Bayou country is a hard place to live sometimes. It’s home to tough survivors. Locals in beat-up pickup trucks roar past me up highway 69/285, the Big Thicket National Preserve Byway, as I turn off at the visitor center. I’m looking for just that kind of adaptability to harsh conditions. Specifically, I have come to find Big Thicket’s carnivorous plants. More generally, I want to learn how life survives here. Because, as I look around, the Thicket seems undaunted by the recent storms.

Big Thicket National Preserve is looking for volunteers on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, January 18, for the preserve's annual longleaf pine tree planting event. This event has been taking place at Big Thicket for more than a decade.

There are quite a few parks associations out there, all with programs to enrich a visitor’s experience while explaining how important national parks and protected lands are. This particular quiz focuses on parks and other protected lands supported by the Western National Parks Association across 12 Western states. See just how much you know about some of these parks before checking the answers at the bottom of the page.

There always is something going on in the National Park System, some good, some not so good, and some interesting. Come along and let me explain.