There's always a lot of shaking, rattling, and occasional rolling going on in Yellowstone National Park. Keeping track of it is the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, one of five such observatories under the purview of the U.S. Geological Survey. It keeps real-time tabs on volcanic, hydrothermal and earthquake activity in the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field.  

This week we sit down with Becky Lomax, author of Moon’s USA National Parks, to discuss news stories that arose around the National Park System during May. And we bring you an interesting story about efforts to recover populations of endangered black-footed ferrets in the West. Two places where they’re working on that are Wind Cave and Badlands national parks in South Dakota.

In this week’s show, we talk with Toby O’Rourke, the president and CEO of Kampgrounds of America, about a study KOA commissioned to gauge Americans’ interests in returning to campgrounds on and near public lands as the fight with the coronavirus pandemic continues. The findings are quite interesting and point to renewed interest in camping as a recreational pursuit. After that conversation, we tempt you to explore the dark side of the National Park System.