Unusually heavy and persistent spring rains have flooded several units of the National Park System in Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming, leading to washed out trails, closed campgrounds, and at least one death.

For more than a century, freight trains have rumbled up and over Marias Pass, skirting the south boundary of Glacier National Park, casting rolling shadows on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River below. Until recently the major threat was a grain car derailment, which on occasion left bears woozy from eating fermented grain. Today a derailment involving a 100-car train hauling highly combustible Bakken crude oil risks an environmental catastrophe unprecedented in National Park Service history.

Deciding that "entrance fees at Fort Laramie" don't make sense any more, the superintendent for Fort Laramie National Historic Site in Wyoming has done away with them. So, too, has Fort Union National Monument in New Mexico.

A sacred ceremonial horse ride involving Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribal members is scheduled to take place Monday, October 15, at Fort Laramie National Historic Site in eastern Wyoming.