Winter is a season for planning. How better to pass some of those long, cold, snowy nights than before the fire or a the kitchen table with guidebooks and maps, calculators and checklists? And if you’re thinking of tackling one of the country’s long-distance hiking trails, planning is definitely not over-rated. Here’s a look at some of the trails that pass through parts of the National Park System, and what planning assistance is out there.

Along its 3,100 miles that wind from the Canadian border down to Mexico, the Continental Divide Trail is one of the most rugged, and in parts one of the most visually spectacular, hiking trails in the country. Now the U.S. Forest Service says the route could be opened in places to mountain bikes, which raises a question of possible impacts to national parks.

Often we think of national parks as sanctuaries of sorts for wildlife, whether it be grizzlies, trumpeter swans, or fish. But sometimes it might be more accurate to view parks as offering many native species a last stand against extinction. That just might be the case with bull trout and Glacier National Park.

Bears jams are pretty cool. The first time you're stuck in one. They get old kinda quickly. Which is one reason why the folks at Glacier National Park are developing a wildlife viewing plan for the Many Glacier area.