The unofficial ambassador of Signal Hill National Historic Site is basking in the late summer sun and being fawned over by strangers. He's getting pats galore, and even some hugs and kisses, while while posing for too many photos to count.

The National Park Service at Great Smoky Mountains National Park is able to keep the Newfound Gap Road open 24 hours a day thanks to assistance from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Government and Sevier County (The Cities of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville and the Sevier County Government).

Tens of thousands of downed trees littering roadways and forests. Landslides. Mud slides. Undercut roads. Those are the situations National Park Service crews have found as they worked there way along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia.

A popular gravel road through Rocky Mountain National Park is closed to vehicles for the winter.