It's been a very long winter for parts of the country, and some national parks are facing some extra challenges in getting ready for the upcoming summer season. Few parks, however, have had to call on the Coast Guard for help from an icebreaker as part of their summer reopening.
This year marks the 100th anniversary for completion of Glacier Park Lodge. Constructed in 1912 and 1913 by the Great Northern Railway, the lodge is one of the classic western lodges built to lure tourists to travel by train to the scenic West.
May Day greeted Rocky Mountain National Park with more than a foot of fresh snow, a good spring storm that will boost the park's snowpack heading into summer.
The robber barons: There were around 25 or 30 of them, depending on who was doing the counting; these were the men (there were no women, unless you count Hetty Green) of almost unlimited wealth and power who dominated America at the end of the 19th century. Their names are familiar even today; Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, Duke, Harriman and so on.
Traveler's 2nd Annual Essential Friends + Gateways publication, a collaboration between the Traveler and a core group of national park foundations, cooperating associations, trusts, friends groups, and gateway communities, is aimed at enhancing and furthering the now nationally significant role of these organizations and entities in the preservation and enjoyment of our parks.
With 800 miles of trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, just keeping up with normal wear and tear in the heavily visited park is a challenge for park employees and volunteers. That job became much more difficult when an F4 tornado ripped a 17-mile-long swath through the park and adjacent areas back in 2011, toppling thousands of trees.
Of course I wanted to go to the Sun in Glacier National Park - the very idea of capturing everything between earth and sky, with my camera and lens, filled me with the same visions that I experienced as a child, when walking into a candy store to choose just one piece of chocolate. I wanted them all.
Just when it looked like Milford Beach at Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area would be closed this summer due to the budget sequestration, a corporation has stepped up with the money to open the beach.