Its reopening was a long time coming, but unfortunately the Bluffs Restaurant on the Blue Ridge Parkway has closed after just five days due to the challenges posed by Covid-19.

With national parks turning into magnets for travelers this summer, the Labor Day Weekend is expected to be especially busy at many parks. Acadia National Park officials realize their setting is among the most popular in the National Park System, and want visitors to realize it could be quite crowded there for the holiday weekend.

Gusty winds have pushed the Lone Star Fire in Yellowstone National Park to more than 800 acres, leading crews to test a sprinkler system atop the Old Faithful Inn and continue work on a plan to protect the facilities surrounding the inn.

Visits to America’s national parks (our single best source of current and historic outdoor recreation statistics) are down nearly 19% year to date and are unlikely to increase in the immediate future. But what might happen next year or beyond as the coronavirus comes under control? What guideposts might we follow? To gain a glimpse into the future of our nation’s wild lands we need only look to our recent past because, as Mark Twain allegedly quipped, “history may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”