The southwestern United States is a region unlike any other, and its plethora of national parks and monuments bear that out. Here, canyons record geologic time in a tableau of color; the history of western expansion reveals itself in hundred-year old adobe walls; grand archaeological sites connect us to the ancient people who lived here hundreds of years ago; vast backcountries shelter flora and fauna found nowhere else on Earth.
Guide to National Parks of the Southwest for anyone who yearns to explore America's greatest places. This guide covers fifty-two sites with great historical, biological, geological, or archaeological significance. Each one is different and unique; each has a story to tell. There are caves, canyons, rivers, deserts, mountains, frontier forts, Spanish churches, cliff dwellings, and million-acre wildernesses, all places of mystery and magic where the power of natural forces and human history can be directly witnessed and experienced.