Can you spot the hikers in this picture from Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve in Colorado? It’s easy to lose your perspective when looking at the tallest sand dunes in North America. A park of year-round adventure, there’s a particular beauty about this special place in winter, when snow hides in the curving shadows of the dunes. Photo by Patrick Myers, National Park Service.

What’s winter like at Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park? The mountain’s landscape undergoes a dramatic transformation. Its colorful subalpine meadows and lush old growth forests are draped with a thick blanket of snow for much of the year. The sometimes dusty-looking glaciers are freshly covered in white and the snow-covered roofs of the rustic historic buildings are rimmed with icicles – creating a picture perfect setting. Learn more about winter at the park: http://on.doi.gov/2glvuS5

This heron at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware has the right idea. It’s always nice to find a good perch and enjoy the peaceful beauty of a fall sunset. As urban development increases along the Atlantic Flyway, protected lands for migratory birds becomes even more important. With more than 16,000 acres of forests, fields and wetlands, the birds can find a place to relax; and maybe you will, too. Photo by Tim Williams, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.