11 Essential Places To Visit in New Mexico as a First Timer
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New Mexico is known as the “Land of Enchantment” for its stunning desert landscape, distinctive architecture, and rich, colorful culture. A single trip to New Mexico will enchant your senses and captivate your imagination.
Let me show you why New Mexico deserves to be named among the top American tourist destinations. New Mexico is an epic state to explore with diverse geography, wide open deserts, Southwestern culture, historical parks and sites and a little alien business. New Mexico is a state everyone should visit at least once.
In today’s post, I will share my list of 11 essential places to visit when in New Mexico, especially if it is your first time visiting. Let’s dive into what makes this such a perfect travel destination!
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is located in the Guadalupe Mountains of southern New Mexico, and it is one of the state’s two National Parks. While i’m not typically a cave-lover, the park is one the most most surreal places I have ever visited.
Carlsbad is a collection of more than 120 caverns. The main attraction and namesake cave, Carlsbad Cavern, is home to the Big Room, the largest limestone chamber in America. It measures almost 4,000 feet long, 625 feet wide and 255 feet tall at its highest point! The cavern was discovered in 1898 when a teenager went exploring with a homemade ladder and stepped into a massive, intricately formed underground world. He named many of the rooms himself, including the Big Room as it is still known today.
While the depths of the cave continue to be explored today, the length of the cave is believed to be approximately 40 miles. A day exploring the caverns feels like you’ve stepped onto another planet. Plan to spend a half day here exploring the cave and longer if you are a hardcore photography lover.
Visitors can access the caves one of two ways: by walking the Natural Entrance Trail or by elevator access at the visitor center. The Natural Entrance Trail is extremely steep and will take the average hiker about an hour to complete. The trail has a total elevation change of roughly 750 feet (or a 75 story building) so it is not for the faint or unfit.
You absolutely must add this unreal destination to the top of your list of places to hit in New Mexico.
New Mexico is home to not one, but two National Parks that will leave you feeling as though you have stepped onto another planet. Hmm, maybe that’s why this state is so obsessed with the idea of otherworldliness! White Sands is the second National Park jewel of New Mexico and it is a must-see when visiting the state.
Located three hours from the cold, dark caves of Carlsbad lie the warm, glistening white and seemingly endless gypsum dunes of White Sands National Park. The park is made of gypsum sand which developed over 12,000 years as rainwater dissolved gypsum from the area mountains and deposited it in the Tularosa Basin where the sand dunes formed.
White Sands is one of the most recent officially named National Parks, having received this designation in 2019. Despite its youth, White Sands deserves to be on your travel radar. The bright white dunes here appear to stretch for miles and will leave visitors feeling as though they are in another world entirely. Adventure lovers should consider backcountry camping in the park or sledding down the soft white dunes on one of the snow saucers that are sold in the park.
We found White Sands to be a far less populated park, with plenty of spots to enjoy the untouched dunes while feeling like the only person on earth. With the stark white dunes stretching for miles, it somehow makes the sky seem a brighter blue. Against the San Andreas and Sacramento Mountains rising in the distance, this place is pure Instagram perfection.
No, number three on the list is not another National Park…it’s a National Monument! New Mexico has the third most National Monuments of any state in America with a whopping THIRTEEN (after California and Arizona, tied with eighteen apiece). Bandelier National Monument is a destination worth prioritizing and is one of my favorite stops in New Mexico. It’s packed with history and welcomes visitors to have a hands-on experience.
Located near Los Alamos, New Mexico, Bandelier is home to many well-preserved cliff dwellings created by the ancestral Pueblo people who inhabited the area some 10,000 years ago! Visitors to the area can hike one of many trails including one to the popular Alcove House, with preserved cliff dwellings that visitors can pop into and explore via ladders. It is impossible to walk along the trails without being blown away by the uniqueness and sheer scale of the cliff dwellings.
A visit to Bandelier is a super fun way to get immersed in and explore history. And with the ability to climb up and into cliff dwellings, even the little ones will be entertained.
In New Mexico, the imprints of days long past are everywhere, and visitors can see some of those imprints up close at Petroglyph National Monument. This monument is located on the West Side of Albuquerque and is home to thousands of petroglyphs. For those not familiar, a petroglyph is an ancient rock art formations carved into volcanic rock.
Head to the visitor center for a map of the various sites and to learn a little history of the petroglyphs before heading out to explore. When visiting, note that the sites are distinct areas of interest which are largely in the middle of rural areas and are not in the immediate vicinity of the visitor center. There are a variety of hikes offered in Petroglyph National Monument, but many visitors favor trekking Rinconada Canyon Trail which has more than 300 petroglyphs to view along the way.
National Parks, National Monuments, National Historic Parks…pretty much every corner of New Mexico is historically fascinating. Chaco Culture is home to the most comprehensive collection of ancient ruins north of Mexico. The area received the Historic Park designation for being one of the most significant pre-Columbian ancestral places in the country.
Chaco Canyon was once home to ancestral Puebloans who skillfully built what was at the time the largest building in the country, complete with 650 rooms! Visitors to the site today can walk around the remains of the many incredible sandstone great houses and smaller dwellings that date back roughly to AD900 and 1100.
The area is home to many well-preserved ruins; however, the area is considered fragile with some parts closed to avoid excessive tourist traffic and further disintegration. Visitors should take exceptional caution to leave no trace and respect the land in an effort to protect the integrity of this ancient treasure.
Did you know one of the highest bridges in the United States is located in New Mexico? The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge located in Taos is one of the most massive and majestic bridges in the country. It is currently the second highest U.S Highway System bridge and overall the fifth highest bridge in America. This stunning bridge has been awarded the distinction of “Most Beautiful Steel Bridge” by the American Institute of Steel Construction.
The bridge has become a popular spot for tourists to come for the views of the river cutting through the jagged gorge some 650 feet down, if you’re brave enough to peer into the depths. There are lovely trails to walk along the rim of the gorge. If the bridge looks familiar to you, that’s because it has been featured in several films including Natural Born Killers and Terminator: Salvation, among others. If you’re a total geek for bridges like me, the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge is definitely worth a stop.
With a chest high guard-rail, the only thing between you and meeting your end at the bottom, please don’t do anything foolish. I don’t want to hear of any readers tumbling to their deaths trying to get the perfect snap for Instagram. You’ve been warned!
7. Taos Pueblo
While in the Taos area, take some time to check out Taos Pueblo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and National Historic Landmark. The pueblo is currently the only Native American community to have earned both distinctions. These fascinating multi-story homes are made entirely of adobe with an architectural style that is uniquely New Mexico.
When visiting, keep in mind that this is a living community; these multi-storied homes dating back to the 14th century are still inhabited today. Visitors can take a guided tour of the community and purchase locally handmade items. The sheer uniqueness of the architecture makes the Pueblo worth a stop.
From the Sante Fe area, head out about an hour south and explore the strange rock formations known as Tent Rocks. Yet another New Mexico jewel that looks like it belongs on another planet, Tent Rocks is a natural wonder. The main draw here is the bizarrely shaped conical hoodoo structures known as Tent Rocks (…or penis rocks, as I call them). These oddball structures developed after volcanic eruptions 6-7 million years ago left a trail of pumice, ash and tuff deposits in their wake. Most of the Tent Rocks have distinctive boulder caps which contributes to their phallic-like appearance.
Visitors can make the steep hike down through slot canyons so narrow that you can touch the walls on both sides. The park has been under closure due to COVID, so be sure to check availability before making a trip to ensure it has fully opened up again.
9. Roswell
With so many natural wonders to explore in New Mexico, I admittedly struggled to add Roswell to my list, but I will, against my better judgement because, well, aliens! While most people can’t tell you much about New Mexico, almost everyone has heard of its most famous town, Roswell, the alien capital of America. Is it a kitschy little tourist trap? Absolutely, but still worth a visit.
As the story goes, a rancher discovered unidentifiable debris in his sheep pasture some 75+ years ago. Residents rushed to explain the mystery with a variety of explanations. Potential explanations included a crashed weather balloon to the remnants of a top-secret espionage project. The most famous explanation however is that the debris came from a “UFO” or extraterrestrial flying saucer.
Into the 1950s, the Air Force began “dummy drops” in the area, which were military run experiments to test various ways for pilots to survive long falls. During these drops, faceless bandaged dummies that looked an awful lot like aliens were dropped from the sky and then were quickly retrieved by the U.S military. These dummy drops poured gasoline on the many out-of-this-world conspiracy theories that have made Roswell the extra-terrestrial hub of America.
10. Jemez
Perhaps my favorite spot in all of New Mexico was the area of Jemez, about an hour north of Albuquerque. The entire area is absolutely stunning, and a drive through the Jemez Mountain Trail National Scenic Byway is one of the prettiest drives I’ve enjoyed.
In the Jemez area you’ll find:
- The stunning red rock of the Jemez mountains
- Jemez Springs, teeming with natural hot springs
- Jemez Historic Site featuring historic ruins
- San Jose de Guisewa Church, dating from the 16th century
- Jemez Pueblo
The area is also a short drive to Fenton Lake, and the Valles Caldera National Preserve nearby. The area of Jemez was not initially on our radar but it ended up becoming my favorite part of the state.
Sorry friends, but I’m adding one more national monument to my list to close out my first timer’s guide to New Mexico. Honestly, New Mexico just has far too many incredible places to visit for one list.
My last recommended stop for you today is the Capulin Volcano National Monument, located on the northeastern side of the state. The volcano is a simply stunning site. The visitor center provides you with all you’d ever want to know about the volcano, which was last active some 50,000 years ago. Visitors can drive a 2 mile road up the volcano to a height of more than 8,000 feet. On a clear day, the volcano provides stunning views from the top of up to five states (New Mexico, Kansas, Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma).
One interesting note about the park is that it has received the Gold Tier Certification from the International Dark Sky Association, meaning it is home to one of the darkest night skies in all the country. There are also hiking trails available where visitors can hike along the rim of the volcano and even venture just slightly into the crater along the Crater Vent trail.
New Mexico is one of the most beautiful and culturally diverse places in the United States. If you have yet to visit, the state is very much worth adding to your travel planning list. While there is so much to see and do in New Mexico, this list should help you see the most essential spots on your first trip to New Mexico!
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