What’s your ideal place to stay for a wintry escape into the National Park System? Is it a cozy cabin with fireplace and ample wood, or perhaps something in a warmer climate with views of sun-kissed turquoise waters? Or does your desire lie somewhere in-between? Fortunately, the park system is large and diverse. Finding that perfect home-away-from-home for a winter adventure may come down to deciding if you like it cold and snowy, or hot and sandy.
To alleviate parking problems, for now, at the trailhead to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, the National Park Service has settled on a plan to enlarge the existing parking area by almost one acre, a move that will add 82 parking spots.
More than 151 years after 1st Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing was killed at Gettysburg, he has been honored for his gallantry in battle with the Medal of Honor. President Barack Obama posthumously awarded the medal on November 6 in a ceremony a military historian said "rectified an ommission."
Thriftiness can often be an admirable quality, but that's not the case when your activity involves the reuse of a piece of rock climbing equipment of unknown origin—and reliability. That was the situation recently at New River Gorge National River when a climber decided to trust his fate to a piece of climbing hardware he found on the face of cliff.
Visitation to national parks this October had to be higher than 2013 numbers, if only because of last year's partial government shutdown that closed the parks. But this October had a tremendous bounce at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where visitation was the highest in nearly 30 years.
Having peaked on Thursday, high flows of the Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park will taper back down to normal by Saturday, leaving behind replenished shores, improved fish habitat, and more space for campers. But the benefits will be lingering, according to the Glen Canyon Institute.
The National Park Service's duties in overseeing concessions at Yosemite National Park are discretionary and so the agency should not be held liable for a hantavirus outbreak there in 2012 that killed three and sickened others, the federal government argues in a motion to dismiss the agency from the litigation.
Winter is not the season to leave the rig in the driveway. Across the National Park System there are wonderful places to explore while half the nation is locked in snow and cold.