While recent rains have been filling rivers in many parts of the East, playing in those streams is becoming more dangerous, as evidenced by a kayaker who drowned in the Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park biologists, who recently killed the wrong bear in their hunt for one that attacked a teenager while he slept in the backcountry, are working with a forensics lab to develop a DNA tracking procedure that could prevent similar misidentifications in the future.

A bear attack at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the mystery of a missing guide in Grand Canyon National Park, and word of two areas of Cape Cod National Seashore now open to leashed pets are among the news in the National Park System this week.

Located roughly mid-way between New York City and Philadelphia, the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is a verdant, mountainous oasis cut by a cooling river that attracts millions every year, with most coming during the summer months to relax and gain a bit of respite from the region's notorious humidity. Those millions, though, can be oppressive when squeezed too closely together.