Fire & Ice - attractions of New Mexico

Travel America, Sept, 2001 by Rankin Harvey

From rugged wilderness to sophisticated art circles, New Mexico is a mesmerizing mosaic of cultures and scenic marvels

I set up camp in the Land of Enchantment about 10 years ago, after living 20-odd years in Texas--the second biggest and supposedly grandest state in the nation. New Mexico, though, is pretty enormous as well, covering 121,593 square miles. Only four other states are larger. Though fifth in size, New Mexico has a surprising number of firsts and bests--and I'm here to stay.

Most visitors begin touring in Albuquerque, the state's largest city, arriving at Albuquerque International Airport. A spin around the city finds several fine museums, the Rio Grande Zoo, and the Sandia Peak Tramway, the world's longest single-span aerial tram, which climbs 4,000 feet up the western face of the Sandia Mountains. October's Kodak Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta also calls the city home and, billed as the most photographed event in the world, is the largest hot air balloon festival anywhere.

Just north of Albuquerque, at the Santa Ana Pueblo, the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa is the largest and finest resort ever developed on Native American land. Situated on more than 500 acres, the resort boasts spectacular views of the Sandia Mountains. Tamaya also overlooks a restored stretch of "bosque," the native cottonwood forest indigenous to the Rio Grande. The six-mile restoration is one of the largest in the history of New Mexico and includes the revegetation of native grasses and more than 1,000 native trees.

Farther north, Santa Fe is the nation's oldest state capital, having been a seat of government since 1610. But much more goes on here than politics; this is without a doubt New Mexico's premier cultural center. Santa Fe began attracting world-class artists in the early 1990s and, with more than 150 quality galleries concentrated in the historic Plaza and along Canyon Road, has grown to become one of the largest art markets in the world. Also a leader in the performing arts, the city takes pride in the internationally renowned Santa Fe Opera.

Nearby Los Alamos, home to Los Alamos National Laboratory (where the first atomic bomb was developed), is the state's most affluent city. Just south of the "Atomic City," Bandelier National Monument protects one of the most important Anasazi ruins in the Southwest.

Near the Colorado border, Chama serves as the western depot for the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, America's longest and highest narrow-gauge steam railway. The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, almost 100 miles to the east, is the second highest bridge in the country. A stretch of the Rio Grande River known as the Taos Box runs underneath the bridge, providing some of the most intense whitewater rafting around.

Taos is the headquarters for all of the top rafting guides in New Mexico and one of the state's best destinations for other outdoor recreation. The incomparable Taos Ski Valley offers some of the best snow skiing in the world; its ski school is consistently ranked No. 1 in the nation. On a cultural note, Taos Pueblo is the largest multi-storied pueblo structure in the U.S. It is also the most accessible of New Mexico's 19 active pueblos. The Enchanted Circle, one of the prettiest drives in New Mexico, connects the resort communities of Taos, Red River, and Angel Fire, winding through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Continuing east, you find miles and miles of nondescript grassland--not very exciting from the window of a station wagon cruising along the Interstate. But only a century ago, this was the Wild West--not Hollywood's version, but the true untamed American frontier, where soldiers from Fort Union, defending the Santa Fe Trail, fought hundreds of skirmishes and waged several major campaigns against Comanches and Apaches. Las Vegas, a mercantile center along the Santa Fe Trail and then a thriving railroad town, abounds with remarkably well-preserved buildings. During the 1880s, it was one of the roughest towns on the frontier, attracting the likes of Billy the Kid and Doc Holliday.

Hundreds of years before that, Coronado and his Spanish explorers were here searching east of Pecos for the fabled lost cities of gold. And millions of years ago, dinosaurs roamed the area on the shores of a vast ocean. Between Clayton and Raton, the 1,000-foot-tall cinder cone of dormant Capulin Volcano, a national monument, reminds one that 10,000 years ago these plains were ablaze with molten lava.

Route 66, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year as America's most fabled highway, may have done more to connect New Mexico to the rest of the nation than any other development. The road, long since eclipsed by Interstate 40, still survives in many areas, with historic gas, food, and lodging facilities in such places as Albuquerque, Gallup, Grants, Santa Fe, and Tucumcari.

South of Route 66, New Mexico becomes a land of striking contrasts. The glowing gypsum dunes of White Sands National Monument and the black lava rock of Valley of Fires form one of the few geographical contrasts that astronauts can discern from space. An amazing range of climates and life zones descend from the snow-capped peak of Sierra Blanca to the desert plains of the Tularosa Basin. Here railroad ties cut from trees in the mountain forests helped bring the railroad and prosperity to the plains. In return the railroads and thriving basin community of Alamogordo breathed life into the small mining and lumbering towns of Cloudcroft and Ruidoso, giving them new direction as vacation escapes for heat-scorched residents of the valley below.