New Mexico

Parks

  • National Monument

    Aztec Ruins

    Aztec, NM

    Pueblo people describe this site as part of their migration journey. Today you can follow their ancient passageways to a distant time. Explore a 900-year old ancestral Pueblo Great House of over 400 masonry rooms. Look up and see original timbers holding up the roof. Search for the fingerprints of ancient workers in the mortar. Listen for an echo of ritual drums in the reconstructed Great Kiva.

    Great Kiva with Walls of West Ruin

  • National Monument

    Bandelier

    Los Alamos, NM

    Bandelier National Monument protects over 33,000 acres of rugged but beautiful canyon and mesa country as well as evidence of a human presence here going back over 11,000 years. Petroglyphs, dwellings carved into the soft rock cliffs, and standing masonry walls pay tribute to the early days of a culture that still survives in the surrounding communities.

    Tyuonyi Pueblo and Big Kiva from Frey Trail

  • National Historic Trail

    Butterfield Overland

    MO, AR, OK, TX, NM, AZ, CA

    In 1857, businessman and transportation entrepreneur John Butterfield was awarded a contract to establish an overland mail route between the eastern United States and growing populations in the Far West. What became known as the Butterfield Overland Trail made an arcing sweep across the southern rim of the country. Stagecoaches left twice a week carrying passengers, freight, and mail.

  • National Monument

    Capulin Volcano

    Capulin, NM

    Part of the 8,000 square mile Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field, Capulin Volcano showcases the volcanic geology of northeastern New Mexico. The views are spectacular day or night, with views of 4 different states from the volcanic rim and one of the darkest night skies in the country. Whether it's a quick stop or a day's trip, enjoy exploring the landscape of this unique volcano!

    Capulin Volcano National Monument by J. Unruh

  • National Park

    Carlsbad Caverns

    Carlsbad, NM

    High ancient sea ledges, deep rocky canyons, flowering cactus, and desert wildlife—treasures above the ground in the Chihuahuan Desert. Hidden beneath the surface are more than 119 caves—formed when sulfuric acid dissolved limestone leaving behind caverns of all sizes.

    Photo of the steep natural entrance of Carlsbad Caverns

  • National Historical Park

    Chaco Culture

    Nageezi, NM

    Today the massive buildings of the Ancestral Puebloan people still testify to the organizational and engineering abilities not seen anywhere else in the American Southwest. For a deeper contact with the canyon that was central to thousands of people between 850 and 1250 CE, come and explore Chaco through guided tours, hiking & biking trails, evening campfire talks, and night sky programs.

    Overlooking Chetro Ketl

  • National Historic Trail

    El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro

    NM,TX

    Travel along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail to experience and learn from a complicated legacy of 300 years of conflict, cooperation, and cultural exchange between a variety of empires—European and non-European alike.

    Two-wheeled carretas carried goods up El Camino from Mexico City in 1598; walking the trail in the Jornada del Muerto, a scorching 90-mile stretch of El Camino wherein colonists had to leave the cool Rio Grande to continue their journey north

  • National Monument

    El Malpais

    Grants, NM

    The richly diverse volcanic landscape of El Malpais (el-mal-pie-EES) offers solitude, recreation, and adventure. Explore incredible geologic features such as lava flows, cinder cones, lava tube caves, and sandstone bluffs. While some may see a desolate environment, people have been adapting to and living in this extraordinary terrain for generations. Come discover the land of frozen fire!

    Sweeping panoramic views of lava flows, cinder cones, and distant mountains can be enjoyed at Sandstone Bluffs.

  • National Monument

    El Morro

    Ramah, NM

    Imagine the refreshment of finding water after days of dusty travel. A reliable waterhole hidden at the base of a sandstone bluff made El Morro (the headland) a popular campsite for hundreds of years. Here, ancestral Puebloans, Spanish, and American travelers carved over 2,000 signatures, dates, messages, and petroglyphs. Make El Morro National Monument a stopping point on your travels.

    Historic inscriptions carved in the bluff at El Morro.

  • National Monument

    Fort Union

    Watrous, NM

    Exposed to the wind, within a sweeping valley of short grass prairie, and along the eroded Santa Fe Trail, lie the adobe walled ruins of the largest 19th century military fort in the region. From 1851 to 1891, Fort Union functioned as an agent of change, desired or not, in the New Mexico Territory and throughout the Southwest.

    Frost on wagons in Mechanics Corral of Fort Union

  • National Monument

    Gila Cliff Dwellings

    Silver City, NM

    For thousands of years, groups of nomads used the caves above Cliff Dweller Creek as temporary shelter. In the late 1200s, people of the agricultural Mogollon (Southern Ancestral Pueblo) culture made it a home. They built rooms, crafted pottery and raised children in the cliff dwellings for one or two generations. By approximately 1300, the Mogollon had moved on, leaving the walls behind.

    View of Mogollon rooms in Gila Cliff Dwellings

  • National Historical Park

    Manhattan Project

    Manhattan Project National Historical Park, NM,WA,TN

    The Manhattan Project is one of the most transformative events of the 20th century. It ushered in the nuclear age with the development of the world’s first atomic bombs. The building of atomic weapons began in 1942 in three secret communities across the nation. As World War II waned in 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan—forever changing the world.

    workers housing in Happy Valley

  • National Historic Trail

    Old Spanish

    AZ,CA,CO,NV,NM,UT

    Follow the routes of mule pack trains across the Southwest on the Old Spanish National Historic Trail between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Los Angeles, California. New Mexican traders moved locally produced merchandise across what are now six states to exchange for mules and horses.

    Red Rock Country, pack mules, Gunnison River

  • National Historical Park

    Pecos

    Pecos, NM

    Pecos is a cultural crossroads through which hunters and gatherers, traders, conquerors and explorers, immigrants, soldiers, ranchers and tourists passed. Walk the trails and imagine Pecos through the centuries. Explore sites where cultural demonstrations and traditional practices continue today - a living legacy of the people who passed this way. Welcome to Pecos, where past is present.

    Mission church view at Pecos National Historical Park

  • National Monument

    Petroglyph

    Albuquerque, NM

    Petroglyph National Monument protects one of the largest petroglyph sites in North America, featuring designs and symbols carved onto volcanic rocks by Native Americans and Spanish settlers 400 to 700 years ago. These images are a valuable record of cultural expression and hold profound spiritual significance for contemporary Native Americans and for the descendants of the early Spanish settlers.

    Petroglyphs and volcanic escarpment view from the Mesa Point trail at Boca Negra Canyon.

  • National Monument

    Salinas Pueblo Missions

    Mountainair, NM

    Tucked away in the middle of New Mexico you’ll find Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. Its three distinct sites offer a glimpse into a unique time in history—a time entrenched with cultural borrowing, conflict and struggles. These sites continue to stand as reminders of the Spanish and Pueblo peoples’ early encounters and prompt exploration of today’s interactions among different people.

    Quarai 2014

  • National Historic Trail

    Santa Fe

    CO,KS,MO,NM,OK

    You can almost hear the whoops and cries of "All's set!" as trail hands hitched their oxen to freight wagons carrying cargo between western Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Follow the Santa Fe National Historic Trail through five states and you'll find adventure and evidence of past travelers who made this remarkable trip before you!

    freight wagons on the Santa Fe Trail

  • National Preserve

    Valles Caldera

    Jemez Springs, NM

    About 1.2 million years ago, a spectacular volcanic eruption created a 13-mile-wide circular depression in the earth now known as Valles Caldera. The preserve is known for its huge mountain meadows, abundant wildlife, and meandering streams. The area also preserves the homeland of ancestral native peoples and embraces a rich ranching history.

    View of an oval, grassy area--the caldera--surrounded by mountains.

  • National Park

    White Sands

    Alamogordo, NM

    Rising from the heart of the Tularosa Basin is one of the world's great natural wonders - the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert, creating the world's largest gypsum dunefield. White Sands National Park preserves a major portion of this unique dunefield, along with the plants and animals that live here.

    The dunes in soft light

By The Numbers

These numbers are just a sample of the National Park Service's work. Figures are for the fiscal year that ended 9/30/2020.