National Parks Traveler

Travelers to Crater Lake National Park could tell the Old Man of the Lake when they spotted it.

A 21-year-old New York woman, Casey Nocket, was identified Wednesday by the National Park Service as the prime suspect involved in painting images on rock outcrops in at least eight Western national parks.

Finding ways to get students to parks is an ongoing challenge, especially with school budgets for field trips facing cuts in many areas. Those difficulties are even greater in places like Big Bend National Park, since it's many a mile to the nearest town. Thanks to help from partner organizations, a recent "Good Neighbor Day" at Big Bend attracted a nice crowd, and many of those attending were first-time visitors.

Whether you use social media or still rely on old fashioned snapshots, you've probably seen—and perhaps participated in—a picture of a group doing something slightly goofy during trip to a park. Occasionally, such attempts for an unusual pose go awry, and that was the case recently at Yosemite National Park. The end result was a painful injury and litter carry out for the subject of the photo.