Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area claims the title of "largest urban national park in the country," but it's 150,000+ acres of mountains and coastline in Ventura and Los Angeles counties also include some non-urban wildlife. Biologists recently discovered two mountain lion kittens in the park.

A handful of fires burning in the backcountry of Yellowstone National Park, along with extremely dry conditions, have prompted park officials to close some trails and backcountry campsites and also reinstate fire restrictions.

In the second part of this series Richard West Sellars, a long-time historian for the National Park Service, takes a look back at what precipitated the historic preservation movement in the National Park System.

Fort Monroe, Virginia, our newest national monument—is the largest stone and masonry fort in the United States. But this site embodies much more than just a look back at coastal fortifications. Fort Monroe's pivotal military and even cultural significance reaches back centuries before the United States and forward as recently as last year.