Tonto National Monument

near Roosevelt, Ariz. Visited: March 23, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 174 of 353 NPS Website; Local Website WHAT IS IT? Secluded 13th, 14th and 15th-century Salado Indian cliff dwellings perched high in the rugged Upper Sonoran Desert mountains and overlooking the Tonto Valley. BEAUTY (8/10) A beautiful blue sky, towering Saguaro cacti, organ pipe cacti, [...]

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Chiricahua National Monument

southeastern Arizona Visited: March 9, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 168 of 353 NPS Website WHAT IS IT? An unexpectedly soaring high altitude “sky island” oasis, the remnants of a 27 million-year old violent volcanic eruption. The result is towering narrow hoodoo rock pinnacles surrounded by mountains in a land that holds an incredible variant of [...]

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Fort Bowie National Historic Site

near Willcox, Ariz. Visited: March 9, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 167 of 353 NPS Website WHAT IS IT? Ruins of a large adobe U.S. Military Fort. Construction began on Fort Apache in 1862 with the purpose of protecting travelers from the hostile Chiricahua Apaches. The Fort became obsolete just 24 years later when the last [...]

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White Sands National Monument

near Alamogordo, N.Mex. Visited: March 6, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 166 of 353 NPS Website; Local Website WHAT IS IT? The world’s largest gypsum dune field. In other words, nearly 200,000 acres of impossibly white sand dunes that rise to heights as tall as 60 feet. BEAUTY (9/10) The dunes are so white that the [...]

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Carlsbad Caverns National Park

near Carlsbad, N.Mex. Visited: March 5, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 165 of 353 NPS Website; Local Website WHAT IS IT? Your idealized image of a subterranean wonderland. Carlsbad Caverns is the cave by which all others are judged. You may know it as the place where the classic science fiction film, Journey to the Center [...]

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Guadalupe Mountains National Park

near Pine Springs, Texas Visited: March 4, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 164 of 353 NPS Website WHAT IS IT? A National Park, suited especially for hikers, which includes the highest peak in Texas. During the Permian age, the area was underwater and the Guadalupe Mountains are actually the remnants of a non-coral reef. BEAUTY (7/10) [...]

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Big Bend National Park and Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River

southwestern Texas Visited: February 28, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 162 and 163 of 353 NPS Website WHAT IS IT? The southwestern part of Texas where its Mexican border, the Rio Grande, takes a sharp U-Turn. The impossibly rugged area consists of desert, mountainous sky islands and lush wildflowers. Big Bend NP is a world-renowned bird [...]

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