We had left sunset behind us in the New Mexico village of Cuba and headed up into the Santa Fe National Forest when the cat crossed our path. The splash of the pickup's headlights briefly illuminated the long and sinuous body, with a tail to match, before the mountain lion vanished into the ponderosa pine forest.

Thinking about a trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park? You should. If you’ve never visited this national park in California, you might wonder what you can do once you arrive. Maybe you only have a few days to spend – like three days? What can you see and do during that amount of time? Plenty!

The more you know, the more you care, the better you can do. It’s a naïve thought, but it’s what I choose to believe, especially in my capacity as Great Smoky Mountains Association’s 2022 Steve Kemp Writer in Residence.

Wood Buffalo National Park is Canada's largest national park at 44,807 square kilometres, straddling the border of the Northwest Territories and Alberta. It’s smaller than the U.S.’s largest park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, but bigger than Switzerland. The park is the world’s largest Dark Sky Preserve and it has a beaver dam so large it’s visible from space.