It started in mid-September; a few flakes began to flutter across the Crown of the Continent in Glacier National Park. The snow since then has slowly spread east and west, north and south. By January the white mantle likely will cover the whole northern tier of the National Park System, from Acadia west to Olympic, south through Rocky Mountain, into Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountain national parks.

A hiker who went in search of a great sunset shot at Theodore Roosevelt National Park stopped along the way to photograph a bison, which suddenly charged him and knocked him down ... and out, according to park officials.

In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt stated, "Of all the questions which can come before this nation…there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us." More than a century later, as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, this comment rings true, though shrouded in irony.