National Parks Traveler

The Mount Brown Lookout Trail at Glacier National Park is a tough, demanding path, climbing more than 4,200 feet from Lake McDonald Lodge in just about five miles. And, as is most of Glacier, it rambles through bear country, a fact one hiker discovered when a bear charged him and he responded first with a blast from his canister of bear spray, and then with a shot from his handgun that rangers believe hit the bear.

Access to Yosemite National Park was hampered Sunday, and several campgrounds had been closed, due to a wildfire that had covered more than 2,000 acres and reportedly claimed at least one structure.

Things hopefully will be hopping in the near future in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in California, where hundreds of California red-legged frog tadpoles have been released as part of the first-ever effort to expand the range of the threatened species in Southern California.

Rocky Mountain National Park rangers worked through the night early Saturday to sve the life of a Colorado climber who had injured himself while glissading down a snowy chute.