Crouched over a thermal pool, I can see dozens of warm water creatures the size of apple seeds quietly living their best lives on floating mats made up of bacteria, algae, woody debris and leaves. The sulphur-rich water smells like rotten eggs and wants to be turquoise but it’s dominated by globs of green, brown and white scum. You probably wouldn’t notice the tiny brown aquatic snails unless someone told you what to look for.

While winter's snows are slowing the opening of Timpanogos Cave National Monument in Utah for the summer, the monument is ready to mark its centennial as a unit of the National Park System.

What better way to spend a summer vacation than floating down a wild river? Whether in a canoe down the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, a day-trip down Montana’s Flathead River, or a multi-week adventure deep in the Grand Canyon, it’s time to plan your trip.

The pivot from being blasted by snow and pelted by rainstorms is speeding straight to the next challenge — a powerful melt that can engorge waterways and send torrential flows down wildfire-scarred mountainsides that are just out of the driest three years on record.