We are on the cusp of having the first Senate-confirmed director of the National Park Service since Jonathan Jarvis retired at the end of the Obama administration in January 2017. Since then there’s been a revolving cast of individuals serving as acting director. But now the Biden Administration has nominated Charles F. Sams III to be the next director of the venerable agency.

Why visit Cumberland Gap National Historical Park? The gap was the gateway to the heart of the country, as Daniel Boone discovered in the 1700s. And it's the one unit of the National Park System where you can take turns standing in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. The Traveler's Lynn Riddick gives you a brief preview of the historical park with this audio postcard.

Federal wildlife officials announced this past week that 22 animals and one plant should be declared extinct and removed from the endangered species list.  Though searched for and sought after for years, many of these species, some experts say, were probably already extinct or extremely close to extinction when the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973.  And though it’s too late to save the 11 birds, eight freshwater mussels, two fish and one bat now classified as extinct, much work is being done to save other species on the very brink,

Have you ever visited the "other" side of Yellowstone? Left the Old Faithful and Steamboat geysers behind, fled the conga lines of vehicles mired in bison and bear jams in the Hayden and Lamar valleys, the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds on the boardwalks ... and opted, instead, for the wild side, where you and nature can become one...if you are willing?

For a few minutes Kurt Repanshek takes you to Yellowstone's other side with a kayak trip on Yellowstone Lake.