No matter what time of the year you plan to visit Death Valley National Park in California, you need to be prepared for this land of extremes: extreme heat, extreme rainstorms, extreme dryness, extreme beauty. This 2023 checklist should help you with your plans.

It was a short skirmish, perhaps just 15 minutes, but it left 10 French soldiers dead, precipitated the French and Indian War, and perhaps was instigated by a young, brash George Washington.

Following an extended illness, Dr. Harry Butowsky, formerly with the National Park Service History Division, passed away May 6 at his home in Reston, Virginia. He was 78.

Imagine a lake of bright yellow-orange lava with a molten fountain gushing 1,900 feet (580m) in the air. Now imagine walking across a smoothed solid rock surface where that lava lake once churned, guided by ahu (rock cairns) past a tall cinder cone as you aim toward the other side. That’s the experience of the Kīlauea Iki Trail in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.