Cathedral Gorge State Park is a public recreation area and geologic preserve featuring a dramatic landscape of eroded soft bentonite clay covering almost 1,800 acres (730 ha) in Lincoln County, Nevada.

A majority of Meadow Valley (which lies along U.S. Route 93 from the towns of Caliente to Panaca) was covered by a freshwater lake nearly 5 million years ago during the Pliocene Era.

Within the valley center, clay, sand, and gravel have melded to form a rich, granulated soil that encourages the growth of the following species: narrowleaf yucca, juniper trees, barberry sagebrush, greasewood, white sage, shadscale, four-winged saltbush.

[9] Small mammals form a majority of the park's animal population: black-tailed jackrabbits, cottontail rabbits, coyotes, gophers, kangaroo rats, kit foxes, mice, and skunks.

[9] Known locally as "caves,"[10] the park's extremely narrow slot canyons were cut from the mud that lay at the bottom of the lake millions of years ago.

Explorers can crawl through tunnels to discover hidden chambers in the network of canyons which offer some coolness in the summer heat.