You never know what you’ll discover on the National Parks Traveler. In just the past two weeks we brought you this off-the-beaten path stories from the National Park System:

The recent eruption at Nāpau Crater was the first on Kīlauea’s middle East Rift Zone (ERZ) in six years. We often remember the Pu‘u‘ō‘ō and Maunaulu eruptions when thinking about the middle East Rift Zone, but many lesser-known eruptions occurred on the rift zone in the past 200 years, including 11 during the 1960s!

Another 50+ miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina have been reopened.

The Pear Lake Hut in the backcountry of Sequoia National Park in California doesn't open for the winter until mid-December, but you can start planning your trek by trying to land a reservation in the hut.