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 the café at Batoche National Historic Site, cooks transform bison from Parks Canada’s herd into stew and burgers, and local Saskatoon berries into iced tea and tarts. In the exhibition room, I try rug hooking while surrounded by the colorful creations of traditional Métis rug makers like Margaret Harrison. In the gift shop run by the Friends of Batoche, I buy a book that shares Métis Elder stories about important river plants in the area like pasture sage, chokecherry and cattail, and notes their names in Michif.

The hunt for Greater Short-Horned Lizards in the bearpaw shale of Grasslands National Park gets off to an inauspicious start on a cool September day as the sun fights to break through the clouds.

When I went on a recent online shopping spree for Parks Canada merchandise — a retro cap, tote bags, headbands, playing cards, baby onesies — I did so feeling good that my purchases would help beluga whales in Quebec.