Along its 3,100 miles that wind from the Canadian border down to Mexico, the Continental Divide Trail is one of the most rugged, and in parts one of the most visually spectacular, hiking trails in the country. Now the U.S. Forest Service says the route could be opened in places to mountain bikes, which raises a question of possible impacts to national parks.
In this final installment of our three-part series on visiting national parks by train, we'll take a look at some options for trips in the central and western United States.
Often we think of national parks as sanctuaries of sorts for wildlife, whether it be grizzlies, trumpeter swans, or fish. But sometimes it might be more accurate to view parks as offering many native species a last stand against extinction. That just might be the case with bull trout and Glacier National Park.
More money is heading to Glacier National Park to help with the rebuild of the Going-to-the-Sun Road. However, that road construction means you'll be spending some time mired in construction delays while crossing the 50-mile-long road next year.
Bears jams are pretty cool. The first time you're stuck in one. They get old kinda quickly. Which is one reason why the folks at Glacier National Park are developing a wildlife viewing plan for the Many Glacier area.
Fall can be a downright gorgeous time to take a hike in a national park. The air is crisp, the bugs are gone, the crowds have vanished, and the landscape is gorgeous. Just don't forget that the bears are trying to put on some extra calories to get through the winter. And a hungry bear can be an ornery bear.
A popular TV show has confirmed that many adults are not smarter than a 5th grader, but surely humans are smarter than ground squirrels. The following tale from Glacier National Park offers a good test of that hypothesis.
Yellowstone. Canyonlands. Voyageurs. Grand Canyon. Great Smoky Mountains. Glacier. Surprising as it is, none of those parks has so much as a single acre of officially designated wilderness.
Wouldn't it be great to make a living as a photographer who focuses primarily on national parks? That's Ian Shive's life these days. If you recall, he recently published a book of some of his park images. This short video provides more insight into his work in the parks. It definitely makes one envious.
It's that time of year: Crisp air, occasional snows, that autumnal scent of dried leaves, and the bugling of elk in the Rockies. And the annual warning from Glacier National Park officials to hunters that they can't hunt in the park or pursue game into the park without the assistance of a ranger.
Whether the health of Glacier National Park and its Canadian neighbor, Waterton Lakes National Park, is at risk from proposed mining operations in British Columbia is a question being probed this week by a team of international experts.
The newly designated Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail will link three national parks, seven national forests, several major mountain ranges, and two border-to border national scenic trails. One day it will also be a key link in the coast-to-coast pathway that trail developers have been dreaming about.
The United States Mint has released the list of 56 sites to be featured in the upcoming America the Beautiful Quarters Program. The first five coins in the new series will be released next year. What locations made the list? There are some familiar names and perhaps a surprise or two.
Experiencing our national parks’ grandeur from the saddle of a road bike is a bit like summiting a high peak. The arduous pedal through the park is rewarded with the scenery and equally thrilling descent from the park roads’ high points. Fall is sublime for cycling in national parks, so with the season quickly approaching, now is the time to experience the Mountain West’s greatest national park road cycling routes.
Fall can be a fantastic season to experience Glacier National Park, what with the crisp air, wildlife on the move, color streaking the forests, and crowds somewhere else. But road construction on the Going-to-the-Sun Road could complicate things for even the savviest traveler.
The 1980 movie “Heaven’s Gate,” a mega-flop filmed in Glacier National Park, was so wretched that it destroyed the director’s reputation, helped extinct United Artists, and sent Hollywood westerns to the doghouse.
Quite a few U.S. national parks are listed as World Heritage Sites, and they're often in the news. There's a handy website out there run by the National Park Service's Office of International Affairs that can help you stay abreast of issues involving this sites.
It's hard to believe, particularly since Labor Day Weekend is a week later than normal this year, but the closing of many concession operations in Glacier National Park isn't that far off. It seemed just yesterday that they finally were able to open the Going-to-the-Sun Road from end-to-end, and now the prospect of snows closing it back down isn't too terribly far off.
A young grizzly that Glacier National Park officials had hoped to send off to a zoo died from a lacerated jugular vein somehow sustained during an attempt to tranquilize the bear, officials said Monday.
A 67-year-old hiker in Glacier National Park was killed when he fell about 300 feet while hiking in the backcountry not far from Many Glacier, park officials said Sunday.
The National Park Service's National Leadership Council met in Ohio last week. The meeting of the agency's top management was supposed to be the first under the direction of Jon Jarvis as Park Service director. Political gamesmanship, and apparently a dose of bureaucracy, unfortunately left Mr. Jarvis wearing his Pacific West Region director's hat.
If ever there was an enduring symbol of the wildness of the Rocky Mountains, it would be the wolverine. While wolves and grizzly bears usually come to mind when talk turns to the Rockies’ animals that conjure images of the wild, the diminutive wolverine possesses a legendary reputation for toughness, resilience, and, some would say, cantankerousness.
A grizzly sow that had come to view humans as a source of food in Glacier National Park has been killed by rangers, who also accidentally killed one of her yearling cubs when they tried to tranquilize it. The killings Monday brought to a close a long-running effort by park rangers to get the sow and her two cubs to rely on their natural food sources and to avoid backcountry travelers.
Nature can be a great equalizer for predator and prey. That was clearly demonstrated earlier this year in Glacier National Park, where an apparent avalanche swept an attacking mountain lion and its bighorn sheep prey to their deaths. Note: The accompanying images are graphic and might not be appropriate for everyone.
Natural events — wildfires, floods, windstorms — often leave behind obvious marks on the landscapes they touch. Charred trees and scorched meadows, washed out trails, and swaths of fallen trees are some of the reminders of these powerful forces. The impacts wrought by other naturally occurring events and cycles are not always so easy to discern.
A grizzly bear sow who has no fear of humans, and who seems to be teaching her cubs not to be afraid of them, will be removed from Glacier National Park, Superintendent Chas Cartwright has announced.
A team of international scientists will visit Glacier National Park and its northern neighbor, Waterton Lakes National Park, in September to study risks that might be posed by coal mining in British Columbia not far from the parks.
Glacier National Park officials have received approval to move forward with a plan to remove non-native lake trout from Quartz Lake. Now the hard work begins.
Rip van Winkle he wasn't, but a 13-year-old kayaker who capsized on Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park might have been found sooner had he not fallen asleep in a hollow log once he reached shore.
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