Once-in-a-lifetime trips to majestic places such as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone crumbled Tuesday as Congress's failure to avert a shutdown of the federal government interrupted countless vacation plans as closure gates came down across the National Park System.
The seeming incongruity of boiling waters next to almost bitterly cold waters is commonplace in Yellowstone in the West Thumb Geyser Basin, where you can gaze across Abyss Pool out to Yellowstone Lake.
Just how big is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve? To give you an idea, check out the accompanying map. It shows how Wrangell-St. Elias would swallow a number of parks you might have considered to be large themselves.
With the clock, and the calendar, ticking closer to congressional gridlock over the country's debt ceiling, how might the National Park Service react if October 1 arrives without an increase in the ceiling?
Earlier this month Yellowstone National Park officials issued a release warning that grizzly bears very possibly would be active in their search for food this fall and humans should be especially alert. Well, it seems the bears took that message to heart.
When the National Park Service was created nearly a century ago, its mission seemed straightforward: to preserve the landscape for the enjoyment of today's and tomorrow's generations. As the agency nears its centennial, is there a need to recommit to that mission?
Bugs can quickly ruin a national park vacation, especially the ones that bite and suck your blood. That's when you need a shelter from the storm, as it were.
While most Yellowstone National Park visitors look for bison, wolves, and bear when they come to visit, this weekend there will be a special event to watch the fall migration of raptors as they wing past the park.
If you have ever stood on the shores of Yellowstone Lake and looked way across the water to the southeast, into that area of the park where few visitors go, and wished to experience life in the backcountry without hiking with a heavy backpack, go glamping!