Once upon a time, passenger trains were the transportation lifeblood of the country. Along the way, they carried countless visitors to Western national parks. Once again Congress' mettle for supporting passenger rail traffic -- Amtrak -- is being tested, and historian Alfred Runte makes an argument for supporting passenger trains.

Crumbling roads and bridges in a steady state of decay can be found around the National Park System as maintenance issues go years without significant attention.

Rule changes the Trump administration is proposing for the Endangered Species Act, though not expected to directly impact species inside the National Park System, would have indirect impacts that could jeopardize plant and animal species and in the long-run could affect visitors' experiences, according to experts well versed in how the act functions.

While the U.S. Bureau of Land Management recently deferred the auction of oil and gas leases near Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado, the issue of energy development is not dead there, nor in many other areas of the National Park System. Contributor John Miles takes a look at the state of oil and gas exploration in the park system in this article.

Across the National Park System, maintenance needs are creating safety issues for park visitors. Whether it's the leaking Trans-Canyon Pipeline at Grand Canyon National Park, eroding walls at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, or cracks in the Blue Ridge Parkway, tens of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance are dangerous for visitors.

After decades of roaming the West, I took the plunge last summer: I bought a camper. There have been countless times when I’ve arrived at my camp to be faced with putting up my tent in the pouring rain, howling wind, or extreme cold. More than a few times I ended up sleeping in the back of a car not nearly meant for that. Once in Arches National Park, around New Years, we had set up the tent, eaten dinner, read for an hour and it was still only 7 p.m. That meant we would be in our sleeping bags at least for the next 12 hours in the biting cold. You can only sleep so long, after all.

In the center of Arizona lies the fertile Verde River Valley, one of the longest free flowing rivers left in the state. This area has long supported human habitation, and the remnants of these ancient cultures are protected and preserved at Tuzigoot and Montezuma’s Castle national monuments. I was recently there to learn about these early residents and score a couple more stamps in my national parks Passport.

Anyone who has studied a national park long enough realizes there is no way to fully appreciate what they have offer in 24 hours. Changing light and changing seasons can make the most familiar features new again. In our recent June visit, my wife, Kellie, and I attempted to absorb, in a 24-hour visit, the less-visited vertical landscape of the North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in western Colorado.

It’s impossible to comprehend that much power. What must it take to blast two streams of several hundred thousand gallons of water and steam 300+ feet skyward; to toss softball-sized rocks 200 feet upward; to shake the earth and completely awe and nearly deafen anyone fortunate enough to witness it all? Steamboat Geyser has that power.

More than 50 years after the National Park Service's last major investment in park infrastructure, many wastewater and sewer systems across the park system are either failing or being held together by ingenuity and today's version of bailing wire and tape while park managers wait for Congress to fund their needs.

Spring’s rains portend summer weather. Long, comfortable days in the sun are upon us. But what are your plans; where in the National Park System will you go? Will you go in search of paleontological relics or active volcanoes; long trails or quiet lakes? Or, will you just sit on the beach and fly a kite? The park system can handle every dream, and more, as we point out.

Sometimes, you just have to take advantage of the less hectic side of the national parks. Contributor Danny Bernstein did that recently when she left her car behind and took to walking the 11-mile loop around Cades Cove in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

A chance opportunity to volunteer at Manzanar National Historic Site opens the eyes into not only the history preserved by the National Park Service, but the shortage of hands to accomplish that vital mission.

Eighty-year-old buildings have a tendency to leak if they haven’t been sufficiently maintained. But when a leaky 80-year-old building is one of the most iconic structures in Shenandoah National Park, it’s more than just a nuisance. It’s a sign of the National Park System’s nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog.

By any name, Acadia National Park's glacially-carved mountains, serene lakes and ponds, pristine forests, sand and cobble beaches, jagged granite headlands, abundant wildlife, and historical remnants attract more than three million visitors a year, all who come to find their place in “the place.” Are you ready to find yours in “heaven on Earth”?

Some places in the National Park System capture your eyes with spectacular scenery. But Manzanar National Historic Site captures your heart.

With a trekking pole in one hand and an ice ax in the other, I am naked except for the rigid mountaineering boots on my feet. With all my clothes in my backpack, I cross three braids of the glacier-fed Chitina River in Alaska, stopping to partially recover from the cold on the gravel bars in between. But I know the last ford is going to be the trickiest.

The nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog hanging like an albatross around the neck of the National Park Service is impacting visitor access in many parts of the National Park System.

Every day we are overwhelmed with stunning photos from the National Park System. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, along with other websites and social media outlets, feed us spectacular photos of high country lakes, wild grizzlies, bison, glaciers, and stunning peaks. While they provide the inspiration to head out into the parks, they don’t always show how difficult and, sometimes, how dangerous, it can actually be.

For eight years, families whose memories of the Blue Ridge Parkway were nurtured around summer evenings chasing fireflies on the rolling highland meadows below Bluffs Lodge at Milepost 241 have wondered when it might reopen. But a question that might better be asked of the charming 24-room lodge that opened in 1949 is whether it ever will be able to reopen or instead be razed.