Episode 81 – You can also listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts, and Amazon Music
About the Episode:
Bunny covers some of her favorite places to visit when you have a time to take a trip in New Mexico. Check out the links below, along with the episode to plan your next trip in the Land of Enchantment.
Links
Four Corners National Monument
Aztec Ruins
Chaco Canyon
Salmon Ruins
Bisit Badlands
Fort Union National Monument
Smokey Bear Historic Park
Lincoln National Park
Visit Ruidoso
La Rinconada
White Sands National Park
Carlsbad Caverns
Broken Saddle Cerrillos
Geronimo Trail Guest Ranch
Ghost Ranch
Sandia Peak Tramway
Episode Transcript
Bunny : (00:00)
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry, and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native new Mexican, who’s lived here for your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico stories, talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of Enchantment. We’re excited that you’re here, and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico.
Bunny : (00:50)
Hi there, everybody. This is Bunny, and I’m gonna spend just a little bit of time with you on my own because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about, uh, my grandsons are coming to visit this summer, and I know that spring break is coming up for a lot of you. And just think it’d be kind of fun to do a quick run through of quick little staycations or day trips that you can take in New Mexico that are great with kids, and that will be just a little bit different from doing something like, I don’t know, taking them to the Great Wolf Lodge for yet another week in a water slash amusement park. When I look back on the things I did with my kids when I was raising them, I know that the things we enjoyed the most were things that we, that were unexpected and that were surprisingly, um, somewhat historic. And, you know, just like what we’re doing here, were telling stories all the time, and taking your kids to places in New Mexico that have a great backstory is never a bad idea. I don’t think. So, I took a long look at, you know, what I’ve done in the past, what I did as a kid, um, and, and I created a quick list of attractions and parks and monuments that you might not have thought about. And if you’re like me I’m always, always, um, ashamed to say that I’ve never been to Carlsbad, but it is on my bucket list. Just, it just never quite happened. And, um, and there are a lot of other sites that I bet you as new Mexicans, or even if, you know, if, if you’re listening to this in Ohio and you’re thinking about making a trip out west with your kids, I’m gonna give you some great ideas. We’re going to post links in the show notes for everything that I talk about so that you can do some of your exploring. And this is gonna be less of an in depth. Here’s what you’ll find when you get there and more of an idea list. So, um, one of the funny things, um, I, we ran into a young man the other night at a, we were having a cocktail downtown in Santa Fe, and we ran into a young man who was talking about going up to the Four Corners Monument. And he said, it was so cool. Um, I never really thought about the opportunity to stand in four Corners, four states at one time. And it got me to thinking about a trip that I took a, a a three day field trip a we call it a science field trip, when I was in the fifth grade. Those of you who are my classmates who are listening will remember that we all loaded up in the activity bus, that old red and white activity bus in Logan, New Mexico, and made this trek from Logan, which is on the east side of the state, almost in Texas, all the way to the Four Corners area. Um, I, it seems to me it was like a nine hour trip at an activity bus. Um, and I, I’ve thought with compassion a lot of times about the teachers who took us, um, Mr. Gully, who we all had a crush on in the fifth grade. He was our science teacher loading up. We went, it was a bus full of fifth and sixth graders, um, and, and drove our, our main objective was to go to Mesa Verde, which is a series of cliff dwellings in the southwestern corner of Colorado.
Bunny : (04:46)
And I’m gonna tell you, if you haven’t been to Mesa Verde, you should go. But this is a podcast about New Mexico. So we took this three day trip, and the first thing we did was go out to the Four Corners Monument. And for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, the Four Corners Monument is the only place in the United States where four states meet, um, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. And you can stand with a foot in each of those states, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. And it is, it’s a fun place to take family photos. It’s, um, it’s just, it’s a unique experience that you’re not gonna have anywhere else. It also gives you the chance to, on your way home, go by Shiprock, which is a sacred rock formation Navajo Nation. Um, and so that’s, that’s always, always worth a stop. You know, you can only stop on the side of the road and take photos, but it’ll be something that your kids have never seen before. I just wanna give you a couple of pointers about the Four Corners Monument, because it’s, it’s in a rural area. There, there aren’t accommodations. Services are limited, and the closest gas station is about 30 miles away. So plan accordingly. Um, wear your outdoor attire and your hiking boots. Bring water, um, and know that it’s, it’s a, other than the gas that it takes to get you there, it’s an $8 park fee. So that, um, if you’ve gotta bring your credit card or your at your debit card, because they’re not going to allow, they don’t take cash. But, um, right now, um, the hours are, uh, from through March 31st, their hours of operation are 8:00 AM to 4:45 PM and then in April, it’s 8:00 AM to 5 45, because of course, we’ve got a little more sunlight. But I gotta tell you, I think it’s worth going, I, I remember it from when I was in the fifth grade, what fun we had set going home and telling our friends that on our trip, we went to four different states. And once you’re finished with going to the four corners, you can als always go back to Farmington. It’s only 60 miles back to Farmington. And for those of you who don’t know it, I lived in Farmington during my college years, and I, I consider Farmington a bit of a secret jewel. Um, your kids would love. I’m just gonna tell you, um, going to the Aztec Ruins National Monument, uh, there’s also around the corner from Aztec, these salmon ruins. Uh, they’re both within a less than a half hour of Farmington, and you can find affordable places to stay in Farmington, and there is the Animus River Park that has eight miles of trails along the Animus River.
Bunny : (07:49)
But let me tell you a little bit about Aztec Ruins. It’s, Aztec ruins. I gotta tell you, I bet there are people in San Juan County who have never been out to the Aztec Ruins, but Aztec Ruins has some of the best preserved Chaco and structures of their kind. And one of the things they have is a restored great Kiva that is about 40 feet in diameter. And the, the Kiva, the Great Kivas, were underground ceremonial structures. And it’s this one, give this, it’s, um, the oldest and the largest reconstructed building of its kind, and you get to go into the Kiva. So if you’ve ever seen those pictures of ruins where there’s a ladder going up to an open space in the ceiling, um, that’s what the great Kiva is. Um, Aztec Ruins is also very affordable, um, from what I saw, the admission is another about eight, $8. Then you can go around the corner, um, between Bloomfield and Farmington and goes go to Salmon Ruins, which aren’t as extensive as Aztec, but this is an ongoing live archeological site. So you, you can see the excavation happening as you visit. And this is another one that one of the Chaco and, um, structures there, you know, the sites, uh, both Aztec and Salmon Ruins were built probably the, in, um, 80 10, 88 to 10 90. And, and they were lived in until around 1288. So, um, if your kids, um, need something different than another amusement park for Spring Break, this is gonna be, I mean, it’s gonna blow their mind to go and see these spaces where people lived almost thousands of years ago, actually, actually, yes, um, thousands of years ago. And if ruins aren’t your thing you can consider a hike through the Bici. I hope I say this right, Zen wilderness. This is south of Farmington, about 70 miles, and you’re gonna find 60 square miles of remote badlands and this crazy other worldly scenery, um, these odd stone formations and hoodoos, I, it’s it, you’re not gonna see anything like this anywhere else in the United States. Just be sure you take your camera because you’re gonna wanna catch those odd formations. And, um, some, another thing that I’ve been studying up on, because I’m not sure what I’m gonna wanna do when my grandsons come to stay for a week, but one of my kids’ favorite places, and something that’s really easy to get to if you’re traveling, um, east from Santa Fe and Las Vegas towards Denver, is the Fort Union National Monument. It’s about 25 miles north of Las Vegas, south of I 25. It’s in walrus. And if you’re in walrus, it, it’s at walrus.
Bunny : (11:10)
I should say that it’s not in walrus because there’s not much in walrus. But if you go treat yourself to a cup of coffee at the Walrus Coffee House, it’s a place that we stay all, I’m sorry. It’s a place that we stop all the time when we’re on our way to Logan from Santa Fe. And so, Fort Union National Monument is, uh, a, it’s, it’s on the Santa Fe Trail. It’s along the eroded Santa Fe trail, although if you stop at Fort Union, you are going to see ruts from the Santa Fe Trail. Um, so this was a, this, this is the largest 19th century military fort in the region. And so for 40 years, from 1851 to 1891, Fort Union was an agent, a place where, um, the US Army had centralized their operations. And it’s, it, it’s an amazing piece of history because it looks from a distance like a village. And the foundations of the buildings that were there have been well preserved. And you can spend I you know, the visitor center is way cool, and you can also spend about an hour there walking around exploring, um, checking out artifacts from a time when I mean, there was a large contingency of, of us soldiers that lived there in the area at one time, there were around 1100 US soldiers, and it’s just, it’s surrounded by mountain ranges in the distance. So the scenery is beautiful. It’s, um, it’s something that your kids are going to be surprised by, and I would say enthralled by. So please consider going to, um, Fort Union National Monument. It’s so easy. You, if you’re on, if you’re on I 25 and you see the signs, just get off the freeway for a minute and have some fun. If you’re closer to the center of the state, I’d say especially, you know, Clovis Portales, um, that area, why not take a day trip and go to Fort Sumner? Um, there’s a new Fort Sumner historic site, and it is, it’s very sensitive a about the history, because there was a difficult history in the Bosque near Fort Sumner, um, kit Carson. Kit Carson was instructed to round up the Navajo people and take them there to live. And, um, and then, um, you know, this, I’m, I’m not going to go into that history. You can research it on your own, but there were a lot of lives lost, um, eventually, I mean, my understanding and everything I’ve read is that he had some guilt about the way that he was forced by his leadership to treat Native peoples in New Mexico, but eventually, um, he was allowed to return the Navajo peoples to their homeland. But the Fort Sumner historic site is beautiful. It’s down in a Basque, lots of cottonwood trees. And the other thing that Fort Sumner has that your kids are gonna love is the Billy the Kid Grave and Museum. So think about do doing that while you’ve got a week off from school and you’re not quite sure what you, what you want to do. Um, other things that I’ve, you know, if you’re in the South central part of the state and you’re considering going to Ruidoso for a few days, if you’ve, if you’re lucky enough to, um, have kids that wanna go on a ski trip and you can afford that, um, why not take a day and do Zoso, which is a, an old railroad town that now is filled with an art community and, and then go to Capitan and go to the Smokey, the Bear Historical Park and museum. Um, we’ve all seen Smokey The Bear in hundreds of ads about preventing forest fires. I just think it’s be fun for your kids to hear the story of how he, that young bear was a cub that was rescued from a forest fire and then, um, taken to the zoo to be, um, nurse back to health. And kind of in the, I’m gonna tell you, in the, in the fifties, he became this icon for preventing forest fires.
Bunny : (16:11)
The other thing that you can do is go down the road from Capitan to the Lincoln Historic site where you’ll learn about, um, the Lincoln County Wars. Um, I think there were gunfights in the street during the Lincoln County Wars and Lincoln, New Mexico is a well-preserved historic community. Um, that, that is, I I’ve been there several times and I never get tired of hearing the stories that Lincoln has to tell. Um, you can also go, go into Ruidoso, obviously, if you were planning to do that. That’s, that’s a great thing to do. Um, there are lots of great places to stay in Ruso. There’s lots of fun to be had. And in the area is also, um, you, you can stay. There’s some rustic cabins where you can stay in Ruso. There’s the Ruso Lodge cabins, there’s the storybook cabins. Um, there’s also, um, if you don’t wanna go all the way into, um, Ruso there is in San Patricio, which is in the Hondo Valley, you can stay at the Herd, LA Cando Gallery and Guest Homes. That’s on my list. I’ve gotta go there and stay. I’m a big, big fan of Peter Herd and these, this place, LA Cando was the former resident of artists Peter Heard, and Henrietta Wyeth her. So I want to go there. Um, you can then go down the road to, we talked about this in an earlier podcast, um, into Alamogordo where, um, you’re on, I feel bad because I’ve already talked about this, but I always think I kids love sand dunes. So when you’re at Alamogordo, you’re right at White Sands. So think about that for a, um, spring break trip. The other thing that you can do, uh, you’re, you’re so close when you’re that in that part of the state is head down to Carlsbad Caverns. I know it seems like a no-brainer, um, and I already said that I’ve never been there, but it is obviously worth the trip to take your kids to Carlsbad Caverns and spend a few hours.
Bunny : (18:41)
So if your kids are like my Johanna was when she was younger, every kid loves the idea of getting on the back of a horse, even if it’s just for a day. And I did some research and found that there are several different places in New Mexico where you can, um, plan a trip that includes a horseback trip. If you’re in my neck of the woods near Santa Fe, you can get, you can connect with the Broken Saddle Riding Company in Cerrillos, and you can on horseback, you can leave Cerrillos, go down to Historic Madrid Overlook. Um, you also, um, get to ride around and hear stories of the Cerrillos Silver Mines. So consider taking a day trip and going to Rios and getting hooking up with Broken Saddle Riding Company. There’s also, and this is in a much more remote part of the state, but if you’re in T or C or Points West, um, consider calling the Geronimo Trail Guest Ranch, which is in Winston, New Mexico, seeing if you might be able to book a night or two. And so this is a four cabin dude ranch. It’s sort of, it’s west of TRC, it’s northeast of Silver City, and it is in The Pines. It’s part of the Gila National Forest. It’s in, it’s within the Gila National Forest. And, um, these, when you’re there, you have unlimited, and there’s campfires, there’s horseshoes roping, um, cowboy chow. You do have to stay a minimum of three nights, but the people who own it, their last name is Stout, will help you plan even a, a, a riding itineraries through the Heah wilderness, which is 3.3 million acres. So I think you’ll be able to find a place to ride and hang out and, and be with your kids in the wilderness. Um, ghost Ranch in Aba Q, which is north of Santa Fe, about 40 miles, not only has, um, the most incredible scenery in the world, but they also, you can also, um, take a ride. They have a several horses in their stables, and you can take the, you can rent a horse and ride through. They, they have a 90 minute ride that’ll take you through all those landscapes while you learn the history of Ghost Ranch, as well as Giorgio O’Keefe, who was their, of course, most famous resident in Abi Cube. And, um, the, the woman who manages the ranch, the, um, horse ranch, the horse, the equestrian portion of the ranch said that, yeah, um, you get a view of her home that you’re not gonna get on any other tour. And they also point out some of the sites where Giorgio O’Keefe painted, and the rides are suitable for beginners or advanced riders a lot, so you should be able to hike comfortably for an hour and a half straight. That’s just one of the restrictions that they suggest if you’re gonna come up to Ghost Ranch and ride one of their horses.
Bunny : (22:09)
And then in Ruidoso, which we’ve already talked about once, there’s a place called Grindstone Stables where you, where they have personal wranglers and they have big, gentle horses, and they offer trail rides through the Lincoln National Forest. So, um, there are one, what did I tell you? 1, 2, 3, 4 different ideas for getting on the back of a horse with your kids, which, um, I’m just gonna tell you is . First of all, it’s one of the ways to prove your metal with your kids because, I’m not much of a horseback rider, but, um, if I can do this with my young grandsons, then I’m sure it’s going to be an unforgettable experience for them. One other suggestion I’m gonna make before we finish here is that if you are in the Central New Mexico, um, especially New Mex or Albuquerque, Berlin, Los Lunas, those areas, I’m gonna suggest that you get your kids on the, the tram. Um, the Sandia Tram is, um, one of the longest suspension trams in the world, and you leave the foothills of Albuquerque and go to the top of Sandia Peak, and you can stay, you can, you can have lunch at the restaurant, um, at the top of the tram. But I remember this as one of the funnest things that I did with my kids, and we did it several times. And, um, if they say that they’re afraid of heights, just assure them that, um, the tram’s been running a lot longer than it, than I’ve been alive. And so, um, it, it’s, it is a singular activity that I think a lot of people in New Mexico have never tried. And that’s a quick three or four hour, um, uh, morning or an afternoon ride on the tram that will make this spring break different than any other spring break they’ve ever had. There are a lot of things that I could talk about that I could suggest to you. Um, going to Kaplan, which is an extinct volcano in the northeast part of the state, um, you can drive your car up there. Um, no RVs, they don’t allow you to pull an RV up there. But, um, it’s, that’s an amazing experience. I am, I obviously love New Mexico and I love suggesting, um, ideas that nobody’s ever thought about for, um, sightseeing and visits. There are a lot of things you can do here that are free. Um, you can walk through galleries with your kids, which is a surprising activity because if they’ve never been exposed to fine art, then you’re, you’re, you are going to be pleasantly surprised at the way that they react. Um, you can go for hikes, um, you can just, you can just Google hiking New Mexico and you’ll come up with hundreds of options. But my best advice for spring Break is instead of planning a complex, expensive trip somewhere else, that you spend it in New Mexico. And I wanna hear what you did. I wanna hear what your kids like best because that’s what we’re all about. Here is the stories about your experiences in New Mexico. Have a great time with your kids and enjoy your spring break. Take care. Thanks to all of you for taking the time to listen to the I Love New Mexico podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please feel free to share it with your friends on social media or by texting or messaging or emailing them a copy of the podcast. If you have a New Mexico story that you’d like to share with us, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our email address is I love New Mexico blog@gmail.com, and we are always, always looking for interesting stories about New Mexico. Subscribe, share, and write a review so that we can continue to bring you these stories about the Land of Enchantment. Thank you so much.