Faunal life from 5 million years ago, or older, will come to life Saturday when a paleontologist reveals what she has learned from fossils excavated from Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Nebraska.

My son and I are one percenters – a label unrelated to our income level. We belong to the privileged one percent of the six million annual visitors to Grand Canyon National Park who walk from the rim to the canyon floor.

There are, across the National Park System, dozens and dozens of jewels that don't attract crowds while offering you gorgeous landscapes, deep history, and rich experiences. Here's a look at some of those places that the National Parks Traveler wrote about this year.

Thirty-one species of cacti live in the starkly beautiful Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in the Sonoran Desert, along with bighorn sheep, pronghorns, javelinas, kangaroo rats, rare pupfish and all kinds of reptiles and birds. But the green desert is also home to a 30-mile stretch of America’s steel border wall and warning signs had this traveler anxious that “smuggling and illegal immigration may be encountered in this area.”