People have been collecting stuff forever. When adults visit national parks, they can collect passport stamps or pamphlets. Children earn Junior Ranger badges, though getting one takes a lot more effort and time than a passport stamp. But there’s something else out there to collect, too, and it looks a lot like baseball trading cards

Across the National Park System, groups are constantly work to improve the plight of both animals and human visitors. At Yellowstone National Park, one aspect of that effort is to install bear-proof boxes that will keep bears and campers out of each other's way. But as of today, more than 1,000 bear boxes are still needed, and the Yellowstone Park Foundation is trying to raise the money needed to close that gap.

Reaching into his daypack, the ranger pulled out a banana slug. Not a real one, but a stuffed animal version, a perfect prop to explain just exactly what banana slugs were to the youngsters in his audience here in the Hoh Rain Forest of Olympic National Park.

Spring can come slowly in the national parks in the Rocky Mountains, as evidenced by the many weeks it takes to open Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park and Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. And that slow transition of seasons requires you to keep your wits about you if visiting the parks in this season.