The Guide to the National Parks of the Southwest

The southwestern United States, with its astounding collection of national parks and monuments, offers travel unlike any other. Here, canyons record geologic time in a tableau of color. Frontier history unfolds in hundred-year old adobe walls. Impressive 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.

The Guide to National Parks of the Southwest is 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.

The Southwest's treasures were recognized early on, and the gems of the National Park Service are included in this volume - Montezuma Castle, Chaco Canyon, Natural Bridges, Navajo, Tonto, Petrified Forest, Gila Cliff Dwellings, and Grand Canyon. At these sites, and the many others included in The Guide to National Parks of the Southwest, visitors find nearly endless opportunities to camp, hike, boat, bicycle, picnic, sight-see; chances to explore, learn, participate, and contemplate.

Through text and photographs, this guide describes each park and monument and gives practical information to help plan a visit. Over 175 stunning photographs are included, from some of the nation's most well-known landscape photographers. Discover parks that are in a geographic area that stretches from west Texas, through New Mexico and Arizona, and into southern Utah and Colorado. The book features descriptions of 52 National Park Service units, each with a detailed access map, descriptions of the area, and information on interpretive programs, hiking, camping, accommodations, hours, phone numbers, and addresses.