Places melissabaker Wants to Go

Red sandstone structures dominate this landscape, which has been inhabited for some 5,000 years.

One of the most extensive and well-preserved collections of dinosaur footprints in North America.

This small, unassuming street is now a canvas for color and creativity.

This Arizona observatory is famous for investigations into Martian life, and as the place humans first spotted Pluto.

Some of the tallest ancient American ruins continue to inspire awe and curiosity.

This 40-room dwelling tucked within a cliff was built by the basin's prehistoric residents.

A nature and cultural preserve named for its multitude of petroglyphs carved by the Northern Sinagua people.

A working cattle ranch with remarkably well-preserved prehistoric petroglyphs and ancient ruins.

The artist James Turrell is repurposing an extinct volcano crater as an observatory to experience the cosmos.

This striking public art installation is suspended above a public park, designed to gently move in the breeze.

This historic national park is covered in the stunning ruins of red rock pueblos.

Eons ago, a rushing lava river formed this pristine passage through solid rock.

See massive fossils that are over 200 million years old in northeastern Arizona.

A sharp bend in a dramatic river canyon cut through red rocks.

This secluded aqua waterfall in the Grand Canyon is the perfect swimming hole, and the Havasupai tribe's fiercely protected natural wonder.

Most-visited and most-photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest.

Rippling sand dunes frozen in the Arizona rock.

The entire history of the U.S. Space Shuttle Program is painted on an enormous roadside water tank.

This building is a recreation of the gatehouse that separated Los Alamos from the outside world during the era of the Manhattan Project.

This giant pocket watch is the third iteration of a local landmark that has been standing just off the Santa Fe Plaza for over 100 years.

This 47-foot chile pepper sculpture welcomes Scoville heat unit obsessed tourists to the Big Chile Inn.

This remote camping site offers incredible stargazing opportunities.

Explore a misty river canyon from a metal bridge system.

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