There isn't anything much finer than a paddling trip in the middle of summer, and Voyageurs National Park offers more than a few opportunities for launching a canoe or kayak. This shot of the Narrows was taken in 2006 by Carl Breske. It was taken in October, too, which gives you an idea of how long the paddling season extends in the park.

What were the artists behind these incredible, greater-than-life-size images trying to say? What messages were they sending? Were they just doodling during a camp, or were the artists shamans trying to communicate with another people, another world?

National Parks aren't all about gorgeous landscapes, or American history. Sometimes they chronicle prehistoric history, such as the case withFossil Butte National Monument in southwestern Wyoming.

John Denver made a career out of being associated with the Rocky Mountains, and this picture helps explain why. People just seem fascinated by the backbone of the continent and its high country. This photo is of Thunder Lake in the aptly named Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park.

What better way to cool off on a hot summer day than with a river trip? This photo, though, was taken along the Warm Springs rapid on the Yampa River in Dinosaur National Monument back in late April, if you can believe that.

The weather was warm, with highs in the low 70s, and plenty of sunshine to go around. By now, in early July, this rapid has lost its punch, as the Yampa is driven by snowmelt.

Where once there was a 7,000-foot-tall mountain, there now is a crater 3,000 feet deep. With a caribou (Rangifer tarandus) running across it in this instance.

Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve is one of the most remote parks in the National Park System. Located far north in Alaska, the park's present-day landscape was created about 3,500 years ago when a volcano erupted. The blast turned what had been a 7,00o-foot-tall mountain into a crater that's about six miles wide.

The Bering Land Bridge might sound like a desolate place, but as this photo by Chris Russoniello clearly shows, you can find wildlife there if you know where to look. Chris spotted this least weasel balanced on the toppled remains of a building.

There are many places in the West where travelers in the past have left their names, initials, or messages. Signature Rock in Wyoming and Newspaper Rock in Utah are just two examples.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens created the Shaw Memorial to honor Robert Gould Shaw and the African-American soldiers -- the Massachusetts 54th Regiment -- he trained and led into battle for the Union during the Civil War.

Located in Connecticut, Weir Farm National Historic Site honors the efforts of J. Alden Weir, a 19th-Century painter, to create a refuge for artists in a bucolic setting.

As was the case then, artists are welcome to roam the grounds and paint the landscape in the tradition of the many artists that have worked at the farm in the past.

The Sunken Garden was added to the property in the 1940s.