until I started my quest to visit all the national park units, I had no idea of the sheer number of battlefields or how integrated into local communities they were and still are.

The Gros Ventre Road in Grand Teton National Park will be closed for up to five nights from Tuesday, May 29, through Saturday, June 2, to allow construction of a roundabout.

Land a site in one of the park campgrounds our writer points to and you’ll be a happy camper

More and more newspapers across the country are cutting staff, greatly reducing the number of reporters covering national parks and all that goes on in them.