Sandoval County’s central location puts every corner of New Mexico adventure easily within reach. Explore the unexplored from north to south, east to west, and everything in between.
Northwest New Mexico
Featured Attractions
FOUR CORNERS MONUMENT
The Four Corners Monument, also known as Four Corners Tribal Park, is the only unique landmark in the United States where four states intersect at one point. It is where the corners of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet and you can literally be in four places at once.
TAOS SCENIC BYWAY
Take a tour through an authentic remnant of Old Spain, still evident in the religion, architecture, topography, history, and people along the route. The byway travels through a community known as the beautiful Santuario de Chimayo and the El Posito, a hole in the floor of a side chapel filled with healing earth.
OJO CALIENTE
A history of relaxation and revitalization resides in the waters of Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Resort and Spa. Visitors can soak in private pools, indulge in many Native-inspired spa treatments, and after you’ve loosened up, hike or bike through thousands of acres of National Forest and public land.
Northeast New Mexico
Featured Attractions
BLUE HOLE
Blue Hole appears in the midst of the desert like a great blue gem. This wonder defines Santa Rosa even as it seems to defy the surrounding red mesas. Born of a geological phenomenon called the Santa Rosa sink, the place is magic—as water is in the desert.
SANTA FE TRAIL
The Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway consists of two forks, following the path of the pioneering wagons heading west. The Mountain Branch picks up south of Raton on U.S. 64 and runs through Cimarron, where you’ll find the St. James Hotel.
KIOWA NATIONAL GRASSLAND
The Kiowa National Grasslands were home to many American Indian tribes before white settlement. With the Homestead Act of 1862, settlers began to pour into the prairie, lured by the promise of a better life and cheap land, but the area proved too dry to raise crops.
Southwest New Mexico
Featured Attractions
ELEPHANT BUTTE
The largest and most popular lake in New Mexico, Elephant Butte Lake State Park provides a setting for every imaginable water sport. The visitor center offers regional interpretive exhibits. The mild climate of the area makes this park a popular year-round destination.
GILA CLIFF DWELLINGS
Offers a glimpse of the homes and lives of the people of the Mogollon culture who lived there from the 1280’s through the early 1300’s. Containing 533 acres, it was established on November 16, 1907. The dwellings are located forty-four miles north of Silver City, New Mexico, on Highway 15.
HATCH
As summer cools down, the Village of Hatch, New Mexico heats up. Here in the Chile Capital of the World, Labor Day heralds the annual Hatch Chile Festival, a two-day celebration of the world famous crop. Any time of year, visitors can find stockpiles of delicious, roasted chile.
Southeast New Mexico
Featured Attractions
CARLSBAD CAVERNS
Rocky slopes and canyons, cactus, grass, thorny shrubs, and the occasional tree, who could guess at the hidden treasures deep underground? Carlsbad Caverns is a United States National Park in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico.
GIANT PISTACHIO
Between Alamogordo and Tularoso, there is a roadside attraction that is truly “nutty!” McGinn’s Pistachio Tree Ranch claims that their giant pistachio sign is the largest in the world. See for yourself and pick up pistachios in just about every form and flavor.
WHITE SANDS
The largest gypsum dune field in the world is located at White Sands National Monument. This region of glistening white dunes is in the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert within about 275 square miles of an “internally drained valley” called the Tularosa Basin.
