Welcome to my blog/travel guide. Take a look around, you never know what you might find!
All in New Mexico
This extensive 45,000 acres of barren wilderness in New Mexico is just waiting to be explored. There are no trails, or signs, or guides here. The only thing restricting your exploration is a cattle fence and your own ambition.
The ruins of a nineteenth century U.S. army fort. A harbinger of change in the region, the fort was a distribution hub for many of the smaller forts throughout the southwest, supplying the American military while it enforced its will on Native Americans. Later, a earthworks star fort was constructed on site to defend against confederate soldiers during the civil war. A one mile long trail winds through the remaining adobe-style walls of the old fort.
A vast volcanic expanse covering the western New Mexican countryside. Thousands of years ago, as recently as three thousand years ago, lava poured out of a number of cinder cones south of Grants, New Mexico. The lava cooled into rough black basalt that remains a scar on the area. Whether you enjoy a relaxing scenic drive, a hike amongst ancient lava flows and cinder cones, or dark adventures through lengthy lava tubes there is something for you at El Malpais.
New Mexico is the chili capitol of the world, and for two weeks in October, every year Albuquerque becomes the hot air balloon capitol of the world. Hundreds of balloons from around the world in every color and shape imaginable ascend from the fairgrounds in Albuquerque and drift down the Rio Grande valley for as far as the eye can see.
On July 16th, 1945 humanity entered into the era of nuclear warfare. The objective of the Manhattan Project was achieved here, in the remote New Mexican desert, when the world’s first nuclear device was exploded.
Three sites of ruined Spanish mission churches from the 17th century adjacent to ruins of Native American pueblos near Mountaineer in central New Mexico. Walk amongst the ruins to get a taste of what life may have been like during these contentious times.
As the name implies, this incredible astronomical instrument is a very large array of twenty seven enormous radio antennae scattered across the New Mexico desert, scanning the heavens day and night for faint radio signals.
One of the newest national monuments. An enormous bridge spans the even more impressive canyon that splits the New Mexican high desert in two.
The second U.S. National Monument, declared by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906. El Morro encompasses a large sandstone promontory with historical inscriptions, the ruins of a Native American Pueblo, and petroglyphs.
Sulfuric acid from petroleum deposits deep underground aggressively eroded the ancient fossilized reef, built in the Delaware Sea by sponges and algae more than 250 million years ago, leaving behind the gigantic caverns contained within the park. An enormous variety of spectacular stalactites and stalagmites cover the caverns’ floors and ceilings.
Most “normal” sand dunes are made of grains of quartz and feldspar, but these are not your average dunes. Comprised of gypsum crystals (the mineral in drywall), these unusual white dunes sparkle under the desert sun. At over 200 square miles, White Sands is by far the largest of its kind in the world.
White Sands is the newest U.S. national park.
An alien landscape of eroded white cliffs, towering pinnacles, and crags. I was drawn here by the prospect that parts of Star Wars: A New Hope were filmed here, but that is not the case. Nonetheless, this is a great place for an afternoon hike amongst otherworldly formations.
Ancestral cliff dwellings and the ruins of a pueblo hide in this isolated canyon outside of Los Alamos, New Mexico.
If you’re a fan of inter dimensional wormholes through household appliances, laser harps, or ethereal mammoth skeleton chimes, this is the place for you. Meow Wolf is part art installation, part escape room, and part psychedelic funhouse for the whole family (including adults)
A slot canyon and conical rock formations eroded from layers of volcanic debris.