After the United States launched the national park movement in 1872 with the creation of Yellowstone National Park, many countries built on the movement. Germany has more than a dozen national parks, ranging from coastal parks to parks that claim high alpine terrain and scenery. Here's a quick primer on those parks.

If you’ve got some extra time in California this winter, take a detour to three fascinating desert parks. Winter in the Mojave Desert brings blue skies, cool temps, and fewer visitors.

In one of the largest expansions of the National Park System in decades, a nearly 1,700-page bill to fund the Defense Department carries amendments to add roughly a half-dozen units to the park system and add acres to others. But the measure also raises concerns over whether Congress is micro-managing National Park Service decisions when it comes to wildlife management under the Endangered Species Act, and how donors to the system should be recognized.

There's a new business opportunity in the National Park System -- leading scuba dives on a B-29 Superfortress Bomber lying on the bed of Lake Mead at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada.