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Tucked away in the Tularosa basin, these dazzling White Sand dunes take the title of the largest gypsum sand dunefield in the world. The dunes cover 275 square  miles and are all protected by the National Park service! The sand itself was left behind by the Permian Sea millions of years ago.  Steady and strong southwest winds keep the sand moving and piling up year over year. This constant movement gives the sand it's wavy appearance (as pictured above). Vegetation peaks through the dunes to provide both food and shelter for the park's wildlife. Thanks to this vegetation, there is...

In southern Arizona, tucked into the dry desert, you'll find Saguaro National Park. The park is named after the largest cacti species in the world: the saguaro. In the park, these cacti tower over the desert floor in thousands. These cacti can grow up to 70 feet tall and live up to 200 years. However, on average, they grow to around 40 feet. Saguaros grow very slowly and will only grow 1-2" in their first 8 years of life. Their branches tend to appear at 50-70 years old.  The park itself is split into 2 districts. The west side has a denser population of Saguaros...

In Northern Arizona, you'll find a 120,000+ acre park filled with petrified wood which is how the name was coined: Petrified Forest National Park. These deposits of petrified wood have been dated back as far as 225 million years ago in the late Triassic period. The petrified wood is considered a fossil and is the only one found in the area.  The presence of these fossils have made the park very popular with paleontologists since the early 1900's. The Petrified wood can appear blue, orange, red, purple, yellow, black, brown and white. These colors are created from the minerals: quartz,...

It has long been believed that the Colorado River began carving the Grand Canyon about 6 million years ago. However, a 2012 study contained shocking evidence that the process may have begun as far back as 70 million years! While still very grand, the Grand Canyon is not the deepest canyon in the world. The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon in Tibet plummets to a depth of 17,567 feet - making it a whole 2 miles deeper than the Grand Canyon's 6,093 feet! However, that first look at the canyon is one you'll never forget. Indeed, very grand and beautiful! When visiting...

Happy and sad to say we've made it to the last National Park on our Utah Tour for this blog series: Arches National Park! This park is appropriately named because it has the densest concentration of natural stone arches in the world! It's most popular arch can be seen above and named "Delicate Arch."  There are over 2,000 documented arches in the park boundary! The arches range from thin cracks to spanning greater than 300 feet, like the landscape arch. The intriguing thing about this park and it's geological features are how they formed. First, the are held a specific kind of...