Winter, the season with cold, snow, short days and long nights, can be a challenging season to explore the National Park System. Yet it also holds surprises that reveal themselves in shimmering lights darting across the night sky, in tracks of what passed the night before across the snowscape, and in congregations of wildlife.

The southern half of Utah is canyon country, a land of aridity, sparse vegetation, and unique and scenically spectacular topography and geology. It is a land rich in sites of archaeological importance and parts of it are sacred to indigenous people. It is also mostly public land, owned by the American people, part of their national legacy, and for a century it has been contested terrain.

The first day of fall kicks in not just more colorful forests, but at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah some operational changes and some construction projects visitors should be aware of.

How much do you know about national park botany? Test your tree-plant-flower knowledge with this latest national parks quiz and trivia piece.