Wetter and colder weather can't arrive soon enough for Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks, where the fire danger has been elevated to "very high" for both parks.

Dude and Guest Ranch Vacations go hand-in-hand, and as ecotourism is becoming more popular than ever, the Dude Ranchers’ Association’s dude and guest ranches stand as the pioneers of green living and green vacations. At a guest ranch you can reconnect with nature in some of the country’s most tranquil, pristine national parks and national forests.

A disadvantage of living in South Georgia is the scarcity of fall colors as the days grow cooler and the nights become longer. The glorious reds, bright yellows, and vivid oranges produced by oaks, maples, cottonwoods, sumac, and other broadleaved trees and shrubs are in short supply where we live. Having both grown up in the Midwest, we miss the changing of the colors during the fall seasons.

Grizzly bears that roam the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, a sprawling 34,000-square-mile landscape of national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, and state and private lands, gained a reprieve from hunting seasons that were to open in Wyoming and Idaho on Saturday when a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order halting the hunts.