Snow Geese descend by the thousands, dropping from the sky to blanket lakes and fields in white and fill the air with their raucous honking. They arrive on the Gulf Coast in the fall and winter after nesting in huge colonies in the Arctic Tundra over the summer.

Snowy Egrets look as though they've accidentally stepped in a pool of yellow paint. Their legs are black down to their ankles and then suddenly turn a bright yellow at their feet.

American Avocets have an elegant posture, a needle of a bill that turns up at the end and a rich cinnamon plumage during breeding season.

The McKittrick Canyon Trail is two trails in one. The first is a pleasant, relatively flat stroll through the valley of McKittrick Canyon, intertwined with a desert stream. The second is probably the toughest stretch of trail in Guadalupe Mountains ...

Rolling hills and sweeping valleys give way to rugged peaks on this remote hike in Guadalupe Mountains National Park that combines some of the most dramatic scenery from Dog Canyon and its nearby sibling, McKittrick Canyon. The hike begins on ...

  Their home was nestled among willow and pecan trees at the foot of Burro Mesa. There was a shaded patio of flagstones at the back of the house and flowerbeds around a hand-dug well lined with rocks that was ...

The darker rhyolite and yellow breccia layers from the bluff at the start of the trail carry through the rock walls here. Sculpted rhyolite forms the top half of the pour-off, while the more heavily eroded Wasp Spring breccia lies ...

With the tall walls and narrow pathway between them, the trail is fortuitously shaded much of the time. As it reaches the sandy banks of the river, the trail becomes less distinct. To get to the most dramatic views at ...

bottom of a 200-foot pour-off that becomes a gushing a waterfall after a heavy rain. In the fall, the surrounding foliage of red oaks and maples turns a bright yellow and scarlet. The walk back through the high desert brings ...