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BEST NEW MEXICO ROAD TRIPS
Wow, what a State. New Mexico Road Trips can be fascinating. It's is known as the "Land of Enchantment" and became the 47th state in the US on January, 6 1912. After the Mexican-American War, (1846-1848) the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between Mexico and the United States was signed, wherein Mexico gave up its territories to the north which included California and what's known today as the American Southwest. The diversity of these beautiful southwestern lands is vast. There are arid deserts in the south and high pine forested mountains in the north, west, and central areas... all to be enjoyed by bikers.
The Rio Grande river bisects the state from the north to the south and contains many riparian habitats. The eastern third of the state is an extension of the great plains and the western third contains the continental divide and is made up of the types of geography found in Arizona with the exception of the northwestern portion, which consists of canyon type country. While the eastern and western two thirds are are sparsely populated, the majority of population is in the middle third. Many of the travel destinations are found here, in what is known as the "Rio Grande Corridor." It runs south from the Colorado state line and has major cities such as Taos, Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces at the southern end of the state. One of the popular travel destinations takes you to the Trinity Site. The world's first atomic bomb was constructed in the top secret government town of Los Alamos and tested at the Trinity site in southern New Mexico. Trinity is located 45 miles southeast of Socorro on US 380.
The White Sands National Monument is just 70 miles south of the Trinity site and is home to the worlds largest gypsum dune field. The monument is located within the much larger White Sands Missile range and is located between Alamogordo and Las Cruces on US 70. Carlsbad Caverns is another exciting destination for New Mexico Road Trips, but it's advisable to make reservations and plan on spending the whole day to visit this most excellent National Park.
Created by Calvin Coolidge in 1923, Carlsbad Caverns is a "cave of extraordinary proportions and of unusual beauty and variety of natural decoration." There are 83 separate caves in the park and includes America's deepest and third longest limestone cave. The depth is 1,597 feet (486.8 m) with an elevator going to the surface. Also, Carlsbad Cavern has one of the world's largest underground chambers. If you're into extraterrestrial life, check out the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) Very Large Array (VLA) radio astronomy observatory on US 60 between Magdalena and Datil about 50 miles
west of Socorro. Seen in the film "Contact", there are 27 massive radio telescopes with dish diameters over 80 feet and weighing 209 metric tons each. They are currently aligned in a D configuration and are moved on railroad tracks. The intention of this program is to use the equipment to listen for anything out of the ordinary and possibly discover that "we're not alone in the universe." Government funding for the SETI program has ceased and it is now funded privately. As of April 2, 2011, they offer special guided tours that begin at 11AM.
Another place to search out E.T. is in Roswell. It is about 200 miles from Albuquerque in the southeastern portion of the state. In 1947 there was supposedly an alien UFO spacecraft that crashed and was discovered by personnel at the Roswell Army Air Field. Huge conspiracy theories have erupted since this incident and have made Roswell a type of Mecca for UFO-ologists. If you go, make sure to visit the UFO Museum. New Mexico is home to many native American tribes. The Navajo reservation (the largest in the United States) occupies all of northwestern New Mexico, northeastern Arizona, and the southeastern portion of Utah. It makes up 26,000 square miles. These are beautiful scenic places to ride. It's also home to many old mining, ranching, railroading and ghost towns and uniquely southwestern cities like Santa Fe which are great destinations for travel videos. Please submit your own New Mexico Road Trips to be published on Road-Trip-Bikers.com Road Trip Submission From |
