National Parks Traveler

The Blue Ridge Parkway's half-a-thousand mile ridge-top route between Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains offers countless great hikes. Randy Johnson, author of Hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway and Best Easy Day Hikes Blue Ridge Parkway, leads the way to one of the East’s premier national park hiking experiences.

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By Randy Johnson - February 12th, 2008 2:18pm

Dinosaur National Monument Cutting Paleontology Staff

The Blue Ridge Parkway without a landscape architect. Grand Canyon without a staff geologist. Mount Rainier National Park without a volcanologist. Dinosaur National Monument without a paleontologist.

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By Kurt Repanshek - February 12th, 2008 9:52am

21 comments

National Park Visitation Debate -- Here We Go Again

Did you hear the latest story about national park visitation? It's being threatened by computers and video-games.

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By Kurt Repanshek - February 11th, 2008 6:38pm

15 comments

Cycling at Haleakala National Park Given "High Risk" Rating

Bike riding can be as dangerous as climbing Mount Rainier or horseback riding in the Rockies? That's the preliminary finding by a National Park Service team that assessed the risk of commercial cycling at Haleakala National Park.

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By Kurt Repanshek - February 9th, 2008 11:35am

11 comments

U.S. Sen. Coburn Runs Poll On Whether "Concealed Carry" Should be Allowed in Parks

When last we left U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, it was believed that he was going to introduce an amendment to legalize the carrying of loaded weapons in national parks. Now he's taking a poll on that question.

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By Kurt Repanshek - February 8th, 2008 7:09pm

27 comments

Snow Forces Mount Rainier Officials to Close Road to Paradise

Thirteen feet of snow is a pretty good winter for most folks. At Mount Rainier National Park, they received 13 feet of snow in 11 days!

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By Kurt Repanshek - February 8th, 2008 6:31pm

National Park Service Claims to Have Added New Map Feature to Web Sites

National Park Service officials say they've added a new, "high resolution," map feature to each park's web site. Has anyone seen it?

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By Kurt Repanshek - February 8th, 2008 6:21pm

6 comments

Modeling Mesa Verde National Park With Lasers

Time is constantly a threat to Mesa Verde National Park. As it passes, and brings with it erosion and earthquakes, the park's ruins are at risk of collapse. But a new laser technology is providing the park with, in essence, blue prints of the ruins.

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By Kurt Repanshek - February 6th, 2008 6:43pm

3 comments

Venturing Into the Backcountry of the National Park System

Now, even though the snow continues to pile up in various parts of the country, is the time to begin planning your backcountry escape into the national park system.

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By Kurt Repanshek - February 6th, 2008 3:34pm

2 comments

Costs to Rebuild Glacier National Park's "Sun Road" Skyrocket

Skyrocketing construction costs are threatening the ambitious rebuild of Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road, with latest estimates for the job at least $100 million more than initially thought.