A tall stoic man stood at the back of his pack, consumed by his own thoughts. He had been listening to an instructor from the Yellowstone Association. For a couple of days, he squinted into roadside spotting scopes and absorbed eloquent discourses on natural history. He was there with family members who arrived to watch wolves together in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park.

Can you imagine the look on the face of Gateway National Recreation Area Water Safety Coordinator Carl Martinez when he realized the man standing before him to be tested for a lifeguard position was 65 years old?

World War II history runs deep in the national parks of the Pacific. Much of that history is told at the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes Pearl Harbor. But you'll be able to learn more about the role that military bases in Hawaii played during the war by attending a special presentation later this month at Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site, also found on the island of Hawaii.

For years the Buffalo Ranch in Yellowstone National Park's Lamar Valley has been the field headquarters for the Yellowstone Association Institute. Well, the association is expanding with the opening later this year of an 80-acre campus north of the park near Gardiner, Montana.