What do the CCC, YCC, SCA and Junior Ranger programs have in common? They all provide great opportunities for young people to gain hands-on experience in national parks. In the process, some of them will develop a life-long appreciation of parks—and the values that make them special. An ambitious project by the Yosemite Fund will help make those experiences possible.

A variety of visitor services are provided in many NPS areas by private businesses under a concession contract. The oldest family-owned and-operated concession in the National Park System features a famous name, and was recently awarded a new 10-year contract. Do you know where it's located?

Late in 2008 a thunderous rockfall from the cliff that holds up Glacier Point slammed down on Curry Village in Yosemite Valley. In the aftermath of that incident, Yosemite National Park officials permanently closed 233 tent cabins, cabins with bath, cabins without bath, or roughly one-third of the village's overnight capacity, due to the threat of more rock peeling off from the cliff. Now they're wondering what to do with those facilities.

My first visit to Yosemite National Park back in June 1999 coincided with a rockfall that forced me out of a tent cabin in Curry Village and into one in Tuolumne Meadows. Ever since, I've been intrigued by rockfalls in the park's iconic valley. While the frequency of rockfalls in recent years might be alarming to park visitors, they are calling cards evidencing the active geology that's ongoing in Yosemite.