"Bernalillo, New Mexico" Bernalillo by MarkJochim

Bernalillo, just 17 miles north of Albuquerque on Interstate 25, was once a tranquil Hispanic village. Today, it is one of New Mexico's fastest-growing towns and is increasingly absorbing the suburban grown northward from Albuquerque and Rio Rancho.

The town's two biggest attractions are the Santa Ana Star Casino - host to some good concerts and a highly-regarded restaurant - and the Coronado State Monument, thought to be the site of a winter encampment by the explorer.

A large wine festival is held here each year on Labor Day weekend (early September). The most memorable event is the Fiesta of San Lorenzo, which has honored the town's patron saint each August 10 for nearly 400 years. The entire town takes to the streets to participate in the traditional masked matachine dance. Matachines, of Moorish origin, were brought to this hemisphere by the Spanish colonists. In New Mexico, various versions are danced to haunting fiddle music in both Native American pueblos and old Spanish villages at different holidays.

Bernalillo is also the gateway for a wonderful day-trip through the Jemez Mountains: from I-25, take US 550 west to NM 4; follow this road through scenic canyons past the Jemez Pueblo, stopping at Jemez Springs with its bath house and ruins and enjoying the crisp mountain air; eventually, NM 4 loops east and you can visit Los Alamos and Bandelier defore descending into Santa Fe. I plan to eventually have Virtual Tourist pages on each of these locales (in addition to a separate one on Coronado State Monument).