We have a winner in Alaska’s Fat Bear Contest.

Voting has started in the annual Fat Bear Week contest at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve.

An Alaska national park’s annual celebration of the beefy, brown and bristly is getting underway as some of the chunkiest bears on the planet fatten up for their long winter slumber.

Four significant breaks in the water pipeline that serves the Grand Canyon means visitors won’t be able to stay overnight in hotels inside Grand Canyon National Park’s South Rim through the Labor Day holiday.

Visitors won’t be able to stay overnight in hotels at Grand Canyon National Park after a series of breaks in the only pipeline that serves the popular tourist destination.

Search and rescue crews at Grand Canyon National Park are searching for an Arizona woman nearly two days after she was swept into a creek during a flash flood.

Two people who drowned off South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island where rip current warnings related to Hurricane Ernesto were posted have been identified as Ohio men.

Ernesto has regained hurricane status as the storm churns away from Bermuda and heads farther out into the northeastern Atlantic Ocean.

Stumpy lives on.

A California man died from overheating at Death Valley National Park after hiking on a day where temperatures reached nearly 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.3 degrees Celsius).

A surprise eruption of steam in a Yellowstone National Park geyser basin that sent people scrambling for safety as basketball-sized rocks flew overhead has highlighted a little-known hazard that scientists hope to be able to predict someday.

A surprise eruption in Yellowstone National Park has shot steam, water and dark-colored rock and dirt an estimated 100 feet into the sky and sent people running for safety.

Yellowstone National Park officials say a gunman killed by park rangers as he fired a semiautomatic rifle at the entrance of a dining facility with 200 people inside had told a woman he planned to carry out a mass shooting.

The federal government plans to restore grizzly bears to an area of northwest and north-central Washington.

Advocates for some 200 wild horses roaming North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park are hoping a signal of support from Congress will prevent the removal of the beloved animals.

A man was airlifted to a hospital Sunday after being attacked by a crocodile in southwest Miami-Dade.

It’s cherry blossom season again, and officials in the nation's capital are predicting a banner year for the signature pink blooms.

Repair crews have installed concrete blocks and cables to secure the National Christmas Tree in front of the White House after the tree blew down.

About 200 wild horses roam free in a western North Dakota national park.

Guests will now be able to stay at the new hotel at Everglades National Park and dine at its revamped restaurant, all with views of the Florida Bay.

Everglades National Park will celebrate the grand opening of its hotel and new restaurant, all with views of the Florida Bay.

When it comes to packing on the pounds to survive an Alaska winter, this year’s undisputed champ is Grazer.

New research shows that fossil footprints discovered at the edge of an ancient lakebed in New Mexico's White Sands National Park date back to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago.

The National Park Service has proposed removing wild horses from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota, as the park looks to revise its livestock plans.

The National Park Service has announced that in 2023, there will be five days where admission to sites will be free to the public.

A massive wildfire burning out of control in California’s Mojave National Preserve is spreading rapidly amid erratic winds.

The National Park Service says a bison severely injured a Minnesota woman on Saturday in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

The iconic visitor center at the Flamingo outpost in Everglades Nat'l Park has finally reopened.

A beachgoer was bitten on the hand Friday morning by a shark at Everglades National Park.

Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii's Big Island is erupting again.

A wolverine was spotted three times last month in the eastern Sierra Nevada, a rare occurrence for an animal that’s only been seen one other time in California over the last 100 years.

A mountain lion studied by biologists in wilderness areas near Los Angeles has given birth to three healthy kittens.

National park officials in Alaska say two missing mountain climbers likely triggered a small avalanche.

For the first time, researchers have captured and radio-collared a bear in the Santa Monica Mountains near Los Angeles.

Officials with the National Park Service Monday announced an underwater discovery in South Florida that dates back to the 19th century.

The National Park Service is proposing a rule that would prohibit bear baiting in national preserves in Alaska.

A Montana judge said he would decide Tuesday whether to continue temporary limits on wolf hunting in the state or to restore quotas and hunting methods before a trial over whether the public was given an adequate opportunity to weigh in on changes in the way the state estimates the size of the wolf population.

Yellowstone National Park officials say a foot found floating in a hot pool last summer belonged to a 70-year-old man from Los Angeles.

Environmental groups are hailing a decision by the Biden administration to resume studying whether grizzly bears should be restored to the remote North Cascades ecosystem in Washington state.

Idaho's top wildlife official says the state's wolf population appears to be holding steady despite recent changes by lawmakers that allow expanded methods and seasons for killing wolves.

A levee was breached Monday in a small town near the Arizona-New Mexico state line, forcing the evacuations of 60 people after a weekend of flash floods across the American Southwest that also swept away one woman who is still missing in Utah’s Zion National Park.

Death Valley National Park’s most popular sites will reopen to the public on Saturday, two weeks after massive flash-flooding.

Yellowstone National Park officials say part of a foot found in a hot spring this week is believed to be linked to a July 31 death.

Yellowstone National Park officials are investigating after an employee spotted part of a foot, in a shoe, floating in a hot spring in the southern part of the park.

Authorities say a main roadway into Death Valley National Park will remain closed into next week as crews clean up after record-breaking rains damaged the roadway and choked it with mud, rocks and debris.

Hundreds of hotel guests trapped by flash flooding at Death Valley National Park were able to drive out after crews cleared a path for them.

Flash flooding triggered by heavy rainfall forced has officials to close all roads in and out of Death Valley National Park near the California-Nevada line Friday.

Officials have closed some roads in and out of Death Valley National Park after they were inundated over the weekend with mud and debris caused by by flash flooding.

A Yosemite National Park ecologist says a famed grove of giant sequoias have survived their first wildfire in more than a century because of intentional burning to remove undergrowth beneath the towering trees.

California firefighters have gained ground against a wildfire that poses a threat to a famous grove of giant sequoias and a small community in Yosemite National Park.

Officials say part of Yosemite National Park has been closed and hundreds of people evacuated nearby as a wildfire rages near a grove of California’s famed giant sequoia trees.

Confirming their worst fears for record-low lake levels, National Park Service fisheries biologists have discovered that a non-native predator fish has made its way through Glen Canyon Dam to the lower Colorado River, where it can prey on ancient native fish they have been working to reestablish.

The National Park Service is hosting an Independence Day fireworks celebration on the National Mall in Washington D.C.

Wild video shows a bison attacking a visitor this week at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Flooding has wiped out roads and bridges and closed off all entrances to Yellowstone National Park at the onset of the busy summer tourist season.

On this first day of the Atlantic hurricane season, federal officials are announcing a new initiative to modernize building codes.

New Mexico 's governor says the state faces a long and potentially devastating wildfire season as Southwestern wildfires cause destruction and force people from their homes.

Destructive Southwest fires have burned dozens of homes in northern Arizona and put numerous small villages in New Mexico in the path of danger, as wind-fueled flames chewed up wide swaths of tinder dry forest and grassland and plumes of smoke filled the sky.

One of this year’s entrance fee-free days is coming up at our country’s National Parks, meaning if you want to visit, you won’t have to pay admission.

A judge has restored federal protections for gray wolves across much of the U.S. after they were removed in the waning days of the Trump administration.

A shuttered bowling alley at the center of a 1968 integration protest where state police killed three Black students is being remade into a civil rights center.

Montana wildlife commissioners are shutting down gray wolf hunting and trapping in areas bordering Yellowstone National Park amid criticism over 23 wolves being killed after roaming from the park in recent several months.

Sequoia National Park is reopening its Giant Forest area, three months after extraordinary efforts saved the grove as Northern California wildfires destroyed thousands of other redwoods.

Two mountain lion kittens that survived after a litter of four was found under a picnic table are being cared for at a California veterinary hospital.

National Park Service officials say dozen ancient alligator juniper trees have been illegally cut down in the El Malpais National Monument in western New Mexico.

The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved the nomination of Charles “Chuck” Sams III as National Park Service director, which will make him the first Native American to lead the agency that oversees more than 131,000 square miles of parks and other landmarks.

Fossilized footprints discovered in New Mexico indicate that early humans were walking across North America around 23,000 years ago.

As we inch closer to the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, it feels fitting that we’re seeing more and more tributes and events pop up to remember the day.

Wildfires burning in the U.S. this summer have upended plans for countless outdoor adventures.

The National Park Service is pushing back against a Federal Aviation Administration report recommending approval of a launch pad for commercial rockets off the Georgia coast.

The water level at Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border has hit a historic low amid a climate change-fueled megadrought engulfing the U.S. West.

Federal wildlife officials have decided to list the Sierra Nevada red fox as an endangered species.

Scientists say wolf pups have been spotted again at Isle Royale National Park.

The family of a women’s rights activist from Uganda has sued the National Park Service after she was decapitated last year by a gate at Utah’s Arches National Park.

A draft study says at least a tenth of the world’s mature giant sequoias were destroyed by a single California wildfire that tore through the southern Sierra Nevada last year.

Rangers who keep an eye on North America’s highest mountain peak say impatient and inexperienced climbers are taking more risk this season.

Biologists studying Southern California bobcats found a mother and three kittens this spring in an unusual den in a cavity up in a tree in an area intensely burned by a huge 2018 wildfire west of Los Angeles.

A young alligator traced to the Louisiana bayous traded swamp scum for a sandy Padre Island beach in South Texas.

More than 45,000 people have applied for one of a dozen spots to help thin a herd of bison at Grand Canyon National Park.

A giant sequoia has been found smoldering and smoking in a part of Sequoia National Park that burned in one of California’s huge wildfires last year.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has sued the U.S. Department of Interior in an effort to see fireworks shot over Mount Rushmore on Independence Day.

Want to get outside? Or are you looking to plan a little getaway? The country’s national parks are incredible places to consider.

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – Fire crews with the National Park Service have been igniting controlled fires in the Florida Everglades to control an invasive vine that’s been wreaking havoc on the native ecosystem. The plant, called Lygodium Microphyllum - and also known as Old World Climbing Fern - is a stealthy and invasive plant that was likely introduced as decorative vegetation that made its way into the Everglades in 1999. While many may think of the invasive Burmese python as a great threat to wildlife, scientists like Dr. Ellen Lake with the USDA Invasive Plant Research Lab in Davie say Lygodium could be more dangerous. (WPLG)Michael Gue, prescribed fire specialist with the National Park Service, said the vine can be easily spotted from a helicopter. “We’ve seen in Florida, in general, an increase in Lygodium so of course the Park Service is concerned,” said National Park Service botanist Hillary Cooley.

FILE - In this March 29, 2016, file photo, signs call attention to the house where slain African-American leader Malcolm X spent part of his childhood in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. According to the National Park Service the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in February 2021. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes, File)BOSTON – Malcolm X’s boyhood home in Boston was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The former Malcolm Little was a teenager in the 1940s when he came to live with his sister, Ella Little Collins. Little Collins, who was a civil rights organizer in her own right, became her brother’s legal guardian after his father died and his mother was institutionalized.

Workers from the National Park Service clear snow and ice at the White House, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Washington. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the WHO, but Biden moved quickly after his inauguration last month to rejoin and confirmed that the U.S. would contribute to COVAX. AdThe $4 billion in U.S. funding was approved by Congress in December and will be distributed through 2022. In addition to discussing vaccine distribution, Biden also plans to use the meeting to discuss G-7 countries' collective competitiveness and economic challenges posed by China, according to the White House. Biden is also scheduled to deliver a virtual address to the Munich Security Conference on Friday before traveling to Michigan to visit Pfizer's vaccine manufacturing facility.

Workers from the National Park Service clear snow and ice at the White House, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Washington. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the WHO, but Biden moved quickly after his inauguration last month to rejoin and confirmed that the U.S. would contribute to COVAX. AdThe $4 billion in U.S. funding was approved by Congress in December and will be distributed through 2022. In addition to discussing vaccine distribution, Biden also plans to use the meeting to discuss G-7 countries' collective competitiveness and economic challenges posed by China, according to the White House. Biden is also scheduled to deliver a virtual address to the Munich Security Conference on Friday before traveling to Michigan to visit Pfizer's vaccine manufacturing facility.

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)WASHINGTON – Supporters of President Donald Trump are among a handful of groups that have applied for permits to hold protests during Joe Biden's inauguration. But it appears unlikely their application will be approved as the National Park Service greatly curtails protests as part of a major security lockdown. Among them, was a group called "Let America Hear Us, Roar For Trump." On Friday Jeff Reinbold, NPS superintendent for the National Mall, said the two approved groups had agreed to each keep their demonstrations below 100 people. The park service on Friday closed Washington’s National Mall to the general public until after Wednesday's inauguration.

Security surrounds the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Friday, Jan. 15, 2021, ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Azar says he will resign at noon on Jan. 20, when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in. TSA is also providing officers to help the Secret Service screen people along the parade route and attending Biden’s inauguration Wednesday. Pence’s call comes less than a week before President-elect Joe Biden and Harris are set to take office. President Donald Trump hasn’t reached out to Biden and has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of Biden’s win.

This undated photo provided by the National Park Service shows Fort Yellowstone Cemetery, in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. A Utah man has pleaded guilty after authorities said he was caught digging in a Yellowstone National Park cemetery in search of hidden treasure. – A Utah man has pleaded guilty after authorities said he was caught digging in a Yellowstone National Park cemetery in search of hidden treasure. Craythorn caused more than $1,000 in damage by digging in the Fort Yellowstone Cemetery between Oct. 1, 2019, and May 24, 2020, prosecutors alleged. Several people seeking the treasure had to be rescued from precarious situations and as many as six died.

In this photo provided by the National Park Service, people watch an eruption from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano on the Big Island on Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020. In the first hours of the eruption, lava mixed rapidly with water in the summit's crater lake to create steam. The water was the first ever recorded in the summit crater of Kilauea volcano. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park spokeswoman Jessica Ferracane said in a telephone interview that the volcanic activity is a risk to people in the park and that caution is needed. Last night's eruption was contained to the summit caldera within the national park.

A U.S. Navy sailor plays taps in front of the USS Missouri during a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Monday, Dec. 7, 2020, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Officials gathered in Pearl Harbor to remember those killed in the 1941 Japanese attack, but public health measures adopted because of the coronavirus pandemic meant no survivors were present. The military broadcast video of the ceremony live online for survivors and members of the public to watch from afar. The Arizona today lies at the bottom of the harbor, where it sank shortly being hit by two bombs. Warren Upton, a 101-year-old who served on the USS Utah, understood why he could not attend in person this year.

The Wall of Names honor the 40 people killed in the crash of Flight 93. Both President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden will commemorate the 19th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in rural Pennsylvania where one of the hijacked planes crashed in a field. Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, will attend Sept. 11 memorial ceremonies in New York this year. The 2,200-acre Flight 93 National Memorial marks the spot in rural Pennsylvania where the hijacked flight crashed, killing all 40 people on board. It's the second time Trump will mark Sept. 11 with a visit to the site.

Regardless of whether you’re aiming to visit one U.S. national park in your lifetime or your bucket list includes 10 of them, we have good news: Wednesday marks one of the free-entrance days, in honor of Veterans Day. is the last fee free day of 2020.https://t.co/UR6dHYdbDq — National Park Foundation (@NationalParkFdn) November 10, 2020All national parks will waive entrance fees. Some other free dates for 2020 included:Saturday, April 18 – First Day of National Park Week/National Junior Ranger DayTuesday, August 25 – National Park Service BirthdaySaturday, September 26 – National Public Lands DayWe’re still waiting on the free days of 2021 to be released. There are 419 National Park Service sites, and of those, 110 typically charge an entrance fee, with costs ranging from $5 to $35, the NPS said. Just be aware, the entrance-fee waiver for the free days don’t cover amenity or user fees for things like camping, boat launches, transportation or special tours.

Wikimedia CommonsTHREE RIVERS, Calif. - "S O S" spelled out with rocks saved a woman missing in a national park for days, according to a release from the National Park Service. Mary Joanna Gomez, 56, was found alive and safe in Sequoia National Park after her disappearance sparked a major search operation, the release said. On October 23, her day off, she visited Kings Canyon National Park, and the next day she texted her daughter pictures of the scenery, the release said. A search began, with the National Park Service placing her in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park on Saturday morning, according to the release. Search teams, search dogs and aircraft all took part in the effort.

(CNN) - Fat Bear week is here to remind us there's still good in the world. Alaska's brown bears are the largest brown bears and eat up to 90 pounds of food each day, including other smaller mammals, salmon, berries, flowers and herbs. It holds one of the largest concentration of brown bears in the world, according to the release. As a friendly reminder, the park said: "Fat bears only exist because of clean water and healthy ecosystems." As the sea ice melts and polar bears find themselves on land more often, they begin to compete with brown bears for food.

Cade Edmond Siemers told Park Rangers that he took a walk off the boardwalk without a flashlight and tripped into the thermal water near the cone of Old Faithful Geyser, the NPS said in a statement. Siemers was able to walk back to Old Faithful Inn, where he was staying near the geyser, and call for help around midnight. Due to bad weather, the use of a life flight helicopter from Old Faithful was prohibited, the NPS said. The Old Faithful Geyser erupts every 51 to 120 minutes, according to the NPS. In June 2017, a North Carolina man suffered severe burns when he fell into a hot spring in the Lower Geyser Basin north of the Old Faithful area.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(CNN) - A mountain lion known for crossing the Los Angeles 405 freeway was struck and killed by a vehicle early Saturday morning, according to National Park Service (NPS) Ranger Ana Beatriz. The mountain lion known as P-61 lived in the Santa Monica mountains near the Sepulveda Pass, Beatriz said in a statement. City of Los Angeles Animal Control officer retrieved his body, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area said on Facebook. It appears he was trying to cross the 405 freeway, Beatriz said. Just months ago, he had successfully crossed that same freeway, the first time a GPS-collared mountain lion had done so over the course of the NPS's 17-year study of mountain lions in and around the Santa Monica Mountains, Beatriz said.

A rock broke off Cable Mountain, about an hour east of St. George in Zion National Park, and fell about 3,000 feet injuring three, the National Park Service said. Rock falls in Zion Nat'l Park, hurts 3 - Three people were injured after a "substantial" piece of rock fell in Utah's Zion National Park Saturday, according to a news release from the National Park Service. The park service said the rockfall occurred near the Weeping Rock Shuttle Stop just before 6 p.m., injuring three people and stranding several others. The rock broke off Cable Mountain, about an hour east of St. George in the state's southwest corner, and fell about 3,000 feet. A 14-year old girl was killed by a falling rocks in Montana's Glacier National Park earlier this month.

The National Park Service has closed several portions of Indiana Dunes National Park after a chemical spill killed hundreds of fish in the area, according to a statement by Portage, Indiana, a nearby city. MICHIGAN CITY, Indiana (CNN) - The National Park Service has closed several portions of Indiana Dunes National Park after a chemical spill killed hundreds of fish in the area, according to a statement by Portage, Indiana, a nearby city. The spill occurred last week at the east branch of the Little Calumet River, about three miles upstream from Lake Michigan, Indiana Dunes National Park confirmed in a statement. The National Park Service has closed the Portage Lakefront, the Riverwalk beach area and waters out to 300 feet. "It's just horrible -- all these dead animals in here; all these dead fish.

Wildlife Conservation Society via CNN(CNN) - The National Park Service has released a guide to safely petting bison after recent dangerous encounters between tourists and the giant animals. Last month, a bison gored a teenager at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. A few days earlier, a 9-year-old girl was hurt at Yellowstone National Park when a bison charged her and threw her in the air. The Park Service says visitors must give animals plenty of space. The National Park Service also warns against stopping in the road to admire a bison or other critter.