After a week of storm-related closures, many of Big Bend National Park's popular dirt roads and a portion of the paved Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive have reopened, the park announced Friday. In addition, the popular Lost Mine Trail has now partially reopened. Some low lying areas along the Rio Grande remain closed at this time due to high water and heavy mud.

A number of new place names can be found across the National Park System in the wake of the Interior Department's scrubbing of "squaw" from geographic locations across federal lands.

A month-long comment period has opened for alternatives the National Park Service is considering as it works on an Air Tour Management Plan for Badlands National Park in South Dakota.

A cloud hugging the top of Mount Rainier, an active volcano, prompted concern in the greater Seattle metro area Wednesday that the mountain was erupting and led the National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey to assure the public that there was no ongoing eruption.