National Parks Traveler

A 12-page filing tied to one of the nation's strongest environmental laws could succeed where the National Park Service so far has failed in trying to determine the extent of environmental contamination at the Caneel Bay Resort on the shores of Virgin Islands National Park.

Can a gun protect you from bears in a national park's backcountry? What music will you hear at the Blue Ridge Music Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway? What does the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory staff do? Grizzly bears and wolves in Yellowstone. Exploring the missions at San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Those are just a handful of topics we've explored on National Parks Traveler's podcast series.

My wife and I are staring at a lizard that must be four feet long, holding our breath in astonishment. Light tan in color, this creature is vividly outlined against an overhanging wall of sandstone. Painstakingly chipped out of the rock by some nameless Native American artisan, it has been on display here for at least seven hundred years, or longer than the Giotto frescos in Florence’s Santa Croce church.

A strain of algae that can kill dogs has been detected in a section of Blue Mesa Reservoir at Curecanti National Recreation Area in Colorado. For now the Iola Basin area of the reservoir has been closed to swimming.

It's about this time of year, every year, that tarantulas start making themselves known in Bandelier National Monument and other parts of New Mexico. Every autumn, mature male tarantulas start out on their quest to find a mate. This exposes them to many dangers, from hawks and skunks, which want to eat them, to fast-moving cars, to people who just find them creepy and may think they should be squashed.

The Washington Monument is expected to reopen to the public on October 1 at 9 a.m. after a six-month closure. The monument will be open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a new set of safety and cleaning procedures to keep staff and visitors safe from the spread of infectious diseases. Tickets will be available online starting September 30.

Work has begun on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Roanoke, Virginia, to repair a slope failure that has closed the scenic road from the Explore Park entrance (milepost 115.5) to U.S. 220 (milepost 121.4).

An approaching wildfire has forced the closure of part of Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in California.

A grizzly bear that gained a taste for human foods by breaking into facilities in the Kantishna/Wonder Lake area of Denali National Park and Preserve was put down as it was deemed unredeemable and posed a safety concern for people.

A 150-acre cultural site has been added to Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in southeast Alaska that will be managed in collaboration with the Hoonah Indian Association, a federally recognized tribal government, through a unique conservation easement.