Canyonlands National Park

Great paddling adventures are ready to be had in the National Park System, whether you intend to spend just a few hours or a week or more on the water. Here's a look at some great choices for where to dip a paddle.

Summer brings a wealth of flowers to those parks that have enjoyed spring flowers like Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It also brings flowers to Rocky Mountain National Park and the parks in Alaska where the snow is just melting.

So many rivers and so many different paddling experiences can be found in the National Park System. So how do you figure out which one you want to float on your summer vacation?

If you want outdoor adventure in a Utah national park, but feel you don't have the necessary skills or local knowledge, it's time to call in a guide. Here's what you need to know to make the right choice.

Summer easily is the best time of year to get out and get sweaty in the National Park System, if only because the warmer weather makes more opportunities available. In time to help you plan your summer vacation, here's a potpourri of outdoor adventures in the parks.

It's soon going to cost private river groups a bit more to go padding in Canyonlands National Park.

As it continues to improve its web presence, the National Park Service has made it easier for you to find information on the parks in your state...as well as on other Park Service-related entities, such as properties on the national register, or wild and scenic rivers, or historic trails.

If all goes as planned, mountain bikers, hikers, and paddlers will once again be able to access the Green River and tie into the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park via the Mineral Bottom Road switchbacks late this month.

As the effects of climate change intensify in the Southwest, future visits to Arches and Canyonlands national parks could coincide with more dust storms than what currently is considered usual, according to a joint study by U.S. Geological Survey and University of California scientists.

If you ever wanted to wake up with a hot cup of coffee, tea, or even chai along the Green River as the sun glints off the cliffs of Dinosaur National Monument, or enjoy dinner along the Colorado River as it roars through Canyonlands National Park, you can do it this summer at a discount if you act soon.

Birding is one of the many popular activities in the National Park System, and by carrying your binoculars and perhaps a field guide to help you identify what you see, you quickly can expand your "life list" during a park visit. If you're a birder, where in the system do you go, and what are you looking for?

Arches National Park soon could have an official management plan to guide climbing and canyoneering in the park where the geology offers climbers a sprawling playground of options.

Here at the Traveler we'd like to warmly welcome two new organizations, and one old friend, back to our list of sponsors: Holiday River Expeditions, the North Cascades Institute, and the Yellowstone Association Institute.

OK, you've landed your permit for a float trip through Canyonlands National Park, or Dinosaur National Monument, and you're faced with creating a menu for a crowd of famished paddlers. Consider serving up "Big Drop Omelets" for breakfast!

If you've got some artistic flare, and a desire to spend some time in the high desert of southeastern Utah, now is the time to get your application in for the 2011 Community Artist in the Parks Program.

Hiking trails are one of the best ways to enjoy national parks. They lead you out into nature, get you some exercise, and quite often showcase some gorgeous vistas. Here's a look back at some of the great trails we've mentioned on the Traveler during the past 12 months.

The past year was very kind to me in terms of getting out to visit some of the incredible units of our National Park System. Here's a look back at a year in national parks.

Though summer draws the bulk of Bryce Canyon National Park's 1.2 million annual visitors, a strong argument can be made that winter is a more fascinating time to visit this red-rock icon. The sharp contrasts between fresh-fallen snow, cerulean skies, and the park's red-hued amphitheaters are spectacular. If you can manage a winter escape, here are some tips for touring Bryce Canyon.

Fresh off their Election Day tidal wave, and energized by it, Republican members of the House Natural Resources Committee are planning big changes for public lands in the West, changes that could greatly impact national parks.

During my recent hike in Shenandoah National Park along the Appalachian Trail, I came upon a tight crook in the trail that carried Ivy Creek downhill amid a flurry of gold, red, orange and yellow leaves of fall. There can be no more spectacular setting that the hardwood forests of the East. Unless it's set ablaze by the pastel daubs of spring wildflowers in places such as Glacier, Saquaro or Canyonlands national parks.

Baked by time like some multi-layer geologic tort, Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah features a landscape cut by canyons, rumpled by upthrusts, dimpled by grabens, and even pockmarked, some believe, by asteroids.

Human-produced dust, mostly from grazing and farming, settles on mountain snowpacks in the Upper Colorado River basin and significantly reduces runoff. Eliminating this "dirty snow" phenomenon, which impacts national parks as well as the regional economy, would require a huge reduction in soil-disturbing activities.

One of the best mountain bike adventures in the National Park System is the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park. However, a potent storm that swept through the park last month has washed out a section of the route and officials are not sure when it will reopen.

Former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has been appointed to the Board of Trustees of the National Parks Conservation Association, a somewhat curious, and likely controversial, move in light of his oversight of the national parks.

A powerful thunderstorm that raked Canyonlands National Park did substantial damage to routes along the famed White Rim and has stranded some vehicles at the bottom of the Mineral Bottom switchbacks, park officials said Friday.

Long a bone of contention between state, local and federal authorities when it comes to public lands access is a nearly 150-year-old law initially passed to help advance westward expansion. Now Interior Secretary Ken Salazar hopes a pilot program in Utah can generate a solution to R.S. 2477 controversies.

John Wessels, who has served as the National Park Service’s Intermountain Region associate director for administration, business and technology since 2004, has been named director of the region, the largest in the agency.

If you had the option of either traveling to Utah for a swing through its national parks, or to California to sample its national parks, which would you choose?