The two of us have enjoyed a half century of travel, much of it devoted to visiting America’s national parks. The initial three decades involved travel in a series of four Volkswagen campers, a vehicle we loved, but that disappeared in 2004 from VW dealers in the United States. If only the company would export its California van to the U.S. More recently we tented and stayed in national park lodges. The many national park visits offered some wonderful surprises including these ten that we seem to remember best.

A nearly-century old backcountry patrol cabin in Glacier National Park was lost to a fire that is being investigated as suspicious, one of four fires that were reported Thursday morning.

Is there really a need for 13 miles of mountain bike trails, with more asphalt and supporting infrastructure, to be cut into an undisturbed section of the Foothills Parkway at Great Smoky Mountains National Park? How would the "experience of riding a narrow roller-coaster with a rhythm of twists and turns" enhance the visitor experience at this wondrous realm of nature?

A band of dirt bike riders shredded through an open field along historic Mormon Row in Grand Teton National Park that is part of a long-running restoration project to erase thousands of acres of hayfields that once grew there.