Ongoing vandalism investigations, possible new "national parks," and 3 million visitors to Yellowstone National Park are among the stories floating about the National Park System.

Five years after the National Park Service found itself mired in corporate politics over a proposed ban on water sold in disposable bottles, free water dispensers are becoming more and more visible in the parks. At Bryce Canyon National Park, the recent installation of six water-filling stations was driven by Vapur, Inc., a California-based company that sells flexible, refillable "Anti-Bottles."

By the time you read this, it alreayd will be more expensive to visit Cedar Breaks National Monument this year than it was a year ago, and higher fees are coming to nearby Bryce Canyon and Zion national parks, too.

Condors aren't the most glamorous birds in the sky. I mean, after all: they feast on dead animal carcasses. The California condor did not escape the scrutiny of Charles Darwin, who described them as, “....disgusting birds, with their bald, scarlet heads, formed to revel in putridity.” But, while their dining habitats can be distasteful, they are magnificent.