Map view
Taos Art Museum
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Art museum located in Taos, in the Nicolai Fechin House
- It was the home of Russian artist Nicolai Fechin, and the museum's primary aims are to improve awareness of the works and patronage of Taos artists and to nurture local artistic development
- Fechin combined Russian, Native American, Spanish, and Art Deco styles
#22 in Best Attractions in the USA
Alkali Flat Trail, White Sands National Park
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- National park completely surrounded by the White Sands Missile Range
- The park covers the southern 41% of a field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals
- This gypsum dunefield is the largest of its kind on Earth, with dunes as tall as 60 feet (18 m)
#44 in Best Attractions in the USA
Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center and Chihuahuan Desert Nature Trail, Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Walk difficulty: Easy
Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- National park in the Guadalupe Mountains, whose primary attraction of the park is the show cave Carlsbad Cavern
- Carlsbad Cavern includes a large limestone chamber, named simply the Big Room, which is almost 255 ft (78 m) high at its highest point
- The Big Room is the largest chamber in North America and the 32nd largest in the world
#30 in Best National Parks in the USA
#50 in Best Attractions in the USA
Meow Wolf, Santa Fe
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- American arts and entertainment company that creates large-scale interactive and immersive art installations, founded in 2008
- Its flagship attraction, House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe, is a 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) facility, which includes a concert venue in addition to the main immersive art installation
Picacho Peak Trail, Santa Fe National Forest
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Hiking route that features a steady uphill that winds up a series of switchbacks to reach Picacho Peak
- The grand view is from the peak, with astonishing 360-degree views
National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, Albuquerque
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- National repository of nuclear science information, whose mission is to serve as America's resource for nuclear history and science
- The museum presents exhibits and educational programs that convey the diversity of individuals and events that shape the historical and technical context of the nuclear age
Bisti Badlands Trail, Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness
Walk difficulty: Easy
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Wilderness area located in San Juan County, established in 1984
- The Wilderness is a desolate area of steeply eroded badlands, except three parcels of private Navajo land within its boundaries
- Petroglyphs of cranes have been found south of the Wilderness
Los Alamos Historical Museum
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Museum that features exhibits on the geological history of the Pajarito Plateau, including the volcanic explosion that created the world's second largest caldera, known as the Valles Caldera
- It also has displays on the early settlers of the area, the Ancestral Pueblo Indians and the early homesteaders
- The museum displays the history of the Los Alamos Ranch School, an elite educational institution for wealthy boys
- The school closed in 1943 when the United States government seized the property for the Manhattan Project, the top secret project to create the atomic bomb
Kin Kletso Trail, Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Walk difficulty: Easy
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- National Historical Park hosting a concentration of pueblos
- The park is located in a remote canyon cut by the Chaco Wash
- Containing the most sweeping collection of ancient ruins north of Mexico, the park preserves one of the most important pre-Columbian cultural and historical areas in the United States
Pueblo Loop Trail, Bandelier National Monument
Walk difficulty: Easy
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- National Monument near Los Alamos, that preserves the homes and territory of the Ancestral Puebloans of a later era in the Southwest
- Most of the pueblo structures date to two eras, dating between 1150 and 1600 AD
- Frijoles Canyon contains a number of ancestral pueblo homes, kivas (ceremonial structures), rock paintings, and petroglyphs
The Volcanoes Trail, Petroglyph National Monument
Walk difficulty: Easy
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Volcanic basalt escarpment that dominates the city's western horizon, and the western boundary of the monument features a chain of dormant fissure volcanoes
- Petroglyph National Monument protects a variety of cultural and natural resources including five volcanic cones, hundreds of archeological sites and an estimated 24,000 petroglyph images carved by Ancestral Pueblo peoples and early Spanish settlers
- Many of the images are recognizable as animals, people, brands and crosses; others are more complex
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Museum dedicated to the artistic legacy of Georgia O'Keeffe, her life, American modernism, and public engagement, opened in 1997
- It comprises multiple sites in two locations: Santa Fe, and Abiquiu
- Subjects range from the artist's abstractions to her iconic large-format flower, skull, and landscape paintings to paintings of architectural forms and rocks, shells, and trees
Gila Cliff Dwellings Trail, Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument
Walk difficulty: Easy
Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- National Monument created to protect Mogollon cliff dwellings in the Gila Wilderness, established in 1907
- The museum hosts exhibits of Apache and Mogollon artifacts, uncovered both in the surrounding wilderness and at the monument
- Displayed items include a bracelet crafted from Glycymeris Bittersweet clam shells found by a student park ranger
- Other nearby attractions include hot springs, associated ruins sites, and national forest hiking trails
Continental Divide Trail from NM 547, Cibola National Forest
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- National Scenic Trail with a length measured by the Continental Divide Trail Coalition of 3,028 miles (4,873 km) between the U.S. border with Chihuahua, Mexico and the border with Alberta, Canada
- The CDT follows the Continental Divide of the Americas along the Rocky Mountains and traverses five U.S. states — Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico
- In 2021, the CDT was about 70 percent complete, with a combination of dedicated trails and dirt and paved roads