“What’s in New Mexico?” was the question everybody asked us when we told them we were going there. The answer is, there is a lot in New Mexico. The problem is it’s quite spaced out due to the landscape. We went to NM Nov 23-30. The weather was great – about 50’s and some days were high 60’s. We stayed in Ruidoso which is one of the larger towns around. The whole state seems to consist of 25% mountains and 75% desert so drives are long and boring.
White Sands National Monument
Our first day there we headed to White Sands National Monument. Along the way we stopped at the Alameda Park Zoo which was amazing. We were worried about going the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend but we had the whole zoo to ourselves! It was compact but they still offered a lot and it was only $2.50 to get in. We had a great time. Our favorite exhibits were the mountain lions because they laid on a platform and looked down at you below through the grates (very scary). We also enjoyed the black bear who came over right to us just to say hello and walked back to his cubby. The zoo was so cool we actually went back a second time on the way to the airport going home! Once we got to the White Sands we couldn’t believe how impressive they were. It’s a HUGE gypsum sand dune area, largest of its kind, that is pure white. It looks like salt or snow. Surprisingly, there are actually several animals that live in the dunes. The sand also has a unique feeling. It is very soft and light and not course and grainy like regular sand. We learned in some areas of the sand dunes where water collects crystals actually grow.
Twisters
The next day we headed north to Albuquerque. We ate at Twisters, which is the restaurant that was used as Los Pollos Hermanos in Breaking Bad. Fun fact, they are focused on burgers and burritos, not chicken. Another fun fact, about a week before we were there they were shooting a scene for Better Call Saul. After lunch, we headed to Old Town Albuquerque which was really cool. It had an older feeling to it and there were lots of different shops and restaurants and people selling handmade jewelry on the sidewalks. It was here when I found my beloved Native American made pot that I couldn’t wait to get. Next, we went to the Rio Grande State Park. The park was not super exciting but if you lived there I could see where it would be a neat place to go to walk the trails. The river wasn’t very big at all and it was very muddy. We weren’t sure if it was low season or what. It was also at this park
Petroglyph National Monument
that I learned about the giant desert centipede – an awful creature that crawls out of the pits of hell itself. We didn’t see one thank god for that. Next, we went to Boca Negra Canyon in Petroglyph National Monument. At Boca Negra, we got to climb around an old lava field and view some of the petroglyphs that were carved by Pueblo people over 3000 years ago. It was cool to see some of these drawings especially for how old they are. This was something we wouldn’t normally do but since we were so close we figured”why not?” It was neat to do.
Meow Wolf
The sun was down by 5:30PM there so daylight impacted how much we got to do. We stayed the night in Santa Fe and while there we went to Meow Wolf. Meow Wolf happens to be the number one thing to do in Santa Fe. I had looked it up before we went and couldn’t really figure out what it was. Nothing ever really described it and at most it was called an interactive art experience, whatever that is. I figured anything with the word “art” in it meant Kyle would not be interested but I convinced him to go. We had a GREAT time! It is basically a place that at an old bowling alley. You buy your ticket (go to the bar), walk inside the room and see the outside of a house. You can walk inside the house and everything can be touched. Each room inside has been created by a different artist and there are over 70 rooms. When we walked in the house it was weird at first. We didn’t really know what to do. The instructions were basically “have fun!” There were people all over, going through different rooms, sitting on the couch. The only way to start is to start. We went upstairs and into a bedroom and then opened the closet that had all these funky colorful looking plants under a black light. Another closet opened to a room with neon lights on a ceiling that was wavy and you could walk around it in a circle which then lead to other rooms and more rooms and more levels. It was fun trying to find new stuff and hidden places to go. For example, Kyle opened the door to the laundry machine, crawled inside and slid down. We crawled out of a fireplace and we came out of a fridge. Crazy stuff like that but it was so much fun! I would love to go back.
Bandelier National Monument
Tent Rocks
The next morning we went to Bandelier National Monument. Bandelier was actually pretty neat. We did the Main Loop Trail where we got to use ladders to climb up into cavates and see how the Ancient Pueblos lived. Cavates were rooms carved from stone into the sides of cliffs. Some of these rooms were so big there were multiple rooms connected and tall enough that Kyle could even stand inside. It was fun to climb the ladders and see what was up there. One that we hiked to was called the Alcove House. This house was 140 feet up and it took four different steep ladders to climb up to it. The area was very big and it was hard to imagine what life would have been like so many years ago. After Bandelier, we went to the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks. I was very excited to go here once we decided we were going to NM. After visiting Goblin Valley in Utah I’m a big fan of hudu rock formations. Unfortunately, due to the daylight issue, we only got to do one hike but it was an AWESOME hike. The hike we did was the Canyon Trail which leads you through a slot canyon and then an ascent to the mesa (630ft climb). We had never walked through a slot canyon before. The walk gets so narrow in some spots you have to turn sideways and only one person can go through at a time. In some areas you have to crawl over boulders and around them. The canyon doesn’t get a whole lot of sunlight so it’s chilly but it felt great. It was super fun. I think I said “this is so cool!” about 100 times. The top of the mesa gave us some really neat
views of the canyon below.
The Cave Man
The next day we drove down to Carlsbad Caverns. The cave was made a national park in 1930 but it was formed millions of years ago. We descended 750 feet into the “Big Room”of the cave using the 1.25 mile natural entrance. Once we got to the Big Room it was another 1.25 miles to walk around it which tells you exactly how big this thing actually is. Everywhere you looked there was a different type of formation and we got to learn about some that we had never even heard of before. Some of the formations were so big they looked like giant monsters. Cave explorers started naming them for navigational guides. My favorite monster they named Cave Man. It was amazing to learn how big this cave was and the fact that there is much more of it that hasn’t even been explored. We were down in the cave for nearly two hours and took the elevator back to the top. The elevator was cool in that instead of showing what floor you were passing it would show you the elevation beneath the surface. Funny story – they tell you before you get into the cave to talk at a whisper because voices carry longways. We had the whole cave to ourselves for a long time (which was cool and eerie at the same time) but then somebody entered behind us. And what does everybody do when they are in a cave? They yell “Hello?” of course. There was a park ranger in the cave and she thought it was us. She politely whispered and reminded us to keep our voices down. It wasn’t us though!
Roswell
The next day we went to Roswell. I was pretty excited to go here but it really wasn’t that exciting. Roswell is a fairly large city actually and not the small town I expected. There were a few alien related souvenir stores and we did visit the International UFO Museum to learn about the Roswell incident. The rest of the day we just bummed around and later went to a comedy show at one of the local casinos. It was pretty fun as the show ended up derailing and turned into an interactive comedy show. The comedian asked one lady to name all her kids in 10 seconds and she couldn’t (she had seven). Poor Mike Jr.
Smokey Bear
Our last day we did some more bumming around. We went to the birth place of Smokey the Bear and got to learn about the poor bear cub that was burnt in a forest fire. The cub was only five pounds when they found him clinging to a tree. His mom had left him and later he became the living mascot of Smokey. They actually created a harness for him and flew him in a plane to DC where he lived at the National Zoo (which we’ve been to!). We then stopped at a really cool wood carving place called Bears R Us where we got to watch them use a chainsaw to carve a wood alien. The place was so cool. I wish they were here because I would have loved to buy some more things but we did buy a cute bear to hang on a tree outside.
That pretty much concluded our trip to New Mexico. We had a fun time. I’m pretty sure where we stayed was haunted. Most of the time I can explain weird things but feeling like something is touching my hair and hearing a bang from nowhere is pretty hard. I don’t think it would be our first place to re-visit as I feel like we pretty much got the best of it but I’m glad we got to go and check out another cool place. We had a pretty good time and got to see things we’ve never seen before.
