On a clear day, you often can see for miles and miles. But as a report from the National Parks Conservation Association points out, clear days are harder and harder to find in our national parks under the Bush administration's relatively laissez-faire approach to coal-fired power plants.

A two-week search for a missing hiker in Yosemite National Park. A search for a missing snowshoer on Mount Rainier. Recovery of bodies from climbing accidents in Grand Teton National Park. A week-long, and unsuccessful, search for a missing 8-year-old at Crater Lake National Park. Each year, thousands of search-and-rescue missions cost the National Park Service millions of dollars. And each year the agency eats the costs.

We love our cars, we love our parks, and we love to drive our cars in the parks. Well, at least when the traffic isn’t too bad, and we really don’t mind just going along for the ride. The windshield touring season is nearly here, so it’s time to start thinking about park trips. All of the national parkways are recommended. Here are a dozen other traverses, loops, and shuttles that belong on your short list.

National Park Week is being celebrated this year from April 20 through April 26. Across the system there are dozens, if not hundreds, of special events planned. Here's a look at some of them.

Despite their curious name, “hellbenders” are not demons of the night but rather amphibious environmental monitors of Southeastern creeks and streams. Known to some old-timers as “walking catfish,” these super-sized salamanders gained the “hellbender” moniker for their freakish size and dark, moody color.

Four spelunkers who found themselves stranded in a cave in Great Smoky Mountains National Park were ill-prepared for their adventure.

Four cavers, said to be inexperienced, were found wet and cold but uninjured Friday in a cave in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Add Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the growing list of parks that are getting ready for their spring opening. In fact, many of the park's facilities open today, March 7.

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.

More than six decades after promising to build a road along the north shore of Fontana Lake in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the National Park Service has signed off on a deal to settle the matter with a cash payout of $52 million. Today's action brings an end to the long saga of the so-called "road to nowhere."

While the proverbial handwriting has been on the wall ever since former U.S. Representative Charlie Taylor lost his re-election bid last November, the National Park Service finally has officially come out against building the so-called "road to nowhere" in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

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.

Imagine taking the time to go into your backyard, or the nearby woods, or even a pond close to your home, to catalog all the life you found in it. Not just the deer or snakes or fish, but the birds and insects, reptiles, plants and fungi and everything else biological or botanic. Imagine how fascinating that would be. At Great Smoky Mountains National Park they've been working on just that, and what they've found has been incredible.

It took nearly a month, but all the trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park that were closed by the Buck Shank fire have been reopened.

How much would you pay to hike a trail in Shenandoah, or Great Smoky Mountains or Sequoia? What do you think is a reasonable fee to take a dip at Cape Cod or Cape Hatteras national seashores?