Places daveschaaf Wants to Go

This highest peak in New Mexico is named after an explorer who had a habit of lending his moniker to peaks.

The winter home of thousands of beautiful snow geese and sandhill cranes.

The hallowed remains of a 900-year old Ancestral Pueblo great house.

Adobe ruins punctuate the beauty of an 800 foot canyon carved by the Canadian River.

The 7,000-year-old calcium carbonate formation creates a magnificent natural bridge.

The building stands within a quiet, postcard-perfect New Mexico village.

The state bird of New Mexico, constructed entirely out of garbage.

Some 2,000 carvings show this rare desert spring has been an oasis for travelers for over a thousand years.

This towering volcanic plug stands out among the dramatic formations that dot this otherworldly desert valley.

A frozen oasis lies beneath the scorching New Mexico desert.

On the edge of the Valles Caldera National Preserve, these rock formations create an eerie landscape.

Thousands of pieces of art have been carved into the rock at the site of an ancient volcanic eruption.

The shattered remnants of a meteor that struck Santa Fe more than a billion years ago.

This high desert botanical garden is a unique display of New Mexico’s ecology and culture.

This volcano rises like a giant anthill from the plains below, with a road spiraling up to the rim.

More than 21,000 images fill this overlooked gem of a prehistoric site.

Wee (and not so wee) footprints that insects and reptiles of the Paleozoic Era left behind.

A preserve with 75,000 ancient drawings remains the realm of public – not just scientific – exploration.

A unique geological area spiked with wind-carved rocks that resemble teepees.

Natural sonic phenomenon comes with a grisly legend of murder and blood.

The official atomic museum of the United States explores the explosive and productive history of a much maligned energy source.

One of the American Southwest's most extensive collections of Navajo rock art.

A small metropolis of Pueblo cave dwellings have been carved right into the hillside of this national monument.

A cave's rare beauty held a cavernous secret hidden underground.