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Most visitors to Death Valley National Park only make it a short distance to any site at the hottest and driest place on Earth before returning to the sanctuary of an air-conditioned vehicle DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. -- As uninviting as it sounds, Death Valley National Park beckons. Even as the already extreme temperatures are forecast to climb even higher, potentially topping records amid a major U.S. heat wave, tourists are arriving at this infamous desert landscape on the California-Nevada border. Daniel Jusehus snapped a photo earlier this week of a famed thermometer outside the aptly named Furnace Creek Visitor Center after challenging himself to a run in the sweltering heat. “I was really noticing, you know, I didn’t feel so hot, but my body was working really hard to cool myself,” said Jusehus, an active runner who was visiting from Germany. His photo showed the thermometer reading at 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.8 degrees Celsius). Most visitors at this time of year make...

West Maui is in the midst of a tourism debate as it reopens for visitors just two months after a wildfire devastated the town of Lahaina. West Maui began reopening Sunday to visitors just two months after a wildfire devastated the town of Lahaina. The reopening did not come without outrage from some residents, many of whom signed a petition to delay the reopening as families continue to struggle to "find shelter, provide for their children's education, and cope with emotional trauma," according to the petition. Homes have been flattened and are completely inhabitable. Businesses have been decimated. Some loved ones remain unaccounted for and residents have been grieving the loss of 97 people who died in the tragedy. The petition has received more than 10,000 signatures. The fact that tourism is resuming so soon around the outskirts of a town made unrecognizable by the wildfires has reignited an ongoing debate about Hawaii's reliance on tourism. "There is just ...