Once upon a time not so long ago, all roads leading to Natural Bridges National Monument were dirt. Only the hardiest of visitors ventured out here. But now the roads are firmly paved and it’s a sort of main route between Lake Powell and points north down toward Monument Valley and Four Corners.

The St. Croix National Scenic Riverway is one of those special places in nature that doesn’t have an optimal season; whenever you choose to go, is a good time to go.

Overlooking the Knife River not far from its confluence with the Missouri, Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site today preserves vestiges of what 200 years ago was the heart of Northern Plains tribal trade.

Tucked far north in Montana, hard against the Canadian border, Glacier National Park is a rumpled and craggy masterpiece. Within the park’s 1 million acres rise rustling aspen glades, stands of an unusual evergreen—larch—that loses its needles in winter, even a temperate rainforest of Pacific red cedars, hemlocks and Pacific yew. This is the kingdom of grizzlies and wolves, wolverines and lynx, species that for many exist only in books, magazines, and nature documentaries.