A Patriotic Family Road Trip in New Mexico

New Mexico State Capitol

Santa Fe, NM

Nicknamed "the Roundhouse," Santa Fe's capitol is the only round state capitol in the country, shaped after the Zia sun symbol.

Trinity Site

White Sands, NM

Where the first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945 — open to the public only two days a year, on White Sands Missile Range.

Santa Fe Plaza

Santa Fe, NM

The center of the oldest capital city in the United States, founded in 1610.

Taos Pueblo

Taos, NM

Multi-story adobe houses continuously inhabited for more than a thousand years.

Pecos National Historical Park

Pecos, NM

A pueblo of 2,000 people, a Spanish mission church, and the Glorieta Pass battlefield.

Old Town Albuquerque

Albuquerque, NM

Ten blocks of adobe around the 1793 San Felipe de Neri church and the original plaza.

Bosque Redondo Memorial

Fort Sumner, NM

The site where 10,000 Navajo and Mescalero Apache were held after the Long Walk.

White Sands National Park

Alamogordo, NM

Two hundred and seventy-five square miles of gypsum dunes, the largest field on earth.

Lincoln Historic Site

Lincoln, NM

A one-street town preserved as it was during the Lincoln County War of 1878.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Carlsbad, NM

The Big Room, an underground chamber 4,000 feet long, reached on foot down the natural entrance.

Bandelier National Monument

Los Alamos, NM

Cliff dwellings and cavates carved into volcanic tuff, occupied for over 400 years.

Fort Union National Monument

Watrous, NM

The adobe ruins of the largest 19th-century fort on the Southwest frontier.

Petroglyph National Monument

Albuquerque, NM

Twenty-four thousand images carved into 17 miles of volcanic escarpment.

El Morro National Monument

Ramah, NM

A sandstone bluff carved with 2,000 signatures, from Ancestral Puebloan petroglyphs to 1605 Spanish inscriptions.

Bradbury Science Museum

Los Alamos, NM

Los Alamos National Laboratory's public museum, including full-scale Fat Man and Little Boy casings.

New Mexico Museum of Space History

Alamogordo, NM

The International Space Hall of Fame, Robert Goddard's rockets, and Ham the astrochimp's grave.

Very Large Array

Magdalena, NM

Twenty-seven radio dishes, each 82 feet across, moved on rails across the Plains of San Agustin.

Blue Swallow Motel

Tucumcari, NM

Neon, garages beside every room, and continuous operation on Route 66 since 1939.

Santa Fe National Cemetery

Santa Fe, NM

Established in 1870 on the site of a military post cemetery from the Mexican-American War.