Pinnacles National Park

A group of The Peregrine Fund’s California Condors will soon be unfurling their nine-and-a-half foot wings to soar the skies of central California, but first they have to get from The World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho, all the way to central California, where the National Park Service and the Ventana Wildlife Society will release the condors from their respective sites at Pinnacles National Park and in Big Sur. This year, they’ve got a little help from their friends at LightHawk.

A glance around the National Park System seems to show wine sales can benefit the parks, more and more user fees are being approved despite a five-year-old "moratorium" against them, and Point Reyes National Seashore has had a bumper crop of seals this year.

A Grand Canyon National Park ranger, one who you might see dangling from a helicopter to help an injured visitor, has been honored as the National Park Service's top ranger.