Acadia National Park soon will grow by 39 acres thanks to federal Land and Water Conservation Fund dollars that will enable the Park Service to acquire the acreage near the Lower Hadlock Pond.

Backpacker magazine has devoted its June issue to the national parks, and the 112-page mag packs quite a lot of information -- including some great features on park destinations and a discussion-spurring list of parks the editor-in-chief would do away with in favor of new units -- between the covers.

A visit to Yosemite National Park in 2011 will certainly be a much different experience than a similar trip in decades past, and a new exhibit in the park will offer a wide-ranging and thought-provoking look at a Yosemite that's gone but perhaps not totally forgotten.

From Wawona Hotel near the south entrance of Yosemite National Park the ride to the Yosemite Valley is relatively short, but the scenery is incredible different...and so are the lodging possibilities, as David and Kay Scott relate in the following dispatch.