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.

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.

Remnants of the past, of poets and artists who sought the stark inspiration offered by isolating, windswept dunes on the outer beaches of Cape Cod, stand weathered gray. Some appear wobbly and are almost hidden by their embracing dunes, while others stand atop the hills of sand with sweeping views out into the Atlantic.