NEWS: New Volcano & Geyser Eruptions, Border Wall May Go Through Big Bend, Big Sur Wildflowers Destroyed

Parkography

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Nature, Society & Culture, History, Society & Culture:places & Travel, Science, Places & Travel

4.8 • 911 Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2026

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week in national park news: Mount Rainier National Park has officially dropped its timed entry reservation system for 2026 — joining Yosemite, Arches, and Glacier in abandoning the pandemic-era crowd management experiment. Meanwhile, one of Yellowstone’s most unusual geothermal features — Echinus Geyser — has suddenly begun erupting again after years of dormancy. We also cover: • A fatal incident near the Kīlauea caldera in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park• A controversial proposal to build new border barriers through Big Bend National Park• One of the best wildflower blooms in Death Valley since 2016• A strange act of vandalism at Big Sur’s famous Calla Lily Valley• Possible campground closures in Washington state parks• And the opening of a brand-new Texas state park for the first time in 24 years 00:00 Intro00:46 Mount Rainier Drops Timed Entry02:01 Hawaii Volcano Fatal Incident02:57 Yellowstone Geyser Returns04:47 Big Bend Border Wall Proposal06:58 Death Valley Wildflower Bloom08:14 Big Sur Flower Vandalism09:46 Washington Campground Cuts10:58 Texas Opens New State Park12:05 Wrap Up

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week, another major national park has officially dropped timed entry reservations for the summer.
0:06.0	Yellowstone has a rare geyser erupting again after years of silence,
0:10.0	and a controversial proposal could bring border wall construction into and through Big Ben National Park.
0:17.0	We'll also talk about a dangerous incident in Hawaii Volcano's National Park, a beautiful
0:22.4	wildflower bloom lighting up Death Valley, a strange act of vandalism at one of California's
0:27.9	most photographed flower valleys, and why some Washington State Park campgrounds could be closing,
0:33.9	plus some good news out of Texas with the opening of a brand new state park. I'm Jason
0:39.0	Epperson. This is parkography and it's time for the latest in National Park in Public Lands News.
0:45.0	Welcome back everybody. First up after a lot of back and forth Mount Rainier National Park
0:49.9	will not implement a timed entry reservation for any portion of the park in 2026.
0:56.0	That makes Mount Rainier the fourth major park to drop timed entry reservations this year
1:00.6	where you have to reserve a ticket to get in in advance of arrival.
1:04.5	Arches, Yosemite, and Glacier all recently made similar announcements.
1:08.5	Rocky Mountain National Park will be keeping its timed entry
1:11.9	reservations. But that's really the only major park of the ones that have been running sort
1:16.1	of a test of time to entry. You still need reservations for a lot of parks that are primarily
1:21.3	tours like Carlsbad Caverns. And then there are various roads and trails in the system
1:26.2	that need reservations.
1:33.2	But for the most part, Rocky Mountains is all that remains of the major timed entry experiments that have been happening over the past few years.
1:37.2	Mount Rainier officials say the park will use parking management strategies to maximize
1:41.5	available capacity.
1:43.3	Visitors planning to travel to Mount Rainier in
	...

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