National Parks Traveler

As an agency the National Park Service continues to get poor marks from its employees, according to the 2014 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government Survey. Compared to all government agencies, the Park Service ranked in the lower 25 percent in effective leadership, strategic management, team work, and work-life balance, among other categories.

With gray whales soon to start their migration to warmer waters, and elephant seals heading to the beaches of Point Reyes National Seashore for breeding, the park's shuttle buses can help you get to a viewpoint with little hassle.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., often known simply as "The Wall," contains the names of over 58,000 Americans who gave their lives in that conflict, but there's another Memorial Wall with more than 17,000 names from World War 2 in America's most-distant national park. The Asan Bay Overlook Memorial Wall at War in the Pacific National Historical Park had been damaged by storms and vandals, but rehabilitation of this wall has now been completed.

Five motorists who headed off into an area of Padre Island National Seashore that was off-limits to vehicles and drove around the tidal flats there have agreed, along with their insurance agencies, to pay more than $150,000 in damages to the park.