We were on our second-floor balcony reading when we noticed someone below walk to the wooden railing separating the lodge grounds from the surrounding countryside. He pointed west toward the woods. Coming through the trees and into the small meadow were two bear cubs that commenced frolicking in the grass. They ran back and forth and one suddenly jumped and caught the side of a tree.

Last fall, Cheyenne, Wyoming, attorney Karen Budd-Falen made an astonishing claim that has reverberated all the way to Washington, D.C. Writing a guest editorial for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup, she said environmental law firms had collected billions in public tax dollars by filing and winning frivolous lawsuits against federal natural resource agencies.

While it's relatively well-known that pot farms have been planted in the backcountry of such Western parks as Sequoia and Yosemite, a similar problem is being confronted back East in Mammoth Cave National Park. To battle the problem, the park is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information that leads to a successful prosecution of those growing the marijuana patches.

ReserveAmerica, the company that manages camping reservations for the National Park System and other federal agencies, can't seem to find a national park campground it likes. In listing its "Top 100 Family Campgrounds," the company doesn't cite a single national park campground.