Captain John Smith thought these cliffs were amazing in 1608 but sharks thought so 20 million years before him.

The land is home to swimming ponies and a legendary 18th-century treasure.

Catch two 18-foot-tall ranchers mid-brawl as you drive by on Highway 285.

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

The remains of Abó, Gran Quivera, and Qurai are monuments to the long, complicated history of the Indigenous people of the Southwest.

This popular pitstop lives up to its name.

A blacklight journey through a celestial art exhibit.

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

These ruins of a pre-Columbian cliff village are among the most beautiful and well preserved in New Mexico.

This is one really big nut.

Twice a year, visitors can tour the desolate site that birthed the Atomic Age.

Legends surround this jagged rock formation in the New Mexico desert.

This fast-food outlet is the only space and UFO-themed McDonalds in the world.

A clear blue swimming hole with hidden caves, still unexplored.

A museum dedicated to the alleged Roswell Incident.

The second-largest cave chamber in the world was discovered in 1898 by a 16-year-old and a friend known as "Pothead."

Seemingly grown on some other world, these New Mexico rock formations look like a disused science fiction set.

Explore the largest pure gypsum deposit in the world, and go dune sledding while you're at it.

An immersive environment that is part haunted house, part choose-your-own-adventure, and part jungle gym.

This rusted car found in Petrified Forest National Park's Route 66 exhibit may be the most photographed abandoned car in the country.

The largest copper mine in Arizona, this enormous open pit emerges from the hills like an alien landscape.

The state's only comprehensive museum dedicated to the mineral that defined its history and economy.

This public square capitalized on a single Eagles reference to bring some life back to an Arizona town.

A motel dedicated to Southwestern nostalgia.