We've grown accustomed to media coverage of property threatened by raging wildfires in California, but… West Texas? Large fires that raced across the high desert last weekend caused major damage in the small town of Fort Davis. Thus far, the key historic structures at Fort Davis National Historic Site have escaped, but it's been a close call, and fires are still not controlled.

The new Oconaluftee Visitor Center on the North Carolina side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park is airy, spacious and so beautiful.The museum focusses onthe cultural history of the park.

A different approach to measuring the geologic hot spot that drives Yellowstone National Park's geysers, hot springs, and fumaroles depicts a plume of molten rock larger than previously thought.