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.

Call them what you like — outhouses, pit privies, vault toilets, washrooms, bathrooms or just plain old public toilets. When you spend the year touring Parks Canada's national historic sites and national parks for stories — like I just did — you'll need to use the facilities on a regular basis. And by facilities, I don't mean the "facilitrees" when you're desparate and have to go in the great outdoors, and I don't mean the cush indoor ones with flush toilets found in heated/air-conditioned visitor centers. I mean the standalone ones that aren't always as clean and fragant as you'd like and where you consider yourself lucky if there's a good supply of toilet paper and sanitizer.

In northern Minnesota, tucked up against the Canadian border, thousands of furry engineers are at work.

Frigid weather and stormy conditions closed many national parks across the country on Friday, from Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site in North Dakota and Badlands National Park in South Dakota to Appomattox Court House National Historical Park in Virginia and the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in North Carolina.