The Exploring Zigzaggers

Blue Mesa is one of the most striking landscapes in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, where blue, purple, gray, and peach bands sweep across rounded badland hills. Part… Read more: Blue Mesa’s Otherworldly Hills and Prehistoric Secrets | Petrified Forest

Newspaper Rock overlook in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, offers a fascinating connection between Indigenous history and the desert landscape. More than 650 petroglyphs cover rock surfaces below… Read more: Newspaper Rock: Ancient Stories Written in Stone | Petrified Forest

The Tepees in Petrified Forest National Park are cone-shaped hills striped with blue-gray, purple, and reddish sediment, making them a memorable stop on a road trip through northeastern… Read more: Beyond Petrified Wood: Discover Arizona’s Colorful Tepees | Petrified Forest

The Painted Desert in Petrified Forest National Park is a landscape of layered hills, flat-topped mesas, and deeply eroded badlands in northeastern Arizona. Its red, pink, purple, and… Read more: Beyond the Colors: Discovering the Painted Desert | Petrified Forest

The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in the Albuquerque area of New Mexico explores how discoveries about the atom transformed the modern world. A Smithsonian Affiliate… Read more: Atoms That Changed the World: Inside New Mexico’s Nuclear Museum

Old Town Albuquerque is the city’s historic heart, where a central plaza, adobe architecture, and small businesses preserve the character of an early Southwestern settlement. Established as a… Read more: Beyond the Plaza: Discover Old Town Albuquerque’s Hidden Gems | New Mexico

Downtown Albuquerque is a lively center of business, government, arts, and entertainment where railroad history meets the modern Southwest. Its growth began when the railroad arrived and encouraged… Read more: Beyond the Skyline: Discover Downtown Albuquerque | New Mexico

The New Mexico State Capitol in Santa Fe, affectionately known as the Roundhouse, combines a working seat of government with architecture and public art that reflect the state’s… Read more: Beyond Politics: Exploring New Mexico’s Remarkable Roundhouse | Santa Fe

Santa Fe, New Mexico’s capital, brings together centuries of human history and the mountain landscapes of the American Southwest. Sitting roughly 7,000 feet above sea level near the… Read more: Adobe Walls and Hidden Stories: Discover Santa Fe | New Mexico

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in southern Colorado protects an extraordinary landscape where the tallest sand dunes in North America rise against the Sangre de Cristo… Read more: Great Sand Dunes National Park: A Landscape Shaped by Wind and Water | Colorado

The drive from Pagosa Springs to Monte Vista along US-160 is one of southern Colorado’s most dramatic transitions, beginning in the broad valleys near Pagosa Springs, climbing deep… Read more: Driving Across the San Juans: Pagosa Springs to Monte Vista on US-160 | Colorado

Pagosa Springs is a small mountain town in southwestern Colorado, set along the San Juan River near the southern edge of the San Juan Mountains. Its setting gives… Read more: Exploring the Geothermal Wonders of Pagosa Springs | Colorado

Santa Rita Park and the surrounding Animas River–Smelter Mountain corridor form one of Durango, Colorado’s most interesting combinations of recreation, history, and natural science. The 6.2-acre park lies… Read more: Santa Rita Park: Where Durango’s Railroad History Meets the Animas River | Colorado

Durango is a historic mountain town in southwestern Colorado, set in the Animas River Valley at the edge of the San Juan Mountains. The community developed as an… Read more: Durango, Colorado: A Traveler’s Gateway to History and Nature

Spruce Tree House is one of the most impressive Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park and is the third largest cliff dwelling in the park.… Read more: Inside the Story of Spruce Tree House | Mesa Verde National Park

Sun Temple is one of the most unusual archaeological structures in Mesa Verde National Park. Located on the mesa top near Cliff Palace, the large D-shaped building was… Read more: Sun Temple: An Ancient Pueblo Mystery in Mesa Verde | Colorado

Cliff Palace is the largest known cliff dwelling in North America and one of the most recognizable archaeological sites in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. Built by Ancestral… Read more: Cliff Palace: Inside Mesa Verde’s Largest Cliff Dwelling | Colorado

The Pithouses and Early Pueblo Villages site at Mesa Verde National Park shows how Ancestral Pueblo communities gradually changed the way they built their homes. Early families lived… Read more: From Pithouses to Pueblos: Early Life at Mesa Verde | Colorado

Square Tower House is one of the most distinctive cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park, located along the Mesa Top Loop on Chapin Mesa. Its defining feature… Read more: Square Tower House: Mesa Verde’s Remarkable Cliff Dwelling

Navajo Canyon is one of the deep, winding canyons that dissect the high plateau of Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado. From Navajo Canyon View along Mesa… Read more: Exploring Navajo Canyon in Mesa Verde National Park

The Pithouse on Mesa Top Loop Road represents one of the earliest forms of permanent housing built by the Ancestral Pueblo people at Mesa Verde. Permanent farmsteads began… Read more: Inside Mesa Verde’s Ancient Pithouse: Life 1,400 Years Ago

The La Plata Mountains form a compact, rugged mountain group on the southwestern margin of Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, rising dramatically above the lower country near Mancos and… Read more: La Plata Mountains: Snowy Peaks Above the Mancos Valley | Colorado

The San Gorgonio Pass near Banning, California, is a dramatic natural corridor between the San Bernardino Mountains to the north and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south.… Read more: San Gorgonio Pass: California’s Gateway Between Mountains and Desert

One fascinating fact about Times Square in New York City is that it was originally called Longacre Square. It was renamed Times Square in 1904 after The New… Read more: Times Square: The Crossroads of the World | New York

The teddy-bear cholla (Cylindropuntia bigelovii) is one of the most distinctive cacti of the North American deserts. Despite its soft-looking, almost glowing appearance, the “fur” is actually a… Read more: Teddy-Bear Cholla: The Desert Cactus You Shouldn’t Hug

Big Spring Canyon Overlook is a scenic viewpoint at the end of the paved Needles Park Road in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, southeastern Utah. The… Read more: Big Spring Canyon Overlook: Sandstone Towers of the Needles District | Canyonlands National Park

The Needles District of Canyonlands National Park occupies the park’s southeastern corner, where sandstone towers, open grasslands, and shallow canyons create a landscape best explored through scenic drives… Read more: Beyond the Spires: The Living Desert of the Needles | Canyonlands National Park

The Indian Creek Corridor Scenic Byway follows UT-211 through southeastern Utah, connecting US-191 with the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. The drive unfolds through narrow canyons and… Read more: Indian Creek Corridor Scenic Byway: A Journey Through Utah’s Canyon Country

Newspaper Rock Archaeological Site is a remarkable outdoor record of Indigenous history beside Indian Creek in southeastern Utah. Its sandstone panel preserves generations of petroglyphs—images carved or pecked… Read more: Newspaper Rock: Stories Carved into Utah’s Sandstone

The La Sal Mountains rise above Dry Valley and the red-rock country of southeastern Utah, creating one of the most dramatic elevation contrasts on the Colorado Plateau. The… Read more: Church Rock and the Scenic Road to the La Sal Mountains | Utah