There will be lots to do this Fourth of July holiday at Mount Rushmore National Memorial -- music, patriotic tributes, and presidential re-enactors -- but no fireworks due to the fire danger in the surrounding forests.

A comic strip in my morning newspaper offered an amusing explanation about the Theory of Relativity, and it has a definite application to life in a park: "If you put in a swimming pool...you'll discover relatives you never knew you had." That's a concept anyone who has ever lived or near in a national park can understand!

More rivers and streams in Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks should be open to paddlers, according to the American Whitewater advocacy group, which charges the National Park Service is wrongly banning the activity.

A blast of unseasonally hot air, coupled with extremely dry forests, has led to fire restrictions being put into effect at Rocky Mountain National Park and Dinosaur National Monument.