January 5, 2012
A short time after Thanksgiving, the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico brings planned holiday activities to wonderful, New Mexico style life. The plaza lights up with holiday lights, luminarias line the sidewalk, carols fill the air, many in Spanish, and Santa arrives in a horse drawn sleigh. There’s spiced apple cider, hot chocolate and cookies. ...
December 31, 2011
There are so many famous places to see in New Mexico, from the bats and stalagmites of Carlsbad Caverns to the art and architecture of picturesque Santa Fe, that the smaller towns are sometimes forgotten by visitors to a state that’s nicknamed well as “the land of enchantment.” Las Cruces is one such slightly unlikely ...
November 14, 2011
It all started in Roswell, New Mexico. After visiting the Roswell UFO Museum, Dad and I stopped at the Chamber of Commerce to find out what else might be going on in town. We happened to meet a wonderful employee who was happy to help us plan out the rest of our stay in New ...
September 27, 2011
I just love the idea of urban exploration–wandering through abandoned attractions or historic sites with a camera, capturing the eerie silence where once there was life and laughter. I can spend hours surfing the Internet for photos taken by intrepid explorers who sneak into spots that are off-limits. But I don’t welcome the idea of ...
July 21, 2011
Carlsbad, New Mexico is perhaps best-known for the stunning Carlsbad Caverns, despite the fact that the caverns are actually 23 miles from Carlsbad, much closer to the tiny town of White’s City. Carlsbad proper is a small but vibrant arts community. Dad and I had the good fortune to visit during the 40th birthday celebration ...
July 19, 2011
It is truly amazing how many times you can read a book or see a movie without retaining all of the details. Young Guns II, the 1990 sequel to Young Guns that highlights the further exploits of Billy the Kid, is one of my favorite films. I love the sequence in the brothel, when the ...
July 18, 2011
When Dad and I were in Roswell, New Mexico, we stopped by the official Visitor Center. A wonderful representative there helped us plan a new route–the Billy the Kid Scenic Byway, which runs through the Hondo Valley region and includes the town of Lincoln New Mexico, where Billy the Kid got his start as an ...
July 9, 2011
The Three Rivers Petroglyph Site is in the middle of nowhere, along Highway 54 between Carrizozo and Tularosa, New Mexico. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the site’s tiny budget does not leave room for a Visitor Center, gift shop or restaurant. But there are clean restrooms and a small ranger station staffed by ...
July 8, 2011
New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park is the third largest cave system in the United States and arguably one of the best-known. I am a bit of a cave nut, so when Dad and I planned a Southwestern adventure, Carlsbad Caverns was one of my must-do attractions. We visited just days before a wildfire raged ...
July 7, 2011
Southern New Mexico is an interesting study in contrasts. Barely had the Old West died out, its outlaws and lawmen dead or too old to continue fighting, before the atomic age began. Although the atomic age officially started with the detonation of the first nuclear bombs in Japan during World War II, the groundwork was ...
