You could be excused if you only chose to spend a couple of hours touring Badlands National Park from your car, since there aren’t many trails and most of what you can see is from the road and overlooks. That would be a shame, though, because there is plenty to do in and around Badlands for a good three-day stay.

On an uninhabited island off the coast of Southern California where pygmy mammoths once roamed, I trekked along sandstone cliffs and up a steep footpath into one of the rarest native pine forests in the United States. Dwarfed and gnarled by the fierce winds, the endangered evergreens with freakishly large pine cones were so mesmerizing that I almost missed seeing a fox that is found nowhere else on earth.

A 23-year-old Colorado man who climbed Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park last weekend died in a fall while descending.

The individual responsible for pulling down a historic 113-year-old salt tram tower in Death Valley National Park last month has come forward and is taking full responsibility for their actions, a park release said Thursday.