The NPS publishes a "Morning Report" available on the web. I check it daily. Gives a good quick snap of what is happening in the NPS. Also, unfortunatly, there are a number of deaths reported. Many would have survived if they had been a bit better trained.

It is easy to see why the NPS and others in charge of "wild areas" are beginning to clamp down on back country travel. Seems like what we "old folks" learned as kids is not being passed on. As people become more "civilized" they become less familiar with the outback, and thereby become more at risk, which makes those in charge limit access even more, which makes people less familiar with the outback which makes the people in charge....etc.... <rant off>

Check this url:

http://data2.itc.nps.gov/morningreport/

Nomad.

Nomad, Thanks for Providing your NPS Morning Report. I had just got to Checking it Out in some Depth now. I have a Good, Longstanding Intesrest in our National Parks, as Well as of our Great American West in General!

SOME TOPMOST NATIONAL PARKS,-

I've Got to Mention some of my Very Favorite, -"Yearn to Someday Go To!", of National Parks!

Topping my List has to be Crater Lake, Oregon! I've Got my Heart and Mind Set!, -to Go There!, -Sometime in my Lifetime!

Perhaps Second would be the Grand Canyon! As the First President Roosevelt said, -It's a Sight All Americans Should Get to See!

I've also Got my Heart and Mind Really Set on Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park! "Quiet" in the National Consciousness, -I Know it to be a Great, Crisp, Clean, Cool, Alpine, National Park! As of course also is Montana's Glacier!, Along with Washington State's North Cascades!

Some Other, Special, Top Ranking Western National Parks of mine, are Arches, Mesa Verde, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Painted Desert, -(Even if Not a National Park Per Se!), the Petrified Forest, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Teton, Sequoia and Redwood! (Other Must Get To's!), King's Canyon, Olympic, Mt Ranier, Mt Lassen, Mt Shasta, Glen Canyon, Lake Mead, Craters of the Moon, Sunset Crater, Death Valley, Devil's Tower and Postpile, Scottsbluff and Other Buttes and Mesas Etc, Montezuma Castle, Canyon de Chelly, Big Bend, Organ Pipe, Natural Bridges, Rainbow Bridge, Joshua Tree, Muir Woods, Timpanogos, Tumacacori, Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, and Let's Throw in New Mexico's White Sands for Good Measure!

Can't Forget Alaska and Hawaii, of course! Here would Enter Katmai, the Valley of 10,000 Smokes, Glacier Bay, Denali / Mt. McKinley, Kenai Fjiords, Kobuk Valley, Lake Clark, Gates of the Arctic, Wrangell-St. Elias, Aniakchak, Haleakala, and Hawaii Volcanos National Park.

I'd be Greatly Remiss if I Didn't Mention at least Several so Very Great Canadian National Parks just North of our Border! Chiefmost of these are Banff, Jasper, Yoho, Kootenay, Kluane, Mt. Revelstoke, and it's Waterton which is Right Above our own Glacier! Canada's Great Rockies, West, and National Parks! And Places like Athabasca and the Colombia Icefield.

To now Round the Basic List Out, with a Few Topmost, Beloved, Eastern U.S, Ones. They'd be Acadia, Great Smokies, Shenandoah, Isle Royale, Voyageurs, Everglades, Wind Cave, and Mammoth Caves and Carlsbad Caverns! (The Last One in the West).

This is Not a Complete, Exhaustive List of All National Parks. But it Does Contain Many of the Very Topmost Ones.

The Topmost of These!, -I Certainly Aim to Get Out and Someday Experience and See!

I Urge Others to Please Consider Doing the Same! Sometime within your Lifetime! They're Really Something! They're There! So Don't Just Miss Out on Them!

RETURN TO MORNING REPORT,-FOREST FIRE ASPECTS,-

Additionally, -I Think this is a Good to Great Resource for Forest or Other Fires Information. I Think it can Answer a Lot of my Question of Last Winter, (My Forest Fire Information Request Post) -for Up to Date Information Sources on Such. (Especially the Other NIFC Sites that are Given under "Further Information"-At Least within the Current, -June 03, 04, Edition of the Morning Report).

Now I will just have to See, How Well my Luck Is or Isn't, -at Getting Back Information for Back Years! Either Here or Elsewhere.

Thanx Again for Providing it! Not Only for such Fire Season(s) Info, -But for National Park News and Developments in General. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]Nomad[/email]