Quote:
Originally Posted by kghjr
Are you looking for historical places? Chaco Canyon, Acoma Pueblo, Santa Fe, Taos, all to the west and north. Acoma Sky City is a pueblo on top of a table mesa and is the oldest continually inhabited place in the western hemisphere, like more than 800 years.
White Sands, way south, and out of the way.
If you only have a few days, stay north or west. There is not much to see south and less to see east.
Take the drive to the top of Sandia Peak as you leave Albuquerque and then take the back road to Santa Fe, through Madrid, an old abandoned mining town taken over by hippies in the 60's and now a certified village, too small to be a town.
Valles Caldera National Preserve and Bandelier National Monument makes a nice day trip.
Rio Grande Gorge Bridge out of Taos is worth the trip. The drive from Santa Fe to Taos is a good one. If you go to the Gorge, go a bit farther past the bridge to the off-grid earth-ship community. They have tours of some of the homes but;lt into the sides of arroyos in the same fashion as the Anasazi cliff dwellers, southern exposure.
If you take the back road to Santa Fe, then take the high road to Taos, another back way of scenic wonders.
If you are looking for scenic beauty, you chose wisely.
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Very Good advice here... Sandia Peak, you might want to take the Tram Gondola to the top for lunch... starts in NE Albuquerque... there's an old TWA plane wreck about 3/4 of the way up you can see from the Gondola.
The 'Very Large Array' (VLA) is a huge group of giant radio antennas (27 of them, each about 75 feet in diameter) West of Socorro ( SW of ABQ), sort of out of the way... has been in many movies. They're moved around on RR tracks so in essence, the entire valley floor is an antenna, many miles in diameter.
The NE quadrant of the state is best if you don't have time to head S (White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, Organ Mts).
Grew up in ABQ... love it. Live in Denver, but go down there for R&R often. Bluest, biggest sky...