Millions of motorists enjoy the Blue Ridge Parkway every year, but most have never heard of Stanley W. Abbott. That’s a shame. Abbott was the young landscape architect who threaded the road through the mountains and made it a scenic-recreational masterpiece.

To encourage eco-friendly operations, the National Park Service presents Environmental Achievement Awards each year to parks and concession companies that have excelled in incorporating high environmental standards into their operations. The 2007 awards were presented to Blue Ridge Parkway, Yosemite National Park, Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts, and Xanterra Parks & Resorts.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the busiest of the flagship National Parks, reports 5% lower visitation at its main entrances and anticipates 250,000 fewer visitors this year. The related decline in visitor-based income and tax revenues has area businesses, employees, and governments fretting.

With ginseng fetching record high prices, illegal harvesting has increased in Blue Ridge Parkway and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This is a serious federal crime. Convicted ginseng poachers get hefty fines and jail time.

National Geographic might be considered a gold standard authority on national parks. Why, then, is a hilariously flawed “10 Best National Parks” list included in a recently published National Geographic book? Is NG testing us to see if we’re paying attention?

It's been roughly six decades since the Blue Ridge Parkway's general management plan was tinkered with, so it shouldn't be too great a surprise that parkway officials are working on an update. However, what parkway officials are proposing might not sit well with everyone.

The National Park Service has a cumbersome conundrum on its hands at the Blue Ridge Parkway, where the agency is grappling with how to preserve scenic vistas along the 469-mile-long road while not making further inroads on habitat critical for the Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel.

A hallmark of driving the Blue Ridge Parkway - and most national park roads - has always been the rustic stone or wood guard rails that line the roadway. But now, that could all change.

During 2006, 11 homicides were investigated across the national park system. Two involved women who had been pushed off cliffs, one was a suicide, and one was the victim of a DUI accident.

When President Roosevelt lent his support to creation of the Blue Ridge Parkway—75 years ago in 2010—he envisioned the half-a-thousand mile ridge-top route between Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains as the East’s premier national park experience.

Along with "parks," "seashores," "lakeshores" and "battlefields," the National Park System counts a number of "parkways" that fall under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. Though most are incredibly scenic byways, there also are two major metropolitan arterials in this collection.

Another $100,000 has been given by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation to the Blue Ridge Parkway for use in educating students who live along the 469-mile-long scenic byway about the wonders of the national park system.

With Fall officially under way, it won't be too long before the season's most spectacular colors are daubed, stroked, and splashed across the national park system. The good news is that you haven't missed the peak yet. The bad news is that if you don't already have a room reservation, you probably won't find a vacancy in any of the well-known fall foliage parks.

I'm sure we all get the message this sign is trying to convey, it's just that it looks pretty silly! Can't you just imagine that rider saying "weeeeee"?

Ever wonder what the most visited parks in the system are? How about least visited? The NPS office of statistics answers this question once a year with an ordered, ranked table cataloging recreation visits to each of the NPS managed units across the USA. So, what is the most visited park? Read on for the answer.