Creating national parks doesn't happen every day. Lately, it seems the quickest way to create one is to legislatively redesignate a national monument as a national park. But it doesn't hurt to dream, does it? Here are five picks from the Traveler for new national parks.
In Alaska, where about 80 percent of the landscape has been identified as being permafrost, National Park Service scientists are working with several partners to inventory those lands to better monitor climate-change impacts.
The Jimmy Carter National Historic Site tells the story of President Carter's humble rural beginnings and his life after his presidency. Plains, Georgia is also a fun place to visit.
Volunteers are a large part of the national park community, donating time and sweat to help improve their favorite park. At Great Smoky Mountains National Park, officials recently honored some volunteers who eclipsed 5,000 hours of service to the park.
As lush and overgrown as the landscape at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park might appear, there are some plants that are at risk of going extinct. To prevent that from happening, park rangers have been working to collect seeds of four extremely rare plants.
Continued aggressiveness by one or more black bears at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin have forced park officials to close Sand Island to all visitors until further notice.
Inexperience and errors of judgment, two factors often cited in accidents and injuries in the National Park System, played a role in two recent canyoneering accidents just outside Zion National Park.
The calendar will be turned back a few centuries later this month when re-enactors stage a British encampment at Salem Maritime National Historic Site in Massachusetts.