Of 19 national historic trails administered by the National Park Service in conjunction with several other federal agencies, four – California, Oregon, Mormon Pioneer, and Pony Express - follow the Platte River Valley across Nebraska. Both the California and the Oregon National Historic Trails pass through Ash Hollow, a favorite stop for many pioneers as noted in their journals.

Beneath the waves that roll ashore on the Olympic Coast is a symphony of life. Clinging to the rocks and going largely unnoticed by many beach visitors, a cast of characters straight out of a Sci-Fi movie busily move about. It may seem like the most hostile of environments but, to countless animals and seaweeds, it’s heaven on Earth.

This lesser-known national park in Maryland contains significant natural beauty, with some presidential history for good measure.

The giant sequoias, the world’s most massive trees, have been in California’s Sierra Nevada for 200 million years. Now this species that stood when dinosaurs walked the Earth faces new threats. Is its longevity at risk?

Bayou country is a hard place to live sometimes. It’s home to tough survivors. Locals in beat-up pickup trucks roar past me up highway 69/285, the Big Thicket National Preserve Byway, as I turn off at the visitor center. I’m looking for just that kind of adaptability to harsh conditions. Specifically, I have come to find Big Thicket’s carnivorous plants. More generally, I want to learn how life survives here. Because, as I look around, the Thicket seems undaunted by the recent storms.

Seaweed and sea turtles aren't the only objects that wash ashore at Padre Island National Seashore, which is why it's good to have more than a few people lending their time to collect that which doesn't belong.

As Covid-19 spread across the world, something else was going viral online — sea chanteys. And one national park became a global leader in sea music before it was trendy.

The Battle of Glorieta Pass represented the high water mark for a bold Confederate offensive into Union Territory on the western frontier. It emphasized the importance of a well-protected supply chain, which the Confederates lacked.

In 1948, a World War II-era bomber crashed into Lake Mead, the massive reservoir formed by Hoover Dam that straddles the Arizona-Nevada border. After several failed attempts to locate the plane, it was finally discovered in the early 2000s—still remarkably intact. As lake levels fall, will the draw to see the aircraft finish it off?

It’s no secret glaciers are retreating due to global warming trends. Different federal agencies have set up glacial monitoring programs to track these changes in the national parks. But don’t fret about a total disappearance of glaciers just yet. There are national parks in both the U.S. and Canada where you can still see, and even stand on, a glacier.

Walking the Canal towpath towards Georgetown, one comes across a sign that is literally almost in the Potomac River, reading in urgent letters, “Deadly undertow, Get to shore.” But this undertow is only one of the Potomac’s lethal actions; it is also capable of serious flooding causing immense damage. In fact, it was a series of such floods that propelled the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to change course, from its historic role of commercial transport to one of becoming a conduit for wildlife, and entering the National Park System as a National Historical Park.

Little did I know when my family slept in an oTENTik in Georgian Bay Islands National Park in 2016, and when I did a solo night in a MicrOcube in Riding Mountain National Park in 2017, that we were part of a quiet camping revolution.

Straddling the highway at the eastern entrance to Riding Mountain National Park, a truss bridge made of hand-hewn logs and local stones featuring turret-like cupolas set on twin kiosks transports you to the 1930s and the early days of Canada’s national parks system. The gateway makes some people feel like they’re living the scene from Jurassic Park when the awestruck main characters first pass through a massive gate to an island theme park.

Capulin Volcano National Monument protects its namesake volcano, but it also protects Western history. Part of that history is the story of George McJunkin, who was born a slave and came to know this landscape as a talented and skilled cowboy. And he also played a role in archaeology and the "Folsom Man."

The Southwest is nowhere near as famous Ring of Fire that fuels coastal Pacific volcanoes, but it does have a history of eruptions that the National Park Service interprets.

There was no getting into remote Auyuittuq National Park when I landed in Pangnirtung in that awkward stage of early winter when it’s cold and dark most of the day but the sea and river ice hasn’t fully frozen so it’s not safe to boat or snowmobile.

Nova Scotia’s Sable Island National Park Reserve is a magnet for those who love tough little equines.

"Long time ago the ground trembled, a big black smoke came,” was the memory the Hopi passed from generation to generation. It was a thick, choking smoke, preceded no doubt by shuddering earthquakes and precipitated by a furious, explosive eruption that alternately darkened and lit up the sky for hundreds of miles around.

You might think there is no better place than a remote mountain valley to spend some time in the age of COVID-19, and Stehekin, Washington, certainly fits the bill. It must be difficult now for the locals, though -- on the one hand wanting to keep away anyone who could bring infection, but on the other needing visitors to keep the economy going.

Winter brings a transformation to Canaveral National Seashore in Florida. In the cooler months the beach is not the main draw. Beaches that are typically crowded in the summer have fewer people in the cooler winter months. But the seashore is far from desolate.