The guessing game on how significant the spring bloom in Death Valley National Park will be continues. No one is willing yet to say it will rival the 2005 showcase, but Park Service officials are predicting the "peak bloom," if there is one, will arrive in late March and into early April.

Two of the most incredible waterfalls in the National Park System can be found in Yellowstone National Park. But it certainly doesn't have a monopoly on waterworks. Olympic National Park boasts the beautifully secluded Marymere Falls, Glacier National Park the towering Bird Woman Falls, and Great Smoky Mountain National Park the comparatively small but gorgeous-just-the-same Abrams Falls. What other waterfalls in the park system deserve to be singled out for their beauty?

From large Burmese pythons in the Everglades to tiny Quagga mussels at Lake Mead, exotic animals are a growing problem in our national parks. A recent story from Australia demonstrates that the battle against exotics can sometimes employ some low-tech weapons, including cat food and ants.

A 35-year-old North Carolina man is due in federal court on March 22 to face poaching charges in connection with the shooting of a bull elk in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.