If you like to fish, paddle, surf, or drive an off-road vehicle around Gateway National Recreation Area, you can purchase your permits for such activities beginning Monday, February 1.

There are times when the call of nature can be downright inconvenient for women who head down the trail. The temperature might be too cold, or the mosquitoes too thick, to drop your pants. For those times, there's GoGirl.

From time to time we try to profile restaurants, and even chefs, in the national parks. Last fall, after we ran a feature on the chef at the Metate Room Restaurant in Mesa Verde National Park, some readers asked about recipes. Well, for all who want to try to master one of the entrees served up there, here's Chef Brian Puett's recipe for Cinnamon & Chile Rubbed Port Tenderloin.

While some House Republicans are denigrating a proposal to spend $50 million to create a national historic site in the Virgin Islands, one that would preserve a centuries-old plantation and critical natural resources, a GOP senator is asking for $75 million to be spent on land acquisition for the Blue Ridge Parkway.