While Interior Department officials publicly refuse to discuss how failure to avert the "fiscal cliff" might impact national park operations, internally they're telling National Park Service staff that nothing should change in the short term.
The Southern Appalachian Handicraft Guild has run the Parkway’s Folk Art Center in Asheville since 1979 and that record continues with the organization gaining another 10-year lease on the property.
Some fun programs, for young and old, are scheduled for the last week of the year at Rocky Mountain National Parks. Kids can gain outdoor lore from rangers, or join their families on a snowshoe hike.
The sesquicentennial of the Civil War continues in 2013, and a series of free lectures at Gettysburg National Military Park will explore some interesting topics. Among the subjects: Separating fact and legend concerning Pickett's Charge and Hollywood vs. history in the story of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as told in the 1989 film Glory.
A total of $100,000 from the Glacier Fund has been disbursed to nine organizations for 2013 projects in Glacier National Park that range from trail work to astronomy programs.
If you're making plans to visit Denali National Park and Preserve next year, you'd can make reservations now for a seat on the park shuttle bus or a campsite in four of the Denali's largest campgrounds.
Congress has been asked to provide nearly $400 million to help National Park System units recover from damages inflicted by "superstorm" Sandy earlier this fall.