Aztec Ruins National Monument preserves structures and artifacts of Ancestral Pueblo people from the 1100's through 1200s.
Best known for mesas, sheer-walled canyons, and the ancestral Pueblo dwellings found among them, Bandelier also includes over 23, 000 acres of designated Wilderness. It was named for Adolph Bandelier, a 19th-century anthropologist.
Rising 200 feet above the valley floor, this massive sandstone bluff was a welcome landmark for weary travelers. A reliable waterhole hidden at its base made El Morro (or Inscription Rock) a popular campsite.
Fort Union was established in 1851 by Lieutenant Colonel Edwin V. Sumner as a guardian and protector of the Santa Fe Trail. During it's forty-year history, three different forts were constructed close together.
Established to preserve Carlsbad Cavern and numerous other caves within a Permian-age fossil reef, the park contains more than 100 known caves, including Lechuguilla Cave?the nation's deepest limestone cave at 1, 567 feet (478m) and third longest.
Mammoths, giant bison, and short-faced bears were witness to the first tremblings of the earth and firework-like explosions of molten rock thousands of feet into the air.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park preserves one of America's most significant and fascinating cultural and historic areas. Chaco Canyon was a major center of ancestral Puebloan culture between AD 850 and 1250.
El Malpais National Monument and Conservation Area was established in 1987 and is a relative newcomer to the National Park System. This monument preserves 114, 277 acres of which 109, 260 acres are federal and 5, 017 acres are private.
Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument offers a glimpse of the homes and lives of the people of the Mogollon culture who lived in the Gila Wilderness from the 1280s through the early 1300s.
Pecos preserves 12, 000 years of history including the ancient pueblo of Pecos, two Spanish Colonial Missions, Santa Fe Trail sites, 20th century ranch history of Forked Lightning Ranch, and the site of the Civil War Battle of Glorieta Pass.
As you walk among the petroglyphs, you are not alone. This world is alive with the sights and sounds of the high desert - a hawk spirals down from the mesa top, a roadrunner scurries into fragrant sage, a desert millipede traces waves in the sand.
Between 1821 and 1880, the Santa Fe Trail was primarily a commercial highway connecting Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico. From 1821 until 1846, it was an international commercial highway used by Mexican and American traders.
Once, thriving American Indian trade communities of Tiwa and Tompiro speaking Puebloans inhabited this remote frontier area of central New Mexico. Early in the 17th-century Spanish Franciscans found the area ripe for their missionary efforts.
In 1838, the United States government forcibly removed more than 16, 000 Cherokee Indian people from their homelands in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia, and sent them to Indian Territory (today known as Oklahoma).
At the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert lies a mountain ringed valley called the Tularosa Basin. Rising from the heart of this basin is one of the world's great natural wonders - the glistening white sands of New Mexico.
A vast landscape in the heart of New Mexico, Sevilleta National Wildllife Refuge supports four major ecological habitats, encompasses two mountain ranges, and contains stretches of the largest river in the state.
Located where the Chihuahuan Desert meets the southern plains, Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge provides habitat for some of the rarest creatures in New Mexico.
Bosque del Apache, which means "woods of the Apache", was named for the people who often camped in the riverside forest. Today it is know as one of the most spectacular Refuges in North America.
The Valley of Fires Recreation Area is adjacent to the Malpais Lava Flow, a BLM Wilderness Study Area. The lava flow is between 1, 500 and 2, 000 years old, making it the youngest such flow in the continental United States.
Developed trails for hiking and horseback riding wind through open meadows and canyons full of great views of the surrounding Lincoln National Forest, Sacramento and Capitan mountains.
Fort Stanton Recreation Area is comprised of 24, 000 acres of BLM lands within the old Fort Stanton Military Reservation.
The mining town of Lake Valley was founded in 1878 after silver was discovered. Almost overnight, the small frontier town blossomed into a major settlement with a population of 4, 000 people.
The Socorro Nature Area is a 120-acre environmental education area in the Rio Grande Bosque. The area includes a *-mile self-guiding nature walk with interpretive signs, a pond, and amphitheatre. It also has picnic tables, a group shelter, and a restroom.
Cochiti Lake is located within the boundaries of the Pueblo de Cochiti Indian Reservation. Please observe and obey all Pueblo regulations. Do not trespass on lands closed to the public.
Ancient petroglyphs, marine fossils and tales of Spanish Conquistadors mark the past of Conchas Lake.