National Parks. They are places of wonderment. They spark our curiosity, help us relax, and can keep us in shape. They offer thousands of miles of hiking trails, majestic vistas, deep woods, rushing streams, and quite literally an open-air zoo of wildlife that relies on these landscapes to thrive and, in some cases, merely survive.

As mountain bikes continue to evolve, they are able to tackle more and more terrain...and are found in more and more places. But at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, officials don't believe bikes of any kind fit in the Valley of 10,000 Smokes and are moving to ban them via an update to the superintendent's compendium, or rulebook.

Whether you were looking to improve your technical expertise with a camera, or curious about the thought processes that professional photographers went through in framing their photos, Contributing Photographers Deby Dixon and Rebecca Latson covered the bases for you through the past 12 months. Here for your review, and just a click away, are the columns they wrote in 2014.

National Park Service officials, looking to offset the recent liberalization of Alaska state hunting regulations, are proposing regulations that aim to better protect predators from hunters. The comment period on the proposed regulations runs out Wednesday.