Glacier National Park

A massive avalanche, one not seen in Glacier National Park in decades, roared down the "Garden Wall" in January and took out nearly 550 feet of stone retaining wall along the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Another summer is almost here, and with it, the opportunity for those who work in parks to field some excellent questions from visitors. Along the way, those rangers and volunteers will also undoubtedly encounter a few new candidates for the wacky question of the week.

There's expected to be better access in Glacier National Park this weekend thanks to the hard-working plow crews, and, as a result, campgrounds are slowly beginning to open.

The historic Many Glacier Chalet at Glacier National Park was damaged by a fire on Sunday, May 3, 2009. The building was saved thanks to prompt response from a nearby volunteer fire department.

While federal regulations prohibit bear spray in national parks outside of Alaska, park superintendents have the authority to override that ban within their parks, according to officials at Grand Teton National Park.

"Bear spray" long has been recommended by national parks in the West as a great deterrent against grizzly and black bears. A check of the Code of Federal Regulations, though, shows those parks just might be encouraging you to break the law.

When you think about threats to national parks, you can point to air pollution, water pollution, development on a park's boundaries, and genetic bottlenecks affecting a park's wildlife. But few people seem to think about climate change. Well, the National Parks Conservation Association wants you to start thinking about it.

Glacier National Park's Apgar Transit Center has received the U.S. Green Building Council's gold certificate for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for its "pioneering example of sustainable design."

You could call it a postage stamp-sized history of the National Park System, but the history of park scenes on U.S. postage is really quite colorful and carries a few stories with it.

Deane Lengkeek wasn’t carrying a concealed weapon when he was attacked and mauled by a grizzly bear in Glacier National Park. His wife Lorraine was wearing a bra, though, and that made all the difference.

They've unleashed the snowplows in Glacier National Park, which means it shouldn't be too terribly long before the Going-to-the-Sun Road is once again open end-to-end.

In a sign of how difficult it can be to overturn mistakes in national parks, crews in Yellowstone National Park are moving into their second decade of fighting non-native lake trout in Yellowstone Lake, where they're threatening to wipe out the lake's native cutthroat trout population. Now Glacier National Park has its own lake trout battle.

If you've ever headed to Logan Pass in Glacier National Park, more than likely the first stop you made was to the restrooms at the visitor center. If so, you're well aware of the updating they need. And so you'll appreciate the effort by Glacier National Park officials to improve that situation.

In light of the weak economy, should it be any surprise that lodging deals are starting to materialize in the national parks? At Glacier National Park, for instance, you can find lodging discounts up to 40 percent per night for visits this coming June.

In the case at hand, the dogs could hunt. They just didn't know they weren't supposed to go into Glacier National Park in their pursuit of mountain lions.

Some deadly diseases you’ve never heard of lurk in our national parks. It's extremely unlikely that you'll ever be infected, but the odds are not zero. And if you are among of the unfortunate few, may the Good Lord have mercy on you.

How many national park rangers does it take to cut down a tree? Well, before you can answer that question, you need to prepare a 100+ page document that not only identifies which trees need to be cut down, but explains how to go about cutting them down.

Winter is one of the easiest seasons to follow the movements of wildlife in the national parks. Not only can their every move be captured in the snow, but on rare occasions you can follow the interplay between animals.

The impending change of rules that would allow national park visitors to arm themselves stands a good chance of being placed in limbo, if not overturned, by legal challenges in the coming weeks and months. But if that doesn't happen, it'll be interesting to see how many gun owners actually follow the rules.

One of the "crown jewels" of the national park system will celebrate its centennial in 2010, and when you're talking about planning a celebration of that magnitude, there's plenty of work to do. Glacier National Park is off to a great start in that regard, and you may want to know about upcoming deadlines for some activities that are already underway.

Programs to lure youngsters into the parks. "Healthy Kids/Healthy Parks." Research to gauge the impact of visitation on park natural resources. Restoration work. These are just some of the projects that your taxable donations allowed to occur across the National Park System in 2008.

While most often we hear about fish, bird, or animal species needing Endangered Species Act protection, today a group is asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to extend that protection to a tree, the whitebark pine.

It got cheaper this week to visit Glacier National Park. But not because the National Park Service is rolling back its entrance fees. Not exactly, that is. At Glacier, the fees automatically drop when the park moves into the winter season.

Glacier National Park includes just over a million acres of superlative Rocky Mountain terrain, and the park offers an interesting combination of front-country access and backcountry solitude in what has been called "the core of the Crown of the Continent ecosystem." Glacier will celebrate its centennial on May 11, 2010, and some supporters are saying it's time to finally formalize wilderness designation for key portions of the park.