ABQjournal: Oak Flats Party Hosts Night’s Biggest Stars By Sue Bohannan Mann, For the Journal

The Albuquerque Astronomy Club, 300 members strong, along with personnel and volunteers from the Sandia Ranger District, will hold a series of monthly Star Party nights in the Manzano Mountains beginning Saturday and continuing through September.

There is no admission charge, and the show begins as constellations appear in the sky. Volunteers will be on hand with flashlights to guide visitors to the parking area after 6 p.m.

Newcomers and veteran stargazers alike can take advantage of Oak Flats‘ distance from the lights of Albuquerque to view planets, stars and even faint clusters of constellations. Observers may be amazed to see how many neighbors our planet shares.

The Albuquerque Astronomical Society

For a short article, this covers a lot of territory. Good place to start your research on New Mexico. mjh

Land of Enchantment BY CHILES T.A. LARSON/DAILY PRESS

New Mexico isn’t called Land of Enchantment for nothing. Numerous museums, time-worn haciendas, early Spanish Colonial churches, and the plazas of Albuquerque, Taos, and Santa Fe each has its charm. But the rugged landscape is even more captivating, with expansive panoramas and an ever-changing luminescence.

Southern New Mexico Travel and Tourism Information: SouthernNewMexico.com

SouthernNewMexico.com features New Mexico travel, tourism, and community information. It is your guide to New Mexico attractions, businesses, communities, destinations, events, real estate and history.

There are currently 457 articles on this site.

Recommended by Jas. (Thanks!) mjh

Have you been to the southernnewmexico.com website? There’s a few very cool articles and a little piece on Bat Cave in Catron County where I did my master’s work. It’d be a fun area to cruise some lazy day. Also stuff on pueblos in that part of the state.

A Virtual Tour of Albuquerque, New Mexico presented by Douglas Aurand & Associates

This site lets you sweep a camera around various spots in Albuquerque. It’s mostly commercial (ice cream parlour, hotel, etc) and a little touristy (zoo, balloon fiesta). mjh

See this link for Audubon birding opportunities, including 3 lectures (2/19 hummers, 3/18 raptors, and 4/15 owls). mjh

Central New Mexico Audubon Society Field Trip Schedule

ABQjournal: Enchanting El Morro a Lasting Record of Past Travelers By James Abarr, For the Journal

EL MORRO NATIONAL MONUMENT — On the western slopes of the Zuni Mountains, 42 miles southwest of Grants, a golden sandstone mesa offers a unique tapestry of New Mexico’s yesterday.

For more than 250 years, the soaring cliffs of El Morro, rising 200 feet above the ancient Zuni Trail, beckoned travelers to rest in their shelter. It was an idyllic camping place in a small forest of juniper and pines beside a catch-basin, which trapped rainfall and melting snow runoff and never failed to provide ample water.

Through the centuries, these Spanish and American passers-by carved their names and a record of their deeds into the soft sandstone walls. The result is more than 1,000 inscriptions — a remarkable history book in stone which has been set aside as El Morro National Monument. …

If you go
WHAT: El Morro National Monument, administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior; telephone: (505) 783-4226.
WHERE: In west-central New Mexico, 42 miles southwest of Grants via N.M. 53.
HOURS: Open daily except Christmas and New Year’s; summer hours, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; remainder of year, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
FEES: $3 a person; children under 17, no charge.
FACILITIES: Visitor Center provides information, brochures and guide books, and a 15-minute video introduction to the monument.
A museum features exhibits covering 700 years of human presence at El Morro.
Campsites and picnic areas are located within the monument. An RV park is available near the monument entrance.
ACTIVITIES: Inscription Rock Trail, a paved one-half mile loop, leads past the major inscriptions at the base of the mesa.
Mesa Top Trail, a 2-mile-long roundtrip loop, offers panoramic views from the summit of El Morro and provides access to two prehistoric Anasazi Indian pueblos. One pueblo, which dates to the 13th century, has been partially excavated.
Continue reading EL MORRO NATIONAL MONUMENT →

La Luz Trail

La Luz trail gives you panoramic views of Albuquerque. As you hike you are treated to ever-changing views of cliffs and trees and wildflowers. The wildflowers are amazing many are unfamiliar.
After hiking up the trail take the tram ride down and have someone pick you up. The walk back to the trail head is hot in the summer and there is no shade.

SAVORING SANTA FE | The Arizona Daily Star ®

New Mexico’s world-famous city is a cultural destination for tourists, and its surrounding areas also offer intriguing attractions for visitors
By Susan C. Hegger
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Here are 30 pictures (out of 500) from two trips to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. mjh

Slideshow (mjh)

Pueblo of Acoma to begin construction on cultural center New Mexico Business Weekly

The 30,000-square-foot facility will be located at the base of the Pueblo of Acoma, which is set atop a 300-foot sandstone mesa an hour west of Albuquerque and 14 miles south of Interstate 40. …

[Acoma] is considered one of the oldest continuously inhabited villages in North America. …

[T]he architectural style will demonstrate more than 1,000 years of Acoma’s history, showing the evolution of Acoma building styles.

Petroglyph National Monument (National Park Service)

Authorized June 27, 1990, the 7,236 acre Petroglyph National Monument stretches 17 miles along Albuquerque’s West Mesa, a volcanic basalt escarpment that dominates the city’s western horizon.

Petroglyph National Monument (NPS) – Maps