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The National Park Service is developing an environmental assessment to evaluate impacts related to future concessions operations at Kings Canyon National Park, which includes Grant Grove and Cedar Grove.Current facilities at Grant Grove include a restaurant, gift shop, lodge, shower and laundry facilities, grocery store, and concession employee housing. Current facilities at Cedar Grove include a restaurant, gift shop/grocery store, lodge, shower and laundry facilities and concessionaire-employee housing.

Nothing against Mammoth Lakes, but Zion National Park is quickly becoming my favorite long-weekend hiking destination. After a failed attempt at conquering Angels Landing in May, we returned to the park a few weeks ago, this time to tackle the Virgin River Narrows — a.k.a. Zion Narrows. It definitely ranked as one of our all-time best hikes.

The National Mall and Memorial Parks announced today, on the 146th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, the launch of a new website called “Lincoln Memorial Interactive.” The new site unites our nation’s heritage and the American experience with cutting-edge technology in unprecedented clarity and ease-of-access.  Stirring podcasts, accessible on the site, capture the unique and powerful personal connections that some of the National Mall’s park rangers ha

Highway 89, the main road through Lassen Volcanic National Park, has closed for the winter. The road is closed from the Kohm Yah-mah-nee visitor center at the southwest entrance to the park to to Manzanita Lake at the northwest entrance. The Kohm Yah-mah-nee center will be open all winter, as is the Southeast Walk-In Campground. A couple of loops of the Manzanita Lake Campground are still open, but will be closed imminently by snow. Water has already been turned off at that campground.

A $75,000 grant will help Mount Rainier National Park operate its shuttle bus system next year and pay for a study to improve the efficiency of the park’s fleet of vehicles. The money came from a grant awarded Monday by The Boeing Company Charitable Trust to Washington’s National Park Fund.Next season will be the fifth the park has operated the most recent version of its shuttle system, first started because of construction at Paradise.

All the National Park Service properties in NYC are always free. The last one to charge a fee, the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site, dropped its $3 admission charge as of Oct. 1.

National park employees are at work here this week closing off abandoned mine shafts. In the current phase of mine closures, National Park Service employees will close 11 holes at eight sites while contractors will close 29 holes at an additional 14 sites throughout the park. “Before a site is selected for closure, an extensive review process is conducted including a mapping and photo survey to ensure cultural sites are not disturbed and there is minimal impact to adjacent plant and animal life,” Luke Sabala, abandoned mine land coordinator, said.

A rule implementing a new plan to provide for limited, regulated snowmobile and snowcoach access in Yellowstone National Park for the next two winters will be published in the Federal Register on Friday, November 20. This interim rule allows up to 318 commercially guided, Best Available Technology (BAT) snowmobiles, and up to 78 commercially guided snowcoaches per day in Yellowstone for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 winter seasons. It also continues to provide for motorized oversnow travel over Sylvan Pass and the East Entrance road.

Olympic National Forest's Motor Vehicle Use Map, one that identifies routes available for motor vehicle use, has been published and soon will be available to the public, free of charge. The map was created in response to a national forest service rule that requires designation of roads and trails for passenger vehicle and off-highway vehicle use. The routes correspond with those in Olympic National Forest's 1990 Forest Plan, which prohibits cross country travel of off-road vehicles on forest roads but allows off-road motorcycles on the following trails:

Congressman Sam Farr received an assist Tuesday from documentary maker Ken Burns in pitching national park status for the Pinnacles National Monument. Farr read from a letter from Burns supporting the elevated stature for the 26,000-acre Pinnacles during a hearing before the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.

"I have a StairMaster right in my own basement, but honestly it's been there for years gathering dust and making me feel guilty," said Miriam, one of my patients. "It wasn't until I started walking the three-mile trail in the park near my house that I got serious about exercising. I do it now rain or shine. I love the fresh air. The best part is that I get a great workout and don't even mind sweating."

Twenty-three bison from Wind Cave National Park recently arrived at their new home in northern Mexico. El Uno Ecological Reserve, a 46,000 acre reserve managed by The Nature Conservancy - Mexico, is the herd's new home. The reserve is in the northern Janos Valley in the State of Chihuahua. The bison are part of a cooperative effort between the two countries to restore bison to their historical range in Mexico.

Many ice climbs in Colorado are close to the road and have short approaches that take no more than a half hour. In Ouray, for instance, you pretty much belay out of your car, which is why it's so popular with ice climbers who moved into it from sport climbing, where approaches are anathema. Ice climbing has, it seems, forgotten its alpine mountaineering roots somewhere.

Gatlinburg is aglow with holiday spirit as Winter Magic takes to the streets of downtown. Follow the holiday lights to an enchanting, four-month celebration of winter and the holiday season, perfect for the whole family.

A new partnership will fight the spread of Russian olive and other invasive weeds on private and public lands in southern Utah's Escalante River watershed. The Escalante River Watershed Partnership was formed in June. Using seed money from the National Park Foundation the group will work to combat the spread of Russian olive. The plant absorbs large amounts of water and creates impenetrable thickets along streams. It also pushes out native plants that provide habitat for other plants and animals.