Safety

According to research published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire, Yosemite is likely to see about a 20% increase in both the number of fires and the area of land which burns at high intensity, from 2020-2049.Read more...

With the general rifle season opening on Sunday for big game across Montana, state and federal agencies are urging hunters to be bear aware. Yellowstone National Park, the Forest Service and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks each issued the same statement urging people to be cautious during this time of year, when black and grizzly bears are actively feeding before denning for the winter.

Weekend vacationers, hunters and traveling tourists be forewarned: Road closure season is here. Several popular high-elevation routes in Rocky Mountain National Park and Roosevelt National Forest are now closed off for the season.In Rocky Mountain National Park, Fall River Road is gated off for the season, park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said.

Park rangers say two popular routes through Yosemite National Park are closed for the second time this month because of snow and icy weather. Tioga Road, the highest elevation route through the Sierra Nevada, closed Monday to all traffic. Glacier Point Road, one of the park's popular sightseeing paths, is also closed as a storm passes through the region. The two scenic roads also closed due to snowfall in the first week of October, and rangers are evaluating whether they will open again this season.

The ripest recipe for trouble in a national park? Young men hiking on a weekend who make a bad decision or two and end up hurt, exhausted or lost. On average, 11 search-and-rescue operations are launched in national parks every day. While expenses average around $900, the price can easily jump into the thousands of dollars, according to a new analysis of search-and-rescue operations over 15 years.

The season is definitely changing at Yosemite National Park, where the Half Dome cables have been removed for the season, and where snow and ice are causing temporary road closures. The cables, which enable hikers to summit the majestic granite dome, are taken down each fall and replaced in the spring. Hikers are strongly cautioned against attempting to scale Half Dome while the cables are down.

This just in: Bears (at least, Yosemite National Park's black bears) view your minivan as one big, delicious pic-a-nic basket. A new report in the Journal of Mammalogy has the details of data collected on bear-related vehicle break-ins -- more than 900 of them -- between 2001 and 2007 at Yosemite. Researchers broke the incidents down by vehicle type, comparing the break-in data with available statistics on the types of vehicles that entered the park.

The National Park Service has approved a plan to restrict snowmobile numbers in Yellowstone National Park to less than half of last winter's limit. The park on Thursday announced daily limits that will allow up to 318 snowmobiles and up to 78 snowcoaches per day in the park for the next two winter seasons. The park has allowed up to 720 snowmobiles a day into the park over the past five winters, but actual use has been far less.

An ultralight-plane crash sent a man to the hospital with broken bones after he spent the night in Zion National Park Saturday night. The ultralight craft he was flying with his son crashed around 6:15 p.m., said park ranger Therese Picard. Neither their names nor hometowns were released. The father, who is in his 60s, broke his ankle and arm in the crash, and the son sustained minor injuries, said Ron Terry, Zion National Park public information officer.

 As wildlife advocates mourned the plane-crash death of Gordon Haber, the biologist who spent 40 years documenting the lives and societies of Denali's wolves, his pilot was recovering Friday in a burn center in Seattle after hiking 20 miles back to civilization.Details of the crash and rescue operation in the heart of Denali National Park emerged Friday, two days after the Cessna 185 used by Haber crashed in spruce trees near the East Fork of the Toklat River, the locale of one of the wolf packs Haber was studying.