"New Mexico" a New Mexico Travel Page by desertd

Places to check out, starting from south western New Mexico, would be:
Rockhound...you can take a rock home that you pick up from the trail (1.2 mile loop, and you're allowed to wander off trail), Spring Canyon is right in that area too.
Pancho Villa State Park is further south. City of Rocks is further north, just before Silver City (45min-1hr away), a great place to take your kids-a maze of rocks!
The Gila Cliff dwellings and the Catwalk are past Silver City.
Going further north from the Catwalk, up by Datil is the VLA (very large array- of radio telescopes- seen in the movies, like CONTACT with jodie foster - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/ ).
White Sands National Monument and Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, to the north east of Las Cruces are interesting and beautiful as well.
Leasburg Dam is a tiny park, nice sunsets, the taste of the water was unusual.
All of the parks are very clean and well kept.
More pictures in the future (right now they are all archived on disc).

It was in the middle of May.The best weather ever.
We took I-10 to I-25, went up to Albuquerque. I believe we stayed at El Vado, which is now across the street from the Aquarium, and next to Casa Grande Resturant.
We visited shops in Olde Town, saw and bought our first dream catcher, at The Rattlesnake Museum, I believe. While at the Rattlesnake museum/gift shop, we asked the shop keeper where to go. He suggested going up through Jemez Springs, above Albuquerque. It was a great choice, peaceful drive, old mining town, coffee bar cafe, a little Laughing Lizard Pizza cafe- both delicious. Many art/folk art shops.
Then we went back down to Albuquerque, visited the Rio Grande Botanical Garden, drove up through the Sandia Mnts to see the snow and make a snow man, enjoyed a sunset at the local dead volcanos, chased tumbleweeds. There is also a museum and now a zoo, we haven't been to yet.
Then we decided to go up to Santa Fe. Not much we wanted to do up there, so we just went to a gift/garden shop, Bandelier National Monument, and to the movie theater to see The Crow.
That was beautiful time of year to go, the weather, the flowers and plants...

In 2001 we decided to explore more of New Mexico. We wanted to see a wide variety of the land of enchantment in a short amount of time-a week, mostly tent camping. It was only from Albuquerque, down.
Day 1 and 2:
Started on I-10 from the east again, but went past I-25 to Deming. Stayed at Rockhound for an evening, hiked in the morning, got some groceries and drove to City of Rocks for the evening.
Day 3:
From there we went past Silver City, taking the state hwy 12, to the Catwalk for a small hike along an old mining catwalk. Took 12 to Datil and drove on US HWY 60 to the Nat'l Radio Astronomy Observatory (VLA). Got a ruined tire, made it to Socorro, spent the evening in a motel next to the tire dealer.
Day 4 and 5:
The next day we drove on to Albuquerque (!-25), stayed at El Vado again and had a wonderful, large, filling meal, w/ free desert at Casa Grande. Went to Olde Towne gift shops again and ate at a small coffee bar cafe where we shared a table with small birds.
Day 6:
After staying at El Vado a couple days, we ventured on to the Valley of Fires N'tl Recreational area (I-25-US 380), after looking at some ruins and looking at the Trinity site on the way. Then went down US54 to Three Rivers Petroglyph Nat'l Rec. site for another hike after lunch. We ended the day by driving down to the White Sands Air/Missle test Range to view the outdoor weapons museum.
Then went to White Sands Ntl Monument., where we took another nice hike. Deciding to camp at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, beautiful sunset. Hiked the trail in the morning.
Day 7:
That day we took US70 back to I-25. Went through Hatch,NM to pick up wonderfully priced, ziplock bags full of pure ground hot pepper We drove North to go see Elephant Butte, drive through Truth or Consequences and came back down to camp at Leasburg Dam State Park.
The next day we drove back home.