June 4, 2025
Cutting 60 positions from a 2.5-million member civilian workforce might not seem like much, but in Alaska the loss of those National Park Service employees could have devastating effects. THE WHOLE STORY
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So much is happening so quickly to the National Park Service. There have been staff reductions, hiring freezes, spending freezes, orders from the Interior Secretary to make sure that visitors find national parks welcoming, no matter what it takes.... THE WHOLE STORY
At 8,085 feet (2,464.3 meters) above sea level, the iconic El Capitan is the eighth highest peak in Texas and a part of the 260-million-year-old Permian Capitan Reef Complex, one of the most well-preserved fossil reefs in the world.
As you drive eastward from El Paso, Texas, toward Guadalupe Mountains National Park, one of the first things to catch your eye after about an hour’s worth of driving is the light-colored rock of El Capitan at the southernmost point of the park lifting itself high above the atmospheric haze. What you see as you approach this landform is the Western Escarpment of the Guadalupe Mountains, one of the best-exposed geologic cross sections in the world. According to Wikipedia, “An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations.”
Walk the 1.25-mile (2-kilometer) paved trail around the Big Room some 750 feet below the surface at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico and you will view some amazing cave formations that took thousands of years to form - all from the constant drops of calcite-saturated water seeping into the cavern.
How many of you have stopped off at this Walnut Canyon exhibit along the park road not too far from the visitor center at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico? Ancient Indigenous travelers used this rock shelter to protect them from the elements during their journeys through that portion of the Chihuahuan Desert.
While Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico is all about the cave, there are interesting things to see above ground, too. The road you drive to get to the visitor center and cave wends through a portion of the Chihuahuan Desert, considered the "most diverse desert in the Western Hemisphere," according to the National Park Service.
The Bottomless Pit in Carlsbad Caverns National Park is not actually bottomless, but rather about 140 feet (43 meters) deep. Early explorers, however, found the pit to be daunting and named it accordingly. The ladder you see in the photo was not necessarily built to explore the entirety of the pit, but more to simply explore more of the cave, itself. Personally, I think I would take a pass on using the ladder.
As you walk around the Big Room in Carlsbad Cavern at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the word that should come to mind is "baroque," because the many cave formations (speleothems) are so fantastical - and old, having taken thousands of years to form.
Once you reach the end of the Natural Entrance Trail at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, you have the option of taking the elevator back up to the top, or continuing along the 1.25-mile (2-kilometer) paved trail around the amazing, cavernous (pun intended) Big Room.
Once you enter Carlsbad Cavern along the Natural Entrance Trail, you'll still have quite a bit of downhill walking to go (1.25 miles / 2 kilometers) to get to the cavern's Big Room. Along the way, you will see some amazing cave formations (speleothems) like stalactites, stalagmites, and a beautiful cave drapery formation known as Whale's Mouth.
Once you are down into the natural entrance of Carlsbad Cavern at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, stop and take a moment to look back up toward the cave's opening.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico is one of the few cave-centric parks in the National Park System where you can actually take a self-guided tour into the cavern to view the amazing speleothems (cave formations).
Stay up past your bedtime at Dinosaur National Monument to view the bright, starry sky above.
There's a lot of landscape beauty packed into Dinosaur National Monument, straddling the border between Utah and Colorado. You can get to these views from several overlooks as well as five different scenic drives.
Seventy mammal call Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and Colorado their home, including bighorn sheep, which are very good at scaling rocky hills, canyons, and cliffs.
Here's a little throwback for you. Back in the early 1900s, wrapped Jurassic-period fossil bones were hauled out of what is now Dinosaur National Monument via horse. According to the National Park Service: "Dinosaur National Monument includes one of Earth's richest known dinosaur fossil beds. These remains are from the Jurassic period 150 million years ago. During a drought, many dinosaurs died near a river's edge. When rains returned, flood waters carried the jumbled bones of over 500 dinosaurs, representing ten species, here."
Rafting the Yampa and Green rivers in Dinosaur National Monument is a great way to see the landscape from a different perspective. According to the National Park Service, "From origins high in the Rocky Mountains, the Green and Yampa Rivers wind their way across sagebrush covered plains before entering this outstretched arm of the Unita Mountains. The mountains force the rivers into tight channels surrounded by towering cliffs. Drops and obstructions in the rivers create rapids. The thundering fury of Warm Springs, Hells Half Mile and other rapids can challenge even the most experienced boatman. Other locations such as Rippling Brook or Island Park allow you to sit on a quiet beach and escape the pressures of everyday life."
Approximately 800 to 1,400 years ago, this area was home the ancestral indigenous people of the region. They left evidence of their presence in the form of petroglyphs, patterns chipped or carved into the rock, and pictographs, patterns painted on the rock. For a thousand years, this rock overhang has shaded these pictographs from the strong midday sun. This limited exposure to sunlight may have helped to preserve the vibrant colors in these ancient images.
The Quarry Exhibit Hall allows visitors to view the wall of approximately 1,500 dinosaur bones in a refurbished, comfortable space. Here, you can gaze upon the remains of numerous different species of dinosaurs including Allosaurus, Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, and Stegosaurus along with several others.
Located on the Colorado side of the monument, the Harpers Corner Overlook provides a stunning view of the Green and Yampa Rivers as they join and carve vast canyons. The upturned layers of the Mitten Park Fault below the overlook dramatize the millions of years worth of erosion needed to create the staggering geologic views.
Hiking the Ledges Trail in time to view sunset at trail's end is a popular thing to do at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio.
