Natchez Trace Parkway

There is nothing as traditional as camping out in the national parks for summer vacation. Reserving a campsite on www.recreation.gov can lock in a site long before you hit the road, but sometimes you just don’t get around to doing that. So what to do?

Traveler's 2nd Annual Essential Friends + Gateways publication, a collaboration between the Traveler and a core group of national park foundations, cooperating associations, trusts, friends groups, and gateway communities, is aimed at enhancing and furthering the now nationally significant role of these organizations and entities in the preservation and enjoyment of our parks.

Just in time for National Park Week -- Traveler's 2013 magazine Essential Friends + Gateways! Flip through 50+ pages of full-color features celebrating national parks, their increasingly indispensable friends' groups—along with great park gateways and the local insight and travel tips you need to savor summer in the country's top national parks.

Longer grass, fewer rangers, and shorter operational hours are materializing along the Natchez Trace Parkway as National Park Service managers cope with budget cuts implemented by the failure of the White House and Congress to correct the country's fiscal footing.

National Park Service sites are great places to enjoy watching wildlife, so it pays to be alert for unusual birds and animals during any park visit. Even the most avid bird-watcher would have been surprised, however, by sightings last month of three adult whooping cranes at the Natchez Trace Parkway.

Considering a drive down the 444-mile-long Natchez Trace Parkway this year? There's a brand new guide out there to help you plan your journey.

Fall colors are starting to hit their stride in the East, with colorful displays from Acadia National Park down into Alabama and Mississippi. If you live in the South, a ride along the Natchez Trace Parkway will offer you a kaleidoscope of fall foliage.

Spring is showing up in more and more corners of the country, which means it's a perfect time to check out what's blooming in the National Park System. Here's a quick list of some reliable sites to catch wildflowers in the weeks ahead.

Few units of the National Park System are open to hunting, but there are fears that legislation now working its way through Congress could clear the way for hunting across dozens of parks in the system.

On April 26th and 27th, a 300-mile stretch of the Natchez Trace Parkway was impacted by several major storm systems that inflicted heavy property damage and killed a camper in his tent.

The more than 200 national parks established to preserve nationally significant cultural-historical resources "tell America's story" by interpreting about ten broad themes that increase our awareness and understanding of what American culture is and how it got that way.

Jim Bunning, Kentucky's contrary U.S. senator, singlehandedly has shut down road construction projects across the nation, including many in national parks, because he doesn't want to help middle-class families weather the economic storm, U.S. Department of Transportation officials said Monday.

The National Park Service is using economic stimulus funds to make extensive improvements to the Meriwether Lewis Site on Natchez Trace Parkway.

Fall is officially here in the northern hemisphere, and for many travelers that means getting outdoors to enjoy the weather—and some fall color. Most of us are familiar with areas that are justifiably famous for their annual display of red and yellow leaves, so here are a few suggestions for some lesser-known options.

Famed explorer Meriwether Lewis is said to have committed suicide while overnighting at an inn along the old Natchez Trail in 1809. Many skeptics, however, believe he was slain. The Lewis descendants want his remains exhumed for examination, but the Park Service won’t allow it.

Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site celebrates its 80th birthday today. The battle fought there in June 1864 yielded a Confederate victory that was tactically brilliant but strategically wanting.

George Washington may not have slept here, but Davy Crockett, Andrew Jackson and plenty of other notables passed this way. A fall trip on the Natchez Trace Parkway provides a leisurely drive through a colorful landscape.

Along with "parks," "seashores," "lakeshores" and "battlefields," the National Park System counts a number of "parkways" that fall under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. Though most are incredibly scenic byways, there also are two major metropolitan arterials in this collection.