The lodge at Bryce Canyon National Park is a classic, dating back to the 1920s. A modern sprinkler system and quick work by firefighters helped avert a potential catastrophe when a fire broke out last week at the historic structure.

While the view down into the ruddy and tawny maw of Bryce Canyon National Park is pretty spectacular, you should try looking up at the park's colorful ramparts! And one of the best places to enjoy this view is along the park's lone long-distance backcountry trail, the 23-mile-long Under-the-Rim Trail that rises and falls down along the floor of the park, an area that few folks actually get to see because they prefer not to hoist a pack on their back.

If you're flexible enough to take a fall trip to some of the iconic national parks in the Western United States, there are a number of lodges that are reporting late-season availability. Lodges in Yellowstone, Bryce Canyon, Crater Lake, Grand Canyon, and Death Valley national parks all show some rooms available during the months of September and October.

A shift in concessions management is coming at Bryce Canyon National Park, where the National Park Service has granted to Forever Resorts a 10-year contract for lodging, dining, and retail operations long held by Xanterra Parks & Resorts.

Shuttle bus systems are growing in popularity as one way to reduce the impacts of private vehicles on parks—and on the experience of visitors. Here's a look at some of those systems at NPS sites around the country.

Touring Bryce Canyon National Park this summer will be easier than ever thanks to free daily tours the park is offering on the Bryce Canyon Shuttle. And if you're a backpacker, this is a great way to catch a ride to the trailhead and then back to your car.

One of the best star shows in the National Park System is just a few weeks off. This year's Astronomy Festival at Bryce Canyon National Park, the ninth annual, will not only feature gazing at night skies but also model rocketry and a variety of talks on night skies and nocturnal animals.

Today practically all you need to say is "Bryce Canyon" to create a colorful mental picture of this Southwestern gem of the National Park System. But back in the early 1900s when a travelogue of the park was filmed, the color had to be in the narrative.

If you were lucky enough to be in Bryce Canyon National Park on Tuesday, you would have been surrounded by one of the prettiest days of the year, as these photos clearly show.

How much have the national parks changed since you were a kid? Have they changed? When you return to a park that you haven't been to in decades, is it like returning to an old friend, or visiting someplace totally alien?

Though covering fewer than 36,000 acres -- and most folks simply gaze down on most of that acreage -- Bryce Canyon National Park carries the impact of a park much, much larger.

Sweeping panoramas, fluted slot canyons and fossilized sand dunes are among the subjects that Jon Ortner brings into focus with Canyon Wilderness of the Southwest, an expansive coffee table book.

It was just about a year ago that I wrote about the invasion of "GPS Rangers" into the national parks. Back then I wasn't so keen on this hand-held electronic tour gizmo, but there does seem to be a hidden blessing in it.

It took more than a year, but crews at Bryce Canyon National Park have been able to reopen the Navajo Loop Trail, which had been closed by a rock slide in May 2006.

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.