The Grand Loop Road may be closed to traffic and all services shut down for the season, but that doesn't mean Yellowstone National Park is deserted this time of year. Indeed, National Park Service officials are working on some larger projects designed to lessen pollution in the Park.

What a miserable existence this must be: some 100 bison, quarantined for upwards of four years after being separated from their Yellowstone National Park herds because of brucellosis, are still in search of a home after some four years in captivity.

We are fast approaching the end of the 2009 summer (!) season, as things wind down to a halt in Yellowstone National Park. Though most services shut down, there's still a chance to sneak in that last visit to Old Faithful Geyser or the Norris Geyser Basin before roads in the Park close at 8 a.m. on Nov. 2 -- but do some planning.

A law loosening gun restrictions in America's National Parks goes beyond what proponents initially argued and would allow anyone with a gun permit to openly carry a weapon in Yellowstone National Park, if legal experts are correct.

The photos on this page are two of the more unusual shots you'll ever see of Yellowstone National Park: they are views of the recent Arnica Fire taken from space by NASA astronauts. 

It probably won't quiet all the stakeholders in the debate, but a temporary winter use plan has been formally approved by the National Park Service, allowing for 318 commercially guided snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park daily during the next two winter seasons.

Federal officials are making a surprising argument in opposing the addition of Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bears from the Endangered Species List: They say putting the grizzlies back on the list gives them less protection under the law.

With the Arnica Fire a memory and the Grand Loop Road reopened to daily traffic, a normal end of the season looms for October in Yellowstone National Park.

It's been a record-setting year when it comes to visitors to Yellowstone National Park, and by the time you read this another big record may have set, as more than 3 million visitors have already passed through the Park gates so far this year.

All that remains is the cleanup as snow and rain took care of the Arnica Fire yesterday, which had grown to 10,700 acres before Mother Nature shut it down, giving crews a chance to begin the cleanup -- and drivers limited opportunities to pass through the area.