GRISWOLDDAD
Parenting, Entertainment, and Travel Tips
Things to Do in New Mexico
*For the top yearly event in the Santa Fe area, click here. For Albuquerque and the rest of New Mexico, click here.
...following Route 66 from Amarillo to Roswell, I couldn't pass up this photo op ....
Albuquerque
This is a major stop along the famous Route 66 highway. Plenty of stops from its heyday are still there to see today. The Route 66 Diner, Kimo Theater, Jones Motor Company (now called Kelly's Brew Pub), the Nob Hill area, and the El Vado Auto Court Motel.
A keen eye will notice the Kimo Theater has swastikas all over it. This is, of course, because swastikas were a symbol of life and prosperity before Hitler absconded with the symbol. The Native American owned Kimo had the decoration before WWII and kept it after, continuing its message of peace, not hatred.
The Petroglyph Monument is one of the largest petroglyph sites in North America, with carvings in volcanic rock by Native Americans and Spanish settlers from 400 to 700 years ago.
Albuquerque also has the biggest hot air balloon festival in the world, the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Hundreds of balloons take flight each October, many of them in very unique and taking shapes of characters such as Darth Vader or shapes like cows, pigs, or a stagecoach. Most release in daylight, but many release during the morning or evening "glows" in which the balloons light up the sky with their fires. Either way, it's very pretty and a lot of fun. They even have tent shops and bouncy houses to further the entertainment. Be aware, though, October in New Mexico in the morning...can be VERY cold. When we were there for the morning glow, it was below freezing.
Kelly's Brew Pub
Route 66 Diner
El Don Motel
Kimo Theater
Carlsbad Caverns
New Mexico's largest show cave, Carlsbad Caverns, is an underground treasure filled with rock formations on the walls, ceilings, and floors. Stalactites. Stalagmites. Bats! Lots of fun can be had in this underground wonder. The Big Room is the largest cavern, the fifth biggest in the country. The Bat Room holds most of the bat population of the caverns. The Queen's Chamber is considered the most beautiful of the cave rooms. The caverns spread out so much farther than just these most popular rooms, though, there are many more rooms to explore!
Hall of Giants
Doll's Theater
Farmington
Farmington has one of the coolest places to stay in the world! Kokopelli's Cave. You can stay in a cave! This place shows up on all of the weird places to stay lists for two reasons, it's an entire "hotel room" inside of a cave, and it's an amazingly luxurious stay to boot.
The cave house is "built into the vertical cliffs of Tertiary Ojo Alamo sandstone and overlooks the beautiful La Plata river valley some 300’ below. The cave itself is 70’ below the surface. The entrance is located in the cliff face and is reached by walking down a sloping path and steps cut into the sandstone along the pathway. From the Cave and the cliff tops, you have an unparalleled view of our beautiful southwest sunsets over the beautiful La Plata River valley and the four states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado that make up the Four Corners."
The pathway to the entrance is occasionally steep and hugs the edge of the cliff...it can be a little scary at moments, especially if you're there with kids. When we went with our boys, my wife and I had a death grip on their hands so that they couldn't make any wrong moves!
Once we were in the cave, the boys loved it. They ran wild. They colored images of Kokopelli. They tried to hide little rocks around the cave, as seems to be a tradition here. There's a rock waterfall shower/Jacuzzi tub. A "deck" with one of the most amazing sunsets imaginable. A grill for cooking out. If you're lucky, and look at the right time of day, you'll see one of the ring tailed cats just outside the glass door. While in Farmington, if you can pull yourself away from the cave, go see the Aztec Ruins National Monument, a monument to the ancient pueblo people.
Gallup
In the heyday of Route 66, Gallup was home to the Hollywood stars as they traveled through the state. Where'd they stay? The El Rancho Hotel, which is still there and thriving. Every name from Bogart to Jimmy Stewart stayed there, Errol Flynn, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Ronald Reagan, John Wayne, Bob Hope and so on. Today the rooms are all named after those old Hollywood legends. We stayed in the Errol Flynn room. Truly "old Hollywood"!
Gila Cliff Dwellings
The 700 year old homes built into the side of cliffs by the ancient Pueblo people can be see at the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument.
Gila Cliff Dwellings
Lincoln County
Ever heard of the Lincoln County land wars? This was the beginning of the American outlaw named Billy the Kid! In the Lincoln Historic Site, you can tour the courthouse that sentenced Billy to death, the jail he was imprisoned in, and Tunstall's Store (the cattle rancher Billy worked for until Tunstall's murder sent Billy on a rampage).
Los Alamos and Alamogordo
I'm grouping these two towns together, though they are four hours apart, because they both participated in the dawn of the Nuclear Age. Los Alamos was the site of the secret Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bomb, used in WWII.
Testing was done at Alamogordo, and you can see the site of the first bomb! You can visit the museum about the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. White Sands National Monument, in Alamogordo, is a desert made of beautiful white sandy dunes. You can go sledding on those sand dunes!
Trinity Site Marker
White Sands National Monument
Roswell
UFO central. Roswell is famous for the supposed 1947 crash of a UFO that was then moved in secret to Area 51. This eccentric town has embraced this concept, attracting believers from around the world. The lampposts light covers are shaped like alien heads! There's alien themed art throughout the city. There's also the UFO Museum, which gives all of the potential "history" of the alien crash as well as the alien autopsy viewing. The Alien Zone "museum" provides cheesy alien photo ops and a lot of fun.
Locals don't advise you trying to find the site of the crash anymore, as it's just farmland and people often get stuck...and that's if the private road isn't closed off. Plus there's plenty of kitschy alien shopping to be found in the fun, mostly hippy owned shops.
Santa Fe
Pueblo style homes and buildings cover Santa Fe, which adds to its unique beauty. The downtown shopping at the Plaza has been going since 1610, so the area is alive not just with shopping but also with history and culture. The city also has the famous Loretto Chapel and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.
Loretto Chapel is a gorgeous chapel, but people go mostly to see the "miracle staircase." Two mysteries surround this staircase, how it is structurally sound and doesn't fall because it looks like it's floating...and who built it. Some believe Jesus himself had a hand in it.
Ship Rock
Shiprock is a monadnock rock formation (a giant rock, that in this case resembles a ship) that rises high above the plains of Navajo country in San Juan County. It also happens to have shown up in countless Hollywood westerns.
Taos Pueblo
Approximately 1000 years old, Taos Pueblo is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Tiwa-speaking Native American tribe of Pueblo people. Today it stands as the largest surviving multi-storied Pueblo structure in the United States and is the only living Native American community designated both a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and a National Historic Landmark.
The tour gives you a lot of history of the village. Plus, there are shops selling their people's handmade and handcrafted art.
