National parks in the nation’s eastern half have shared in the turmoil caused by Hurricane Sandy.

Various news outlets have reported accounts of damage and disruption, and conditions sound nasty. Some examples:

• Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, blanketed by snow, is entirely closed.

• At LeConte Lodge, a guest lodge at 6,593 feet in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina) and accessible only by hiking trail, has snowdrifts as high as 4 feet. The Knoxville News Sentinel offers a photo gallery of snow at the lodge.

• 15 different sections of the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway, 292 miles total in Virginia and North Carolina, are closed, principally due to snow.

Selected forest service roads were closed in New Hampshire, and in southern states hikers along the Appalachian Trail are coping with the surprise accumulations, another news account reports. Earlier today the National Parks Traveler published a roundup of storm-related disruption in parks.

We at REI sympathize will all who have been affected by the hurricane. May brighter days lie ahead.