Traveling to New Mexico, so What Should I See?

[MarkB.]

Green chile-cheeseburger at Sparky's in Hatch; there is not a better burger on the continent.

Travel in New Mexico, like everything from West Texas on, is based on hours. Use 70 mph as your basis.

For instance, its an hour from the El Paso airport to the I-10/I-25 junction in Las Cruces.

Going up I-25:
Its 45 more minutes to Hatch (including time at the checkpoint). Or an hour if you take the more scenic route up the old highway along the Rio Grande.
T or C/Hot Springs is another 45 minutes after that and two more hours to Albuquerque. The VLA is about an hour west of Socorro on your way to Albu and totally not worth it.

Santa Fe is another hour after Albuquerque.

If you go East on NM-70 from Las Cruces, the Nike-Hercules is about 20 minutes. The White Sand National Monument is about 45 minutes and the NM Space Museum in Alamogordo another 30 minutes after that. From there Rosewell is two hours over the mountains and while I agreed the Goddard museum and the UFO kitch are fun, it's not really worth the drive time.

The Nuclear Museum in Albu is absolutely worth seeing and there's lots of Route 66 kitch there, too.

On the upside, New Mexico is a great mix of Native, Spanish and American cultures. Food, art, architecture are different and great. There are lots of historic sites, both ancient and modern. The downside is rampant poverty especially north of Interstate 40/Route 66.

 

[Buckeye]

308 Negra Arroyo Lane, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Los Pollos Hermanos, various locations

 

[MikeT]

LOL.

Mike

 

[JackC]

The Spaceport Cup non-flying events are located in Las Cruces (where I live). Alamogordo is a little over an hour East. White Sands National Monument is on US 70 on the way. The New Mexico Space Museum in Alamogordo is a must-see. WSMR museum and missile park are closed to the public. But, there's a Nike Hercules at the rest stop on the mountain pass from Las Cruces over the White Sands side of the mountains. A nice stop with a view of the Missile Range and Army base. The above stops will take a day.

If you don't have much time, the long drive to Roswell is not worth the trip. The Goddard Museum there is interesting, but that trip will take a whole day with most of the time spent driving.

Albuquerque is 3+ North of Las Cruces, 2 hours North of T or C. Not much to see there to justify the trip, IMO. The VLA on the way is closed to the public.

Within Las Cruces, there are many good restaurants. You might want to visit Old Mesilla and the shops around the historic plaza. La Posta restaurant is well known around the US and beyond.

If you'd like to do some hiking, there are many trails around the Las Cruces area. I've hiked many of them, so just ask I can direct you to one that fits your interests and abilities. 25% of the county around Las Cruces is designated as the Organ Mountains/Desert Peaks National Monument. My property borders on part of this reserved land. Here are some photos I took from my house or nearby:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SATXGcxW39N3tEfP7

The weekend before the Spaceport Cup, Tripoli Las Cruces will have it's monthly HPR launch June 18-19 near Alamogordo.

The land there is beautiful!

 

[c0c0m0ke]

If you are in Albuquerque on a Sunday morning, most likely there will be a hot air balloon race. Colorful and hypnotic.

 

[Texasjohn]

If you are a race fan the Unser family race museum is really cool as well as the atomic museum in Albuquerque are really cool. Find a Blake’s burgers and try ome of their green chili cheese burgers.

in

 

[teepot]

I agree that the miles between places out west is deceiving. 100 miles out here is an hour and 20 minutes. The Strip In Vegas is 65 miles from where I live. I could make it to work at The Mirage in an hour and 15 minutes. That's with early traffic and stop lights. The cops won't even look at you if your doing 80mph in a 70 zone. Once you get away from population centers freeway speeds go up. Some areas it's 75mph and others are 80mph. So 80 equals 90. 10 over and you are probably good to go.

 

[Johnly]

Since it hasn't been mentioned so far, the Three Rivers Petroglyph North of Alamogordo is just plain awesome. On my trips to the area this is one of my favorite stops to wander and absorb the history of the area.

I love the food in the area. My first dinner stop in ABQ is Padilla's Mexican Kitchen 1510 Girard Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106-1823
It's nothing expensive or fancy, just an iconic family restaraunt that serves outstanding SW cuisine.

 

[NananNegain]

From my point of view, the only two things that are worth visiting there, out of the ones that you mentioned, have to be: New Mexico Space Museum and White Sands Missile Range.

 

[cwbullet]

From my point of view, the only two things that are worth visiting there, out of the ones that you mentioned, have to be: New Mexico Space Museum and White Sands Missile Range.

There is a lot more than that.

 

[Johnly]

Three Rivers Petroglyph area about an hour North of Alamogordo is a spectacular area to walk in history.
Anytime I fly into ABQ my first stop is Padilla's Mexican Kitchen.

 

[jsdemar]

From my point of view, the only two things that are worth visiting there, out of the ones that you mentioned, have to be: New Mexico Space Museum and White Sands Missile Range.

WSMR Museum has been closed for a while. Not sure when it will re-open.

 

[NananNegain]

From my point of view, the only two things that are worth visiting there, out of the ones that you mentioned, have to be: New Mexico Space Museum and White Sands Missile Range.

These are basically the best places to visit in New Mexico as well.

 

[Woody's Workshop]

From Google Earth I see Desert, Mountains and River Valleys. Oh, And a border to a very corrupt Country.

 

[Reinhard]

I saw it too late for this year, but I'll leave it here for future reference:



Reinhard

 

[Rob Campbell]

Over The Top,
I was going to warn you about dangerous snakes and spiders in the wild of the US southwest,
But then you are from the land of dangerous creatures.

 

[OverTheTop]

Thanks Reinhard. Nice to meet you there this year! It's always good to put faces and people to names.

 

[Alan Whitmore]

There is a lot more than that.

When I was in Las Cruces for the Spaceport Event this year I found a small botanical garden a few minutes east of Las Cruces in the Organ Mountains that specialized in (what else?) desert plants. Even though the place was small, the plants and the displays showed the fascinating variety of plant species found even in extremely dry places like the high desert. The displays were excellent and accessible to old folk like me, and the explication was comprehensive. Neat Place.

 

[Steven]

https://www.roadsnacks.net/most-dangerous-states-in-america/ https://www.safehome.org/resources/americas-most-dangerous-states/ https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-most-dangerous-states-in-the-u-s.html https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...n-america-violent-crime-murder-rate/40968963/ https://www.thestreet.com/markets/the-10-most-dangerous-states-in-america-12968105 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_violent_crime_rate https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/most-dangerous-places. And there's more.

 

[OverTheTop]

I found a similar place a bit further north. Great to see all the plants that had adapted to that environment. Even saw a wild coyote and roadrunners!

 

[crg0813]

Of course Roswell, the painted desert is realy cool, and the Great Crater

 

[bjphoenix]

Those statistics are hard to relate to- Michigan 551 murders, NY 562 murders and IL 884 murders and they are rated as much less dangerous than NM where there were only 167 murders. I've turned down trips from people who wanted me to go with them to NY City, how many days can you walk around NY City or ride the subway without getting mugged?

But back to NM- White Sands rocket garden is interesting and in Roswell you can see Goddard's rockets and workshop in their museum. If you happen to like caves, Carlsbad Caverns is very interesting.

 

[cls]

Those statistics are hard to relate to

Think about rates, not absolute numbers. Those are most likely events per 100000 people. Dunno, I didn't check.

 

[OverTheTop]

Unfortunately we couldn't get into WS rocket garden as it is just inside the gates of the base. Non US people have to be escorted but it was late in the day and no staff were available.

 

[BEC]

Yeah, there are some places in Albuquerque that I'd rather not wander around in, but the same could be said for some areas of Seattle..... 700 violent crimes per 100,000 people, eh?

Well...I won't be going to those parts of ABQ when I visit family in NM in October, so I'm not particularly worried.

 

[OverTheTop]

Speaking of Albuquerque, I visited a rattlesnake museum there that had a fantastic amount of different species.