While it's hard to say whether the folks at Denali National Park and Preserve are trendsetters without first exploring all the other websites in the National Park System, their site for planning a backcountry trek should be a model, if it's not already.

One of the increasingly thorny issues circling around the National Park System are sightseeing planes that circle national parks. Those tours have been debated at Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, and Grand Teton national parks, just to name three units of the system. Now you can add Mount Rainier National Park to the list.

Half again as large as Yellowstone National Park, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve can be a conundrum for visitors. If you arrive via cruise ship, how can you possibly get a good taste of this 3.3-million acre landscape of ice, ocean, and forest?

It's never too late to plan a summer trip to Yellowstone National Park. True, it gets trickier the longer in the year you wait to make your plans, but you're never completely shut out of visiting this incredible park. How do you negotiate the logistics? Let us show you the way.