National Parks Traveler

For going on 15 years now scientists and researchers have been sifting through the landscape of Great Smoky Mountains National Park -- from streambeds and caves into the tree tops -- to see just how much life there is. What they've found will be celebrated in March when a scientific conference is held in Gatlingburg.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which already has lost its main road to a rain-induced landslide, continues to suffer from torrential rains that are washing out other roads and even taking out a 70-foot-long foot bridge along the popular Chimney Tops Trail.

A weekly ranger-led snowshoe hike, including one by moonlight, is scheduled at Voyageurs National Park through the next month.

After watching several boat captains swim to shore after dropping off passengers and gear at Elliott Key Harbor for camping, Biscayne National Park officials have decided to close the harbor and campground to prevent possible drownings.

The old school bus rumbles to life with a painful metallic grinding and we roll forward, our chariot rocking side to side down a rutted, muddy street of a small crossroads town called Dumre in central Nepal. Angling down a hillside, the bus lists heavily to starboard and moves too slowly to escape its own cloud of choking exhaust, which drifts in through the open windows.

Folks who run the Yampa River through Dinosaur National Monument access the river at Deerlodge Park, and if you've been down that road lately you know it's a bit bumpy. Monument officials want to improve that condition with a rehabilitation project.

Sally Jewell, who runs the outdoor gear retailer REI, is to be nominated to replace retiring Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, it was being reported this morning.

A body found propped up against a tree in Rocky Mountain National Park by two snowshoers is thought to be that of a Texas man missing since late last week.

Will expanded wireless service for cellphones and the Internet enhance your national park experience, or will it clutter it with a technological Disneyification of the parks, one that will detract from, not add to, the national park experience?