Greetings from Casper, Wyoming, where we are at the Marriott Courtyard. Casper was where the emigrants left the North Platte with its accompanying grass and water. Many pioneers considered the trip along the North Platte to be the easiest portion of the trail west.

Just in time for the peak summer season, a video has been produced to teach visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park how to be safe in bear country.

A truly old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration is planned at Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site, where they'll turn back the calendar to the 1840s.

Autumn comes to Denali National Park and Preserve between the last week of August and the first week of September. During this time, the entire tundra floor (almost the whole landscape) turns shades of yellow and red. This is my favorite time to be in the Alaska interior (except for high-altitude mountaineering where conditions are better in the spring), with changing weather and the mosquitoes gone.