How often do you cook a turkey dinner on a houseboat? The opportunity arrives this Thanksgiving, when a houseboat rental at Glen Canyon, Lake Mead, or Lake Amistad national recreation areas will also get you a turkey for the big day. Plus, the rental comes at 40 percent off.

A longstanding problem for fisheries in the Upper Colorado River Basin is the competing demands for water. It's needed for irrigation, it's needed to generate power, and it's needed, not surprisingly, to sustain fisheries. With drought a frequent visitor to the states of Wyoming, Colorado and Utah, how that huge watershed is cooperatively managed is critical for all these demands.

Canyonlands National Park is one of the most rugged national parks, with a harsh summer sun that bakes the dry, canyon-riddled landscape. But those deep canyons’ steep rocky slopes, which offer ample grasses and shrubs, and an openness that puts predators at a disadvantage, are an optimal environment for bighorn sheep. In fact, Canyonlands’ bighorn population has been so stable that Utah’s wildlife biologists long relied on it for stock to re-establish herds elsewhere in the state.

There's still at least a month of great summer weather to be enjoyed before any thoughts of fall or winter will sneak into your mind. And if you're looking for a national park getaway, here are some deals and packages being offered around the National Park System. Some expire right around Labor Day, some run later into the year.