According to the National Park Service, "Guadalupe Mountains National Park protects the world's most extensive Permian fossil reef, the four highest peaks in Texas, an environmentally diverse collection of flora and fauna, and the stories of lives shaped through conflict, cooperation and survival."

Welcome to the entrance of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, location of the Pine Springs Visitor Center and the start of several iconic trails.

At 8,085 feet (2,464.3 meters) above sea level, the iconic El Capitan is the eighth highest peak in Texas and a part of the 260-million-year-old Permian Capitan Reef Complex, one of the most well-preserved fossil reefs in the world.

As you drive eastward from El Paso, Texas, toward Guadalupe Mountains National Park, one of the first things to catch your eye after about an hour’s worth of driving is the light-colored rock of El Capitan at the southernmost point of the park lifting itself high above the atmospheric haze. What you see as you approach this landform is the Western Escarpment of the Guadalupe Mountains, one of the best-exposed geologic cross sections in the world.

Walk the 1.25-mile (2-kilometer) paved trail around the Big Room some 750 feet below the surface at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico and you will view some amazing cave formations that took thousands of years to form - all from the constant drops of calcite-saturated water seeping into the cavern.

How many of you have stopped off at this Walnut Canyon exhibit along the park road not too far from the visitor center at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico? Ancient Indigenous travelers used this rock shelter to protect them from the elements during their journeys through that portion of the Chihuahuan Desert.

While Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico is all about the cave, there are interesting things to see above ground, too. The road you drive to get to the visitor center and cave wends through a portion of the Chihuahuan Desert, considered the "most diverse desert in the Western Hemisphere," according to the National Park Service.

The Bottomless Pit in Carlsbad Caverns National Park is not actually bottomless, but rather about 140 feet (43 meters) deep. Early explorers, however, found the pit to be daunting and named it accordingly. The ladder you see in the photo was not necessarily built to explore the entirety of the pit, but more to simply explore more of the cave, itself. Personally, I think I would take a pass on using the ladder.

As you walk around the Big Room in Carlsbad Cavern at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the word that should come to mind is "baroque," because the many cave formations (speleothems) are so fantastical - and old, having taken thousands of years to form.

Once you reach the end of the Natural Entrance Trail at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, you have the option of taking the elevator back up to the top, or continuing along the 1.25-mile (2-kilometer) paved trail around the amazing, cavernous (pun intended) Big Room.