One of the many great things about our National Park System is the opportunity to be a “VIP”—Volunteer in the Park. At Mount Rainier National Park, roles are various, ranging from visitor education to citizen science to archive work to campground host.

While visitation levels in Acadia National Park during the winter months are far below summer’s peak, the most popular trails and carriage paths can be very busy, especially on a sunny weekend day after a decent snowfall.

Winter is a cold, snowy, and decidedly solitary season at Voyageurs National Park, where fellow visitors can be hard to spot. Take December 2017, for instance. The park recorded just 110 visitors, down from 196 a year earlier. But if you relish skimming through the woods on skis or snowmobiles, like to study tracks of what crossed the meadows and frozen ponds, or crave to see the dancing Northern Lights overhead, well, a visit to Voyageurs should be given serious consideration.

Our forefathers were fiendish, hellish, you might even say devilish. Need proof? Look at the maps and the names of many of the places we visit. And then ask yourself, “Why in the Hell are so many places in our Western national parks named after the infernal demon, and his lair?”