There will be nine admission-free days to the National Park System in 2014, though just one falls during the peak vacation months of summer.

They're barebones, rustic, Spartan -- choose your adjective -- but the sea-front cabins at Cape Lookout National Seashore are great basecamps if you like to surfcast or simply looking to spend some down time on a decidedly low key seashore.

The path-breaking beginning of America’s national parks in Yosemite is the subject of these two anniversary-related books. For Dayton Duncan, in Seed of the Future, the Yosemite Grant remains the story of a national triumph. For Jen Huntley, in The Making of Yosemite, the act of June 30, 1864, bears irrefutable evidence of a national theft.

The annual migration of Pacific gray whales from waters around Alaska to those off of Mexico is getting underway, and one of the best places to view both the whales and northern elephant seals from the shore is Point Reyes National Seashore. A weekend shuttle bus system, which runs from December 28, 2013, until late March of 2014, helps solve problems with limited parking and crowded roads.