National Parks Traveler

Hard to believe, fellow park travelers, but the first day of fall is next week, on Tuesday. Already the hillsides around Traveler headquarters are taking on the hues of fall, albeit largely muted due to the long-running drought. But across the National Park System there are spectacular fall colors to take in. Where do you think they are?

The park’s website tries to warn you off. “Sections of this trail are extremely steep and there is limited flat or level hiking.” As a result, “The route is extremely strenuous and is not recommended for inexperienced hikers.” Many people do not finish the route because they underestimate the challenges; some require rescue.

The National Park Service is preparing a Categorical Exclusion for a project to replace the shoreside floating dock and anchoring system at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial Visitor Center. Years of wave action, marine exposure and geological processes have deteriorated the existing shoreside floating dock resulting in the deterioration of the dock and other unsafe conditions.

A body believed to be that of a 24-year-old New York man missing in the backcountry of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado has been recovered.

Evacuation orders for Three Rivers, California, due to the SQF fire complex led Tuesday to the closure of Sequoia National Park.

An unknown number of pups has been born to wolves transported to Isle Royale National Park in a bid to regain a healthy prey-predator ratio.

A wildfire complex south and west of Sequoia National Park forced closure on Monday of a section of the Generals Highway in the park.

Western wildfires have been sending clouds of acrid smoke into national parks, obscuring views and raising health concerns, especially for the young and the elderly. Things got so bad at Muir Woods National Monument on Sunday that the park was closed.

Three years after two hurricanes trampled Virgin Islands National Park, and three years before a critical date guiding the future of Caneel Bay Resort at the national park arrives, Interior Department officials say they're continuing to try to find common ground with the resort's current operator.

We all have bucket lists for places in the National Park System we’d like to visit. No doubt many have, or had, Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon or Shenandoah on their bucket lists. But what about Parashant National Monument? Have you ever heard of it? Would you recognize it if we called it Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument?