New Mexico National Monuments

New Mexico facilitates the wandering mind. Often when I am wandering in areas far from power lines and my species, I contemplate how many feet have touched the earth...

Messages from the Ancients Whispers from the past echo through the basalt boulders on Albuquerque’s west side. The stones served as notepads for ancestors long passed, carrying thousands of messages...

Rio Grande del Norte National Monument The Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument is a swath of more than 240,000 acres of protected public land in northern New Mexico. Much...

Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument Congress established the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument May 21, 2014 to protect prehistoric, historic, geologic, and biologic resources. The monument, totaling 500,000 acres, includes the...

The Valles Caldera is a special place, one of my favorite places on the planet. For years it has been a place of serenity, a place to hit the...

El Morro is an oasis on the arid plains of western New Mexico. A natural water cache at the base of the mesa has formed a deep pool, replenished...

Bandelier National Monument encompasses 33,000 acres of rugged, beautiful canyons and mesas in the Jemez Mountains between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The monument includes Bandelier Wilderness. Bandelier is flanked...

The history of Fort Union is directly related to the territorial disputes, and wars, that defined New Mexico during the 1800’s, starting with the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821)....

The Gila Wilderness The Gila Cliff Dwellings is one of the most remote national monuments in the country. The site is located on the edge of the Gila Wilderness, the...

When driving through Grants, on Interstate 40, the craggy basalt terrain cascades south to the horizon. The highway runs along the northern boundary of the Grants Lava Flow, which...