Today, Lower Geyser Basin in Yellowstone is a treeless plain characterized by steaming ground, geysers, and mudpots. But thousands of years ago, it was heavily forested with less hydrothermal activity. Lake sediments tell the tale.

So as not to disturb Townsend's big-eared bats that breed at Montezuma Well, a unit of Montezuma Castle National Monument, the trail to the Swallet Caves at the well will be closed through July.

Jonathan and Destry Jarvis have been fighting for the national parks for more than 50 years and have now co-authored a book that details their battles, inside and outside the National Park Service. On Tuesday May 17 the two will sit down with the National Parks Traveler Editor Kurt Repanshek to discuss their new book, National Parks Forever, Fifty Years of Fighting and a Case For Independence.

Point Pelee National Park — the Ontario home to songbird and monarch migrations — has cracked the top 10 list of Canada’s most visited national parks in 2021. It joins Banff National Park and Jasper National Park, which stayed securely in first and second place respectively.