Some of the best star gazing can be had in national parks. Proof of that can be found at Natural Bridges National Monument, Yellowstone National Park, Big Bend National Park, even Acadia National Park. Those and other park settings are celebrated in a series of night sky posters issued in conjunction with the International Year of Astronomy.
Regular guests of national park lodges have undoubtedly noticed persistent increases in room rates. Although we no longer have the receipt, it seems that we paid $225 per night during our 1996 stay in Yosemite National Park’s Ahwahnee for a room that now goes for approximately $500 per night. It probably doesn’t surprise you to learn that during the past decade lodging rates in national parks have risen faster than the Consumer Price Index.
Although only a fraction of the snowmobile traffic that enters Yellowstone National Park comes in through the park's East Entrance, the Wyoming county that is the gateway to that entrance has sued the National Park Service over limits on how many snowmobiles can enter the park.
A small turtle from the eastern U.S. A species of trout native to Glacier and North Cascades national parks. Grizzly bears. A prairie orchard. A coral. These are among the ten plant, fish, animal, and bird species listed in a new report as being the "hottest" species imperiled by climate change.
With all the information that lies just a click away these days, it's easy to overlook some of the best resources when it comes to exploring the backcountry of our national parks: the backcountry offices of the parks themselves.
Winter is an incredible time to be in Yellowstone National Park, and a lodging sale of sorts can make a visit this winter relatively inexpensive when it comes to a room with a bed and roof overhead.
Lots of land in the national parks once served ranch functions, and a good deal of it still does. Let’s see if you are up to speed in this subject area. Answers are at the end of the quiz. If we catch you peeking we’ll make you ride drag on the next cattle drive and see what “eating dust” really means.
Winter is a season for planning. How better to pass some of those long, cold, snowy nights than before the fire or a the kitchen table with guidebooks and maps, calculators and checklists? And if you’re thinking of tackling one of the country’s long-distance hiking trails, planning is definitely not over-rated. Here’s a look at some of the trails that pass through parts of the National Park System, and what planning assistance is out there.