This week’s quiz deals with rivers flowing within or through the national parks. Answers are at the end. If we catch you peeking, we’ll make you write “Tributaries joining main streams at right angles is a signature feature of trellis drainage” 100 times on the whiteboard.

The 29th annual Bridge Day Festival that was held October 18 on New River Gorge Bridge attracted 155,000 people, including 383 BASE-jumpers. During the course of the day the jumpers collected 1,062 jumps, two fractures, and one impromptu trip (sans raft) through class IV whitewater. Will jumpers get more access to the bridge in the future?

In the predawn darkness of September 9, a 25-year old Ohio man leaped to his death from the New River Gorge Bridge at New River Gorge National River. In his car, investigators found a Mapquest map with directions from his home to the bridge. Like many before him, this victim had carefully planned to end his life at an architectural icon far from his home.

Congress is likely to authorize a national parks quarter dollar coin series. Emulating the popular 50 States Quarter® Program, the proposed series would issue five new park quarters per year beginning in 2010. Each state, territory, and the District of Columbia would be represented. Even Delaware.

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.