Year-end usually leads to reflection, and we'd be more than remiss if we didn't take a moment to thank all of you who read the Traveler.

Not all stories have to have a hard edge to them to be considered nicely done. What follows are some stories from, or revolving around, the National Park System that we liked for what they had to say, or how they had to say it, or what we learned from them. We hope you enjoyed them, too.

During the past year we published 11 checklists to help you plan your national park visits. Here's a rundown of them.

We managed to get out on some national park trails during 2011 -- not as many as we'd like, but still a few that brought smiles to our faces. Here's a look back at those trails.