Just in time for Memorial Day Weekend, Trail Ridge Road across the roof of Rocky Mountain National Park has opened. But it could close, too, in the case of a freak snowstorm, like the one that hit the area last May.

Tiny specs of plastic, less than two-tenths of an inch in length, are awash in waters lapping national parks and accumulating in their sandy beaches, creating problems for wildlife and park visitors.

Ok, travelers, this is a real participation request we're making: Please show us your national park photos of any maintenance issues in the parks you visit.

For eight years, families whose memories of the Blue Ridge Parkway were nurtured around summer evenings chasing fireflies on the rolling highland meadows below Bluffs Lodge at Milepost 241 have wondered when it might reopen. But a question that might better be asked of the charming 24-room lodge that opened in 1949 is whether it ever will be able to reopen or instead be razed.