Kings Canyon National Park

The unseasonably dry winter in the High Sierra means some tough times in campgrounds this summer at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks in California.

After the unseasonably dry winter in the Sierra, it should come as no surprise that the fire danger is high and that Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks are instituting fire restrictions inside the parks beginning today.

Like to backpack? Then you might consider entering the 3rd annual Hike Big challenge at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks this summer.

Summer backpack trips and hikes are months away, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be making up gear lists in January or February. And if you're heading to a national park frequented by grizzly or black bears, you'd be wise to look into bear sprays.

A look at some newsworthy tidbits from around the National Park System.

After more than a week of searching on ground and from the air, the efforts to find a missing backpacker in Kings Canyon National Park in California have been suspended.

Ground crews, having searched extensively for a missing backpacker in the high country of Kings Canyon National Park, have been pulled from the effort, though aerial searching will continue for the time being, according to park officials.

A search for a missing backpacker in Kings Canyon National Park moved into its seventh day Tuesday, though so far the efforts have failed to turn up any trace of the man.

Searchers were expected Sunday to return to the high country of Kings Canyon National Park in their hunt for a California man who failed to return from his backpacking trip on schedule last Monday.

Snow, possibly more than a foot on the ground, is hampering efforts to find an overdue backpacker who might be in the high country of Kings Canyon National Park.

How best to manage wilderness areas in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks will be the topic for public conversation come October, when the parks seek input on preliminary draft alternatives for their Wilderness Stewardship Plan.

While a ban on fires at Rocky Mountain National Park has been lifted, fire restrictions have been imposed at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks due to dry conditions.

Plop…plop…splash!" Have you ever heard this sound -- a frog hopping in or out of water -- or seen a frog or tadpole? Imagine not hearing this sound in a place where you did in the past? Wouldn't that be strange?

Seven mules and two horses owned by the National Park Service for use in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks recently were discovered dead in their winter pasture, apparently due to the failure of a "remote watering system."

Bears are part of the package if you travel to the High Sierra parks -- Sequoia, Kings Canyon, or Yosemite -- and you should know what to expect and how to react if you encounter one this summer.

Here are the best national park campgrounds, according to the Traveler's lodging experts, David and Kay Scott, who actually spend more time in a tent than you might imagine!

The current concessions contract for Kings Canyon National Park runs out at year's end, and the National Park Service recently issued its contract prospectus for businesses interested in bidding for the operations.

Legislation that clears the way for the National Park Service to resume issuing permits for commercial horse pack trips in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks headed Friday to President Obama for his signature.

Moving with amazing speed, the House of Representatives today passed on a voice vote legislation designed to permit commercial horsepackers to operate in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks this summer as usual. The bill still needs to be considered by the Senate, however.

Republican leadership in the House of Representatives could resolve the horse-packing stalemate at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks through a legislative initiative, according to California Democrats.

Armed with a ruling that the National Park Service violated The Wilderness Act in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks with the way it managed horse pack trips, a hikers association now wants the judge to order the agency to rein-in the pack trips.

More than 40 years after deciding that they would ban the use of stock animals in the high country of Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, park officials have both failed to do so and have been found in violation of The Wilderness Act for failing to assess the environmental impact of the animals.

Millions of dollars are flowing to the National Park System for work on aging roads and multiple-use trails in need of some TLC, and transportation systems thanks to the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in the Parks program overseen by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

An ambitious look at how to improve the concessions available at Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park has come to disappointing conclusion: The Park Service can't afford to make all of the proposed changes, and so will focus on only one aspect of the initial proposal.

A search for a man overdue in the backcountry of Kings Canyon National Park was resolved when the man hiked out of the park on his own, park officials said Sunday.

A small group of men and women hold one of the most highly sought after jobs in the National Park Service, but the work is also some of the most challenging anywhere in the country. This year the Arrowhead Hotshots celebrate 30 years of service as one of the elite wildland fire crews in the U.S.A.

Whitebark pine trees, a foundation species that grows high in the upper reaches of parks such as Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier, Yosemite, and Kings Canyon, is in need of Endangered Species Act protection from climate change, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

A California congressman and a coalition of environmental groups are calling for management of the Giant Sequoia National Monument to be transferred from the U. S. Forest Service to the National Park Service. The debate highlights the long-standing confusion for many Americans about terms such as "national monument" as well as differences in the mission and management approach of the Forest Service and Park Service.