Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument has taken on a somewhat dark connotation since park Ranger Kris Eggle was killed by drug runners in August 2002. While some parts of the park remain off-limits to casual tourists, and researchers are suggested to go into the field accompanied by security, guest writer Lee Dalton found the park fascinating during a February visit.

It's been nearly 148 years since major fighting occurred on the Emanuel Harman Farm near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and it's taken almost twenty years of negotiations in recent times, but an important 95-acre tract has now been acquired for Gettysburg National Military Park.

Numbers tell the story of a park that offers visitors an abundance of recreational choices spread among half a dozen cultural sites and natural areas in the river corridors and bayous of the New Orleans day-tripper zone.

A variety of projects and programs -- from music in the mountains to rangers in the classrooms -- will move forward at the Blue Ridge Parkway thanks to $500,000 in funding from the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.