Though short, at not quite a half-mile, the Castle Crest Wildflower Trail offers a refreshing walk through a cool, colorful corner of Crater Lake National Park.

For a unique September outing, head to Cape Lookout National Seashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina to catch the moonrise from the national seashore's lighthouse.

A 59-year-old Washington state man is undergoing rabies prevention treatment after being scratched by a bat in front of Lake Crescent Lodge in Olympic National Park earlier this month.

There’s a sense of place in the West. It flows from endless stands of lodgepole pines, glades of aspen tinged gold by the season, horizons that spread the sky wider than you’ve ever noticed. Spend a little time here, and it seeps into you. It’s the distant bugle of a bull elk, a band of pronghorn darting across the open range, the chortling flock of sandhill cranes, southbound, high overhead. They all fill your senses with the West as it’s always been, as it always should be.