Acadia National Park

Travel in these days of a weak economy and high fuel costs can be expensive, but there are some ways that you can trim the costs of visiting your favorite national park.

If you've ever visited Acadia National Park, you no doubt stopped at the Jordon Pond House and had some of their buttery popovers smeared with jam. If the park is too far to reach this year, here's the recipe so you can make the popovers at home.

People like lists. No, check that, they love them. Particularly when they disagree with them and think they have a better list. So, here's my personal Top 10 list of national parks. How does it match up with yours?

You can add the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees to the groups that are concerned about efforts by U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop to dismantle many of the nation's environmental laws in the name of border security.

Spring has reached Acadia National Park, where officials plan to open the Park Loop Road and Hulls Cove Visitor Center on April 15th.

White-nose syndrome, a disease deadly to bats, has been detected in both Acadia and Great Smoky Mountains national parks.

It's a good sign of spring, and a great sign that a once-endangered species is doing well: the return of nesting peregrine falcons to Acadia National Park has led to the temporary closures of the Precipice and Valley Cove Cliffs areas of the park.

When one thinks of national parks, visions of natural scenery at places such as Mount Rushmore, Old Faithful at Yellowstone, and El Capitan at Yosemite come to mind. Perhaps the furthest thing from a person’s mind is a vision of a classroom; but the fact is that national parks and historic sites are a perfect environment for visitors of all ages to learn

Though national parks, per se, haven't come up during any of the debates among the Republican presidential candidates, their statements on federal lands in general look down upon the public landscape.

Acadia National Park is now accepting applications for interns for its education programs, which provide hands-on experience working with 3rd-8th grade school groups.

National parks often are the setting for some incredible traffic issues, be they related to "bison jams," lack of parking, or simply high visitation. To help parks find solutions to some of these problems, the National Park Foundation has offered a program that places transportation experts in the parks to brainstorm solutions.

I lowered my binoculars and muttered, “Oh, it’s just another eagle.” With that statement I recognized a few years ago that I officially had started taking Bald Eagles for granted.

Millions of dollars are flowing to the National Park System for work on aging roads and multiple-use trails in need of some TLC, and transportation systems thanks to the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in the Parks program overseen by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Much time has been spent discussing ways to engage youth with the national parks. At Acadia National Park, staff worked with Friends of Acadia to bring a team of teenagers into the park last summer to work on how technology could enhance a visitor's experience in the park, without replacing any of the traditional interpretation methods.

Earlier this month, while we were having positively spring-like weather here in the Midwest, I wrote about Snowy Owls, the most iconic of winter birds. Two weeks later, my world is buried under blankets of snow and I’m in the mood to talk about Spring.

Acadia National Park is surrounded by water and much of its history and resources relate to its maritime location. It should be no surprise, then, that there are many shipwrecks in the waters around the park.

When Congress returns to Washington later this month, watch for Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee to resume a push to exempt the Border Patrol from a wide variety of environmental and National Park Service regulations.

After 15 years at Friends of Acadia, the last four as president and chief executive officer, Marla O'Byrne is stepping down, a career move that opens up a wonderful position at a great national park.

The United States has been invaded. None of the presidential candidates are talking about it and I haven’t even seen it mentioned on the national news reports yet. Birders, however, are well aware of this invasion and we welcome our new owl overlords.

We managed to get out on some national park trails during 2011 -- not as many as we'd like, but still a few that brought smiles to our faces. Here's a look back at those trails.

Don't overlook the good work of the various friends groups that strive to bring a little extra to the national parks scattered throughout the country.

A 3,200-acre tract of raw, wild land next to a section of Acadia National Park once planned for development as an "eco-resort" has been purchased by a company that intends to work to see the land preserved.

Acadia National Park will hold a holiday open house at the Jordan Pond Gate Lodge on Saturday, December 17, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Just because winter is on its way and the weather is turning gray and colder, that doesn't mean there aren't great places to enjoy in the National Park System. Here are some random suggestions.

If I only lived closer to Acadia National Park, the annual pass sale being held in December would be a heckuva deal.

America is abundantly rich in the "natural assets" found within the National Park System, but inadequate funding by Congress is threatening the core health of that system, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.