Featured Articles on National Parks Traveler

For a few wonderful minutes, David Quammen was perched amid the snow-clad branches of "the President," a soaring, sturdy sequoia that is acknowledged as the second-largest tree in the world.

Can the National Park Service more fully embrace the "precautionary principle," the concept that it err on the side of "science-informed prudence and restraint," as suggested by Revisiting Leopold: Resource Stewardship in the National Parks?

While a report to the National Park Service on how to overhaul its approach to science in the national park is laudable, the authors of Revisiting Leopold failed to address a large issue that goes to the health of the parks -- "an abiding respect for open space."

The blue whale is one of the earth’s loudest (its song travels thousands of miles), longest-lived (80-90 year lifespan) and largest animals known to have ever existed. Though long and slender, with a tapered body and a small dorsal fin, blue whales measure in at up to 100 feet in length. These more than 200-ton leviathans are truly creatures to be reckoned with.

Wolves roaming Yellowstone National Park don't discriminate between park drainages, meadows, and woods and those features in the national forests rimming the park. They head where the scent takes them, and when they do, they sometimes find themselves in the gunsights of hunters. Such was the case recently for seven wolves whose lives came to an end in the forests outside Yellowstone.

Is the National Park Service about to do an "about face" on its position opposing a professional bike race through Colorado National Monument? In a guest column Joan Anzelmo, the monument's former superintendent, expresses her confusion over this possibility and voices hopes the Park Service will stand by its mission and Management Policies.

Will the Revisiting Leopold report that aims to move the National Park Service into a new direction with natural resources management succeed, or become yet another dusty report in some back room? Those closest to the report believe the vision it charts can, and will, be achieved.

My heart nearly stopped when I received the internship offer from the lead interpretive ranger at Glacier National Park. My first question, of course, was “Where’s that?” As a Floridian, I had never heard of this Glacier and could not believe I would be heading to Montana.

From snowsports to whale watching, America’s national parks have it all come winter. Check out our five-pack of parks where winter gives you the entire country's worth of geographical getaways.

Is public land always available for the public good? Well, not always.

Standing above the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, Harpers Ferry holds a pivotal vantage point in the country's history, one with surprisingly deep roots.

Newfoundland's Gros Morne National Park can be difficult to reach, but for the determined birder, the effort is well worth it!

Sure, kids are back in school, the days have grown shorter, and in some places there's a decided bite in the air. But that doesn't mean you should ignore visiting a national park park. Here are 10 (or more) reasons to help you head to the parks in the months to come.

The piping plover, Charadrius melodus, sparks recreation area closures in many parts of the national park system drawing critics and champions all across the country and causing a much larger stir than its tiny size suggests.