If you've been paying close attention to the Traveler, you've no doubt noticed our Friends of the Traveler and Sponsors boxes over there on the righthand column.

The fact of the matter is that after four-plus years of going it alone, we at the Traveler have realized that to keep on moving in the right direction of bringing you the latest news on life and times in the National Park System and the National Park Service we need a little help with the heavy lifting when it comes to website O&M and server space. (We also hope there might be a little left over to buy a six-pack or two or a good bottle of wine for the end of the day.)

So we've gone hats-in-hand in search of sponsors who share our belief that the national parks could always use a little more TLC. Together we and our sponsors share a belief that there are few places as special as the units of the National Park System, that these parks, historic sites, national recreation areas, monuments, and all the other places with NPS designations are good for the soul, good for your health, and good for your brain.

The National Park Foundation, of course, is the non-profit arm Congress created to raise charitable dollars for the parks. The staff there does a great job tackling that mission. If you didn't know it, they were the core underwriter of Ken Burns as he went on his odyssey of producing The National Parks: America's Best Idea. But the foundation does so much more, like developing education programs for America's youth and searching for funds to help with preservation projects throughout the park system.

Well-traveled park travelers probably have come face to face with KC Publications more often than they think, for this is the group that publishes those large format Story Behind the Scenery books. Entertaining as well as educational, these guides are vetted by the National Park Service, so you know they're accurate. KC has been cranking out these well-researched books for so long that he's a walking encyclopedia of the National Park System. And he takes those stories abroad courtesy of editions that are translated into as many as eight languages!

Wildlife Watch is the arm of the National Wildlife Foundation that helps educate all of us about wildlife across the country. The program director, Jessica Jones, helps us bring that education to you with monthly columns on wildlife found in the national parks. While a recent bout of the flu slowed her down, Jessica's on the mend and back to writing. Check out her post today on sandhill cranes.

The newest to our Friends Box is the Wildlife Art Journal, an on-line magazine that closely covers ... wildlife art. Editor Todd Wilkinson long has been covering not only wildlife and art but national parks and issues that involve them. Among the articles he and his staff produce on a steady pace are such pieces as a look at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming; profiles of some of the newest, as well as some of the stalwarts, talents in the genre, and; stories on artists from the world over, for, after all, wildlife and artists can be found across the globe.

In the Sponsors box is Yellowstone Vacations, a business based in West Yellowstone, Montana, that can lead you into Yellowstone National Park in winter via snowcoach or snowmobile, whether you're simply looking for a ride to Old Faithful or in search of a photography safari. Randy Robertson and his family have been rooted in West Yellowstone for years. If you've been there, you might have stayed in one of his motels, such as the Brandin' Iron Inn, the Pony Express Motel, or the City Center Motel.

To learn more about any of these friends of ours, simply click on your logo of choice and that will take you to a separate page that explains who they are.

While we are moving in the sponsorship direction here at the Traveler, we're trying to keep it neat and park-related by only working with organizations and businesses that have a working interest in the national parks. We also have no plans for pop-ups, ads that dance across the screen, or ads that arrive in the middle of articles.

Helping us put this vision together is Chris Miller over at Trailhead Interactive. He is the wunderkind who kept the Traveler alive last April when our growing readership proved too much for the server we were on at the time. He moved the site seamlessly overnight and enabled us to continue bringing you a daily dose of life across America's national parks.