The Centers for Disease Control has confirmed that plague caused the death of a Grand Canyon National Park wildlife biologist earlier this month.

Perplexing. That's my initial reaction to the Environmental Protection Agency's response to the snowmobile decision out of Yellowstone National Park. In five short paragraphs the EPA officials went from seemingly complimenting the decision to saying park planners failed to fully address their concerns.

It's easy to determine that Crater Lake is not the deepest lake in North America when you focus on maximum depth. But what happens when you compare lakes by "average" depth?

How would you describe Arches National Park to someone who had never been to the Southwest? You could try to explain the landscape by comparing it to the old Flintstones cartoons, but what if they weren't familiar with the Flintstones? Do you think they'd believe you if you said Arches was a cathedral of rocks, where gravity doesn't always work, where the sunsets stain the cliffs?