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Lassen Volcanic National Park Gets Its First Purpose-Built Visitor Center, and It’s a Dandy

Lassen Volcanic National Park is one of our oldest national parks, but it has never had anything more than a makeshift visitor center. Until now, that is. A 92-year wait ends today, October 4, when the park celebrates the grand opening of the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center at the park’s southwest entrance.

Park History: Dinosaur National Monument

If it were designated part of the National Park System today, what would we call Dinosaur National Monument? True, it offers a treasure trove of fossilized dinosaur remains, one that continues to be studied. But there's also the riverine component, mountains, and high desert that all offer outstanding experiences befitting a national park setting.

Steamtown National Historic Site Schedules Leaf Peeper Excursions in the Poconos

Steamtown National Historic Site has scheduled eight steam-powered train trips to two popular destinations in the Poconos during the fall foliage season. Critics complain about Steamtown’s sparse excursion schedule, but there’s little to dislike about these leaf peeper outings.

Singer Dolly Parton Named Ambassador for Great Smoky Mountains National Park's Anniversary

Dolly Parton grew up in Tennessee not far from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, she's sung My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy, Mule Skinner Blues, My Tennessee Mountain Home, and Tennessee Homesick Blues, so should it be any surprise that the singer has been named ambassador for the park's 75th birthday?

North Cascades National Park – Forty Years on the Map, Seventy Years in the Making

Washington’s North Cascades National Park sits peacefully along the Canadian border. The serenity of this park, which marks its 40th birthday October 2, masks the story of a 70-year struggle to protect one of the most indomitable mountain landscapes in America.

Park History: The Appalachian Trail

Zigzagging 2,175 miles between Mount Katahdin in northern Maine and Springer Mountain in Georgia, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail gained life through an article Benton MacKaye wrote for the Journal of the American Institute of Architects in 1921. In it the forester ruminated on the need for Americans to spend more time at leisure, preferably in the outdoors.