If Boston’s Fenway Park is, as advertised, America’s “most beloved” baseball venue, it’d have to be affection of the warts-and-all variety. For sheer beauty, you’d have to go with Fenway’s only plausible competition for the title of most beloved: Chicago’s Wrigley Field, with its elegant, jewel-box design and ivy-covered outfield walls. Fenway, on the other…
A former school that was built in west Texas for Mexican and Mexican American students during the era of "separate but equal" education has become the newest addition to the U.S. National Park System. Located in the desert town–turned–unlikely arts hub of Marfa (about 50 miles east of the Mexico border), the Blackwell School National…
The U.S. national park system responded to the coronavirus pandemic by becoming more like everything else in our lives: cumbersome and overcomplicated. Such is life in 2024. At least 9 of the coolest, most-visited reserves across the country (we list them here) now require would-be visitors to make advance reservations to access all or part…
Update: Amache officially became a Natonal Historic Site on February 15, 2024. Here is its official National Park unit page. Last Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the paperwork that created his first contribution to the National Park Service: the former Camp Amache in southeastern Colorado, about a three-hour drive from Colorado Springs. It was…
You could argue that Dolly Parton now fills the pop-cultural role once occupied by Mickey Mouse. After all, both figures are beloved, theme park–affiliated, and easy to recognize by voice or silhouette alone. But actually Parton probably has the edge on the Mouse, and not only because “Jolene” slaps infinitely harder than Mickey’s whistling in…
More than a quarter of the 425 sites managed by the U.S. National Park Service charge entrance fees, ranging in price from $10 to $35. But on a few select dates each year, the federal agency waives those charges and visitors get to enter every national park, monument, historical site, seashore, forest, or other preserve…
Three beloved long-distance hiking trails that pass through 10 American states just earned a federal upgrade, bringing the total number of U.S. national park units from 425 to 428.
Three networks of hiking trails have been added to the National Park Service, the highest designation for public…
Ask any theme park aficionado to list all the things you can do during a day at Walt Disney World near Orlando, and you'll hear the resort's inventory rattled off as easily as the alphabet: four theme parks, two water-slide parks, a huge shopping district, a sports center, and more than 20 resort hotels. Not…
You might have seen some breathless proclamation this week about Walt Disney World's newly announced freebie. "Guests staying at Disney World’s resort hotels to get free water park entry," USA Today trumpeted. Yeah, about that. There's a huge catch that will keep most vacationers from being able to use the offer. It's true that Disney…
Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park on Aug. 8, 2020. Darwin Fan | Moment | Getty Images Visitors to national parks will get free admission on April 20 as the federal government waives entrance fees to commemorate the start of National Park Week. National Park Week runs for nine days, from April 20 to April…