StateParks

The government of Minnesota has been essentially shuttered for a week since the governor and legislature failed to find a compromise solution for the state's $5 billion shortfall. But it's hard to imagine what it means to "shut down" a state of 5.3 million people. Here's what it means to them.

Every camping space, cabin and yurt in Idaho State Parks was reserved for this Fourth of July weekend, for the first time ever. One-hundred-percent booked, said a KUOW report. In Washington state, camping reservations were up 9% in the first half of 2009, proof, said a state spokesperson, of the...

This week, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recommended cutting $70 million from his state's parks budget. If this move passes, it would result in the closure of 220 of the state's 279 parks.While Schwarzenegger's proposal is particularly severe, several other states are contemplating...

When I was 10 or so, I became an altar boy. There was something about the polished wood of the pews, the smell of incense, the kneeling...even though I got to know every nook and cranny of the church, it never stopped being mysterious for me, and I never stopped loving the feel of hallowed spaces....