New Mexico
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About New Mexico
New Mexico is famous for its natural beauty and its Native American past. Native Americans have been living in New Mexico for some twenty thousand years. The Pueblo, Apache, Comanche, Navajo, and Ute peoples were in the New Mexico region when Spanish settlers arrived in the 1600s. To a certain degree New Mexico's Indian Reservations function as states within a state where tribal law may supersede state law. The Rio Grande is New Mexico's longest river and runs the entire length of New Mexico.
Good to know
- Capital: Santa Fe
- Climate: Semiarid subtropical climate with at least 70 percent sunshine year-round. Light precipitation and low relative humidity. Weather varies considerably from one place to the next with cooler weather at higher elevations.
- Timezone: UTC -7
- No. of inhabitants: 1,903,289 (2004)
- Travel alert: EnjoyYourWorld strongly advises you to take necessary precautions for a safe travel. For more info please follow this link
Highlights
- Carlsbad Caverns Carlsbad Cavern-one of the world's largest underground caves with spectacular formations
- City of Rocks State Park with its cactus gardens and hiking trails-a unique rock formations formed of volcanic ash and sculpted into rows of monolithic blocks. Acoma Pueblo-the Pueblo of Acoma is situated on a 112 m-high sandstone rock
- La Mesilla in Southern New Mexico-the place with its characteristic adobe structures, where once Billy the Kid has been put to trial
- El Malpais National Monument with volcanic features such as lava flows and lava tube systems, cinder cones and pressure ridges. You can hike along established routes or go underground in lava tubes.
- Sandia Peak Tramway will bring you from Albuquerque to the top of the Sandia Mountains
- Albuquerque-Each October Albuquerque hosts the world's largest international hot air balloon fiesta
- Go and see the White Sands National Monument with the world's largest gypsum dune field
- Petroglyph National Monument with its five volcanic cones, hundreds of archeological sites and ten-thousands of images carved by native peoples
Getting Around
- Scenic byways:
- El Camino Real-enters the state at the Texas border on I-25, then follows the Rio Grande,bypassing the Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death), a 145km leg through desert and finally ending at San Juan Pueblo.
- The Geronimo Trail named after the Chiricahua Apache warrior Geronimo, runs through the untamed Chihuahua desert and wilderness areas of the Gila National Forest. This rugged trail starts out in Truth or Consequences, on the edge of Elephant Butte Lake, passes through the ghost towns of Winston and Chloride as it climbs toward the Gila National Forest. From San Lorenzo, NM 152 heads back into the mountains, over Emory Pass in the Black Range, offering vast panoramas of forested slopes as it makes it way through Kingston. NM 152 joins I-25 back to Truth or Consequences.
- Jémez Mountain Trail National Scenic Byway-a picturesque route through the Jémez Mountains. A sulfurous smell of minerals will lead you to the alien-looking Soda Dam, formed by calcium deposits where a hot spring meets the flowing Jémez River.
- Narrow Gauge Scenic Byway-brings you through the Jicarilla Apache Reservation. TheJicarilla 9 corridor beginning at Dulce, the capital of the Jicarilla tribe, follows Amargo Creek through a winding canyon to the Navajo River. The trail ends at the Colorado border and the Southern Ute Reservation.
- Native Heritage Trail bringing you through historic and present-day Native American communities. Starting at Gallup, the byway travels through the wide-open spaces of the Navajo Reservation
- Puye Cliffs Scenic Byway-a short 22 km road on (Indian) Santa Clara Pueblo. At Puyé Cliff Dwellings you can see the ruins carved into a steep hillside of volcanic tufa. The route continues on to Santa Clara Canyon, where the tribe has developed a recreational site with fishing opportunity in a series of lakes.
- Santa Fe National Forest Scenic Byway will take you to Santa Fe National Forest, where campers and hikers can take many trails. Or you can go to Ski Santa Fe, a day-use ski area with chairlifts to the top of 3658 m tall Tesuque Peak with a spectacular view.
- Route 66-the’’mother’’ of all roads, will bring you across the entire state
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