There are more than a few new books out this year revolving around national parks, and the one that has provided the most wonderment and joy tied to rangering has been Yellowstone Ranger by Jerry Mernin, who spent more than three decades patrolling the front and backcountry of Yellowstone National Park and left us with insights, hardships, humor, and great satisfaction from a career that left him wishing he could have had "another 32 years to work in Yellowstone."

While George Bucknam Dorr had the wherewithal to travel extensively about the world and do anything with his life, he came to cherish the landscape of Mount Desert Island along coastal Maine. It was a lifelong connection spurred by childhood vacations on the island, one that spawned a tireless, and selfless, campaign to both conserve the island’s landscape and, more importantly, see it included within the National Park System.

A grizzly bear attack is a frightful, horrible thing. Long claws raking the body, the cracking of bones, dragging off the victim to consume, then burying it under a thin layer of forest duff.

There is an inland sea of sand that relatively few people realize exists. While the sand dunes of Death Valley National Park are fairly well-known, and most people are aware of the sand dunes at our national seashores, the towering dunes of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado are unknown to most.

For Danny Bernstein, retirement is best enjoyed by following a path through the woods, or a tour through a unit of the National Park System. Whether the park is focused on history, or culture, or natural beauty doesn't matter. For Ms. Bernstein, being in the park system and enjoying and learning from it is what matters.

Erin Peabody has crafted a book on Yellowstone National Park that follows a common path in telling the story of how the world's first national park came about, but which through her deep research and colorful writing rises as an entertaining and informative work that deserves a space on every park lover's bookshelf.

Ray and Barbara Bane went to Alaska on a lark, a whim to spend a year teaching school in the bush. They stayed for a lifetime.

Here are 100 stories from our national parks, written by the people who work there.

Personalities, towering granite walls, and historic photographs for added perspective -- some amazing perspective at times -- are the heart and soul of Yosemite In The Fifties, a 176-page book that captures what the authors refer to as the Iron Age of climbing in Yosemite National Park.

Martin Litton was known as the conscience of the Grand Canyon. As a conservationist he battled the damming of the Colorado, and many other causes. This film documents Litton, a year after his death.

Whether captured in words, photographs, or illustrations, national parks are wondrous places, vibrant and breathtaking in their scenery and history. To drive that point home, Joel Anderson and his son, Nathan, of the Anderson Design Group have just released a book that displays the 59 "national parks" in unique posters.

When I mentioned in a Traveler comment a few weeks ago that I was reading Dr. Runte’s book, Kurt asked if I would write a review. Since then, there have been a couple of articles batting some of Alfred’s ideas back and forth. When I took a look at Traveler the other morning, I found a rebuttal by Dr. Runte regarding one of those articles. Now I sit at my keyboard wondering if I am qualified – or even want to – wade into the middle of all this.