Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico contains some of the largest caves in North America—a must-visit stop for vacations in New Mexico.

As you pass through the Chihuahuan Desert and Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico and west Texas, filled with prickly pear, chollas, sotols, and agaves, you might never guess there are more than 300 known caves beneath the surface. The park contains 113 of these caves, formed when sulfuric acid dissolved the surrounding limestone. This includes Lechuguilla Cave, the nation's deepest and fourth longest limestone cave at 1,567 feet (478m).

The Rocky Mountains formed 80 million to 55 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny, in which a number of plates began sliding underneath the North American plate.

South Texas Sunrise

Sailing the Gulf of Mexico off Galveston Texas

Come experience mountains and canyons, desert and dunes, night skies and spectacular vistas within a place unlike any other. Guadalupe Mountains National Park protects the world's most extensive Permian fossil reef, the four highest peaks in Texas, an environmentally diverse collection of flora and fauna, and the stories of lives shaped through conflict, cooperation and survival.

Sunset Galveston Island, Galveston Texas 2021

Shore Acres State Park

Near Coos Bay, Oregon, United States

Mount St. Helens is 34 miles (55 km) west of Mount Adams, in the western part of the Cascade Range. Considered "brother and sister" mountains, the two volcanoes are approximately 50 miles (80 km) from Mount Rainier, the highest of the Cascade volcanoes. Mount Hood, the nearest major volcanic peak in Oregon, is 60 miles (100 km) southeast of Mount St. Helens.

Sailing the Gulf of Mexico

Zion National Park: The Narrows is the narrowest section of Zion Canyon. This gorge, with walls a thousand feet tall and the river sometimes just twenty to thirty feet wide, is one of the most popular areas in Zion National Park. You can see The Narrows by hiking along the paved, wheelchair accessible Riverside Walk for one mile from the Temple of Sinawava. If you wish to see more, you will be walking in the Virgin River. This can involve wading upstream for just a few minutes or it can be an all day hike.

Only one national park in the country includes and protects a section of historic Route 66: the Petrified Forest National Park with one of the world’s largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood, multi-hued badlands of the Painted Desert, historic structures, archeological sites, and displays of over 200-million-year-old fossils. The national park and this section of Route 66 are not to be missed, and one of the most special places to visit in the park is the Painted Desert Inn.

The inn is situated on a mesa overlooking the vast and colorful Painted Desert. It is rooted in a lodge that entrepreneur Herbert David Lore completed around 1920. In 1935, the National Park Service purchased the inn and its surroundings, and immediately began planning to overhaul the building using the rustic aesthetic so popular in park architecture of the time.

This is the Columbia River Gorge, largest national scenic area in the United States: a land of natural contrasts between rain forest and desert, sea-level passage and alpine meadows.

A network of hiking trails climbs from lowland forests to windy ridges on both sides of the Gorge. The river itself hosts the best boardsailing conditions this side of Hawaii, and the nearby snowcaps of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams offer downhill and cross-country skiing well into spring. Yet the Columbia Gorge is also home to more than 70,000 people, and they've created a rich culture

The Valley of the Gods is located north of Monument Valley across the San Juan River and has rock formations similar to those in Monument Valley with tall, reddish brown mesas, buttes, towers and mushroom rocks, remnants of an ancient landscape.

The Great Sioux Nation (South Dakota) is the traditional political structure of the Sioux in North America. The peoples who speak the Sioux language are considered to be members of the Oceti Sakowin (Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, pronounced [oˈtʃʰetʰi ʃaˈkowĩ]) or Seven Council Fires.

White Sands National Park, Rising from the heart of the Tularosa Basin is one of the world's great natural wonders - the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert, creating the world's largest gypsum dunefield. White Sands National Park preserves a major portion of this unique dunefield, along with the plants and animals that live here.

Coos Bay is a great place to live, work and play surrounded by a beautiful protected bay, lush emerald forests and the mighty Pacific Ocean. Historically known as Marshfield, Coos Bay celebrates a history in shipbuilding and lumber products while serving as the regional hub for Oregon's south coast. Coos Bay proudly stands today as the largest city on the Oregon coast, with a population of 16,615, and is the medical, education, retail, and professional center for the south coast region.

Ascending to 14,410 feet above sea level, Mount Rainier stands as an icon in the Washington landscape. An active volcano, Mount Rainier is the most glaciated peak in the contiguous U.S.A., spawning five major rivers. Subalpine wildflower meadows ring the icy volcano while ancient forest cloaks Mount Rainier’s lower slopes.

Arches National Park - The park has over 2,000 natural stone arches, hundreds of soaring pinnacles, massive rock fins, and giant balanced rocks. This red-rock wonderland will amaze you with its formations, refresh you with its trails, and inspire you with its sunsets.

On a scenic road trip through Northern Arizona, Monument Valley’s iconic landscapes inspire visitors.

Located in Northern Arizona, Monument Valley’s collection of crimson mesas and towering sandstone buttes captures colors that appear only in nature. The astonishing scenic beauty of the pristine desert landscape also reflects the reverence Arizona’s tribal communities have for the land. Please be respectful of Navajo Nation regulations when visiting Monument Valley to help preserve this ancient site.