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Musings From Virgin Islands National Park

Floating face down in the Caribbean, with snorkel clenched in your mouth, lacks the structure, the regimentation, of observing the natural world in the way we’ve grown up to accept while walking through a forest, strolling through a meadow, or hiking up a mountain. Clouds of neon blue tangs drift by while black-and-yellow striped sergeant majors flit about, lacking the tangs’ regimented approach to life in the ocean.

Where To Look For Spring Wildflowers in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Smoky Mountains are home to more than 1,600 species of flowering plants. During each month of the year, some forb, tree or vine is blooming in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. During the spring, wildflowers explode during the brief window just prior to trees leafing out and shading the forest floor (from about mid-April through mid-May).

Descendants of Mesa Verde Anasazi Help Produce a Musical Masterpiece

The Pueblo Indians in New Mexico and northern Arizona are descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans who abandoned the cliff dwellings now preserved in Mesa Verde National Park. Does the modern pueblo culture straddle the ages? See for yourself. Just cue this composite audio/video, turn up the volume, and get ready for a surprise.

Demolition Update: It’s One Down and One to Go at Gettysburg

At Gettysburg, the old visitor center and the Cyclorama Building were constructed atop a key part of the historic battlefield. The NPS has long planned to remove both buildings and return the site to its 1863 appearance. The old visitor center is now being knocked down and toted away, but preservationists have blocked demolition of the Cyclorama Building.