News in the Parks

The Spanish Isles That Are Quietly A National Park

“I guess this is the photo they took for the Guardian,” says an excited trio of young tourists, pausing on a wooden walkway to admire a crescent-shaped beach with fine white sand and turquoise waters that feels more like the Caribbean than northern Spain.

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By Jennifer Bain - July 8th, 2025

How I Got The Story: Kalaupapa National Historical Park

It was five months and three days from the moment that I put out feelers to see if I could get permission to visit Kalaupapa National Historical Park until the day I flew to see it on the Hawaiian island of Molokaʻi.

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By Jennifer Bain - July 7th, 2025

Sneak Peek At Hawaiʻi's Hidden POW And Internment Site

Gingerly exploring an overgrown gulch about 20 minutes west of Pearl Harbor, the serenity punctuated only by the chatter of Common myna birds, it’s hard to believe that this seemingly idyllic place once hid the largest and longest-running WWII incarceration site in Hawaiʻi.

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By Jennifer Bain - July 4th, 2025

In Hawaiʻi, Telling Kalaupapa's Complex Story Of Exile And Isolation

An endangered Hawaiian monk seal was the picture of bliss lolling about a shallow lava rock pool along Papaloa Beach with her slick black newborn pup. Snoozing in the sun, rolling over occasionally in the water, it’s as if she knew that she was safe in this sacred place. The normally solitary seal even tolerated a fellow mom and pup lounging nearby.

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By Jennifer Bain - June 29th, 2025

Preserving Pearl Harbor's Historic Mooring Quays

Standing on the shore of Ford Island just after sunrise, looking out at Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial, Khyle Dixon is itching to begin his work day. Three of his colleagues kayak by, carrying jugs of water and the tools they’ll need for a day of historic preservation work on a mooring quay in the blistering Hawaiʻi sun.

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By Jennifer Bain - June 12th, 2025

In Cuba, A National Park Breeds Crocodiles

Peering over a fence into concrete pens, I watch baby Cuban crocodiles doing one of three things — lounging on top of each other in the shade, basking in piles in the sun or floating in shallow water with only the tops of their wee horned heads exposed.

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By Jennifer Bain - May 25th, 2025

In Galápagos, Iconic Giant Tortoises Get A Helping Hand

Love was definitely in the air on Isabela Island and we yearned to become voyeurs.

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By Jennifer Bain - May 5th, 2025

Exploring The Salamander Capital Of The World

On a recent trip to Tennessee, I lost count of how many people told me the same strange and unusual thing about Great Smoky Mountains National Park. If you stacked up all of the park’s salamanders against its roughly 1,900 black bears, the salamanders would weigh more. Or was it salamanders versus all of the mammals and birds, or even all the wildlife?

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By Jennifer Bain - March 20th, 2025

Seabeaning Among Marine Debris At Padre Island National Seashore

The first time that I went seabeaning, I triumphantly scooped up what looked like a shrivelled brain from a national seashore that was dotted with plastic trash. I turned the fist-sized oddity over in my hands, admiring how the deep grooves on its bumpy brown surface created brain-like patterns.

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By Jennifer Bain - March 9th, 2025

Saving Grenada's Critically Endangered National Bird

Every seven seconds we hear it — the long, drawn out “hooooooo” of one of the world’s rarest birds. The Grenada Dove may be shy, elusive and critically endangered, but it’s cooing its heart out on this drizzly day in the Caribbean.

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By Jennifer Bain - February 19th, 2025

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News in the Parks

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