Fall just might be the best time to hike around Phelps Lake in Grand Teton National Park. The weather is cooling, the aspen are turning yellows and oranges, and the smell of autumn is in the air.

Few of us with roots in the 1960s can imagine the world of environmental writing without Michael Frome. Actually, it was my mother who first discovered his articles following our trip west in 1959. From our home in Binghamton, New York, she had driven my brother August and me 10,000 miles, visiting national parks the entire way. After spending three days each at Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon, we thought we had seen it all. It little occurred to us, jockeying among the crowds of other auto “campers,” that an even greater, untouched wilderness lay beyond the pullouts, roads, and parking lots. That discovery awaited the writings of Michael Frome.

If you're heading to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming later this month, and determined to visit the Jenny Lake area, you might want to avoid arriving October 19-21 due to a planned area closure there.

A Wyoming congresswoman carrying water for packrafters seeking access to rivers and streams in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks has offered an amendment to her own legislation that seemingly would force the National Park Service to open up specific waters to the paddlers.