Heading into the long Fourth of July holiday, fire managers across the West are keeping their fingers crossed that folks are careful when they head into the national parks, national forests, and other public lands. The landscape is, as they say, tinder dry, due to unseasonably dry and hot conditions.

After 80 years, Carlsbad Caverns National Park has replaced the Cavern Supply Company. And, at Write Brothers National Memorial, air tours departing from a nearby airstrip have been canceled indefinitely.

Computer animations can bring 18th-century cannon fire to life, but can they bring Gen-Yers to the national parks? Can an audiocast leading teens across a battlefield entice them enough to set foot in Saratoga National Historical Park? Can tracing a hike in Glacier National Park from the comforts of their homes convince this generation to beg their parents to visit Glacier on their next vacation? Those are questions that have more and more park managers searching for answers.

YouTube coverage of the ExpreScion event held on Alcatraz Island recently. I am struck by the comments of one participant who is troubled that a party is happening on a site protected for its past agony.