Where once we had guidebooks, topographic maps, and campfire talks to help us appreciate and understand the national parks, there's now a growing number of electronic applications for your iPhones, iPod Touches, and other cellphones and media devices to overwhelm the senses.

Hot summer temperatures reaching into the triple digits and cool, swift-running waters conspired last weekend to claim the lives of two young girls who looked to the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River in Sequoia National Park for momentary relief from the heat, according to park officials.

Despite all the warnings passed out by Yellowstone National Park officials and rangers, from time to time visitors looking for that perfect photograph overlook the fact that the park's bison not only are wild, but can be highly temperamental. A California man discovered that in a most painful way Wednesday when looking for a close-up and the bison he was focusing on decided he wanted no part of a photo shoot.

A Denver businessman has been chosen to take over as chief executive officer of the National Park Foundation, the congressionally chartered fund-raising arm for the National Park System.