There is a place where you can escape the crowds at Acadia National Park and find solitude in the dramatic setting of coastal Maine. Contributing writer Kim O'Connell was fortunate enough to immerse herself in Isle au Haut for five glorious days.

What the Eastern part of our great country lacks in iconic landscape parks - Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, or Yosemite - it makes up for with important historic and cultural parks that are equally as iconic in their own way. As the only national park unit dedicated to American painting, Weir Farm fits that bill.

An agreement to produce a guide to national park lodges turned into a 20-year odyssey for David and Kay Scott as they crisscrossed the National Park System time and again to update that guide.

I sat on the top of a slope, the bright orange, plastic sled firmly beneath me. My senses felt overloaded, confused, not only by the spectacularly beautiful scenery surrounding White Sands National Monument but also the conflicting memories the desert evokes. I planned to sled down one of the bright white dunes, decked out in a winter coat, hat, and scarf - evoking winter. Yet I planned to sled on sand, reminding me of summer, the beach, my hometown in Florida. Kicking my legs forward, I began to move, faster and faster and faster as the white hills sped by me. Joy bubbled up, erupting in a high-pitched squeal reminiscent of my childhood.