Travel Adventures in Arizona and New Mexico, Part 14: Albuquerque to El Paso

This is my fourteenth and final post about our adventures traveling through Arizona and New Mexico. I recommend that you read the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh,  twelfth, and thirteenth posts before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, I received comped passes, media rates, and other benefits for several of the places we visited throughout the trip. Some of the attractions we toured are free to everyone; we paid full price for the rest. What I paid or didn't pay has no effect on my reviews. Everything that I share is something I recommend without hesitation.

---------

Travel Adventures from Albuquerque to El Paso

After leaving the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, we had a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us to get to our next destination. We made two short stops along the drive. The first was to get a quick photo in San Antonio. These Official Scenic Highway Markers are all over New Mexico (approximately 650 statewide) and I love them. This one marks the birthplace of Conrad Hilton. 

A bit more driving and we came to Valley of Fires Recreation Area in Carizozo. Valley of Fires is located at the Malpais Lava Flow, important because it is one of the largest volume young lava flows. 

Unfortunately, the Visitor Center had just closed when we got there, so we headed directly out on the trail.  

We followed multiple switchbacks to get down to the lava fields. It was great to stretch our legs a bit.  

This was the second "malpais" (badlands) we'd visited in three days and we enjoyed both immensely. 

Onward! We drove for another hour or so before reaching PistachioLand, home of the world's largest pistachio. 

  

They were about to close when we arrived and they'd stopped ice cream sales, so we weren't able to try their famous pistachio ice cream. Nor could we take a farm tour. But we did enjoy checking out their large store. It's packed with all things pistachio. 

  

  

The store is 98% pistachios and 2% aliens. I assume that is because Roswell is near. Well, sort of. It's 110 miles away. 

There's a free pistachio tasting bar at PistachioLand that we enjoyed. We tried most of the 15 or so flavors. I never would have guessed that Margarita Lime would be my favorite. Steve's favorite was Lemon Lime. Citrus and pistachios go together really well!

  

I really would have liked to try the ice cream. 

But that would have ruined my dinner and then I wouldn't have enjoyed the excellent food at D.H. Lescombes Winery and Bistro. 

Steve and I shared potstickers, french onion soup, and a steakhouse salad. Everything was really good. 

Our home for the night was the Holiday Inn Express Alamogordo. This hotel offers the usual amenities of the brand (free breakfast, free parking, etc) but if also offered one perk I've never seen anywhere else: free sled rentals. While we were checking in, a happy family dropped off the sleds they'd been using that day. 

As you might imagine, there was no snow in southern New Mexico on that sunny day in April. The sleds aren't for snow - they're for sand. Alamogordo is about 15 miles from White Sands National Park. 

Or is it White Sands National Monument? 

White Sands was a national monument from 1933 until 2019, when it became a national park. Most of the signs are updated, but not all. It preserves the world's largest gypsum dunefield, as well as the world's largest collection of fossilized footprints from the Ice Age. 

We started in the Visitor Center. I really enjoyed this exhibit about some of the most common tracks seen out on the dunefield. 

There were other interesting exhibits, but it was really crowded and we couldn't get decent pictures. We watched the park movie, then set out on Dunes Drive to experience the park. Fortunately, there were no missile test closures (!!). 

We listened the audio tour as we drove and stopped at several of the points of interest along the way. We walked along this trail, then up onto the dunes. 

Yup. It's sand. It's white. 

Because the sand is ever-shifting, the trails are marked with posts. Follow the blue clubs symbol for the Dune Life Nature Trail. 

Full disclosure: I don't like sand. I hate touching it and I don't like walking on it. The gypsum sand at White Sands is definitely better than the normal silica sand, but I still didn't enjoy it. It's pretty though. It looks like snow.  

I'm glad there was such a beautiful blue sky when we were visiting White Sands NP. 

If you've never been to White Sands, take a minute to picture what you think the picnic area looks like. 

Is this what you'd imagined? I sure didn't!

It's hard to properly express how much white sand there is at White Sands. We enjoyed looking at the pristine areas that didn't have footprints. People's footprints, that is. We were really excited to spot roadrunner tracks, which I never would have recognized without going to the Visitor Center first. 

We left White Sands and had a 90 minute drive to the airport in El Paso, Texas. It was the closest and best option for getting home. We flew to Phoenix, then went to the gate for our long layover. Steve, not in the mood to sit and read, walked through the whole airport. Thank goodness he did - he discovered an eegee's!! I thought we'd had our last-ever eegee a week earlier!

Steve and I had a great time exploring Arizona and New Mexico together. I hope I've inspired you to visit this area of the Southwest. There are so many fun and fascinating things to do. We packed in as much as we could, but it still has so much more to offer. We'll be back!

Travel Adventures in Arizona and New Mexico, Part 13: Grants to Albuquerque

This is my thirteenth post about our adventures traveling through Arizona and New Mexico. I recommend reading the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth posts before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, I received comped passes, media rates, and other benefits for several of the places we visited throughout the trip. Some of the attractions we toured are free to everyone; we paid full price for the rest. What I paid or didn't pay has no effect on my reviews. Everything that I share is something I recommend without hesitation.

---------

Travel Adventures from Grants to Albuquerque

Have you ever been somewhere stunningly beautiful, but knew the camera wasn't going to capture what you were seeing? The land of the Acoma Puebloans is breathtaking. This is the Acoma Sky City Viewpoint. 

In the distance is Sky City (Haak'u), one of the oldest continuously occupied communities in North America. The Acoma have lived on the mesa for over 1000 years. 

This is the view if you turn 180°. 

We spent a good amount of time enjoying the spectacular views of this singularly unique landscape. 

This is the Sky City Cultural Center and Haak'u Museum. Inside the beautiful building is a museum, cafe, gift shop, and meeting space. Photos are not allowed indoors. We enjoyed the exhibits and were particularly enthralled by a video about the work of Acoma potter Lucy Lewis. The video we watched was much longer and had interviews and demonstrations by Lewis, but this episode of ¡Colores! gives you an overview of her talent. 

We'd really wanted to take the guided tour of the Pueblo, but the timing didn't work out. Hopefully someday. This is a really special place. 

  

There were Acoma jewelers and potters in the courtyard displaying their beautiful artwork. We enjoyed talking with the women and seeing their creations. I really wanted to buy an ornament, but there's no way I could have gotten it home safely. I wish I could show you how stunning everything was, but photos of the artwork was not allowed. 

We took Highway 23 back toward I-40. It was almost as beautiful as the route we'd taken in on Indian Service Route 38. 

Back on the freeway, we headed toward Albuquerque. The scenery was really unique and interesting, but impossible to photograph decently at freeway speeds. This portion of I-40 is also Route 66, so there were lots of roadside attractions and themed restaurants and gift shops along the way, in addition to the natural beauty. 

We reached Albuquerque and stopped for dinner at the Owl Cafe. 

The Owl Cafe is decorated with... owls. 

See the owls in this picture? There are a few on the dessert case, but most of them are on the 'shelf' near the ceiling, all the way around the whole restaurant. 

The Owl Cafe features diner classics, some with a New Mexico twist. We shared a chicken fried steak sandwich (with fries, cole slaw, and cream gravy) and a pineapple-strawberry milkshake (which they put in two glasses without us even asking). It's a good thing we shared - it was a LOT of food. And all delicious!

  

We weren't going to have dessert, but when our waitress told us the options we had no choice but to order something called "juice cake." I'd never heard of it before and I'm sucker for trying new foods, especially when we're traveling. It turns out juice cake batter is made with fruit juice (in this case, pineapple, apple, and cherry) and then more of that juice is poured over the cake after it's been baked. It has a cream cheese frosting and they served it with a generous amount of whipped cream. It's hard to tell in the photo, but this slice was enormous. The juice cake was tasty, but we would have needed at least four friends to help us finish it (no exaggeration). 

We left the Owl Cafe and checked into our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. It was clean, comfy, newly remodeled, and perfectly located near the morning's first destination: The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History (Motto: Reactions welcome.) After a good night's rest and a tasty breakfast, we headed over. 

I love the periodic table design on the floor of the lobby. When I see features like this, I know a lot of thought and care went into the museum. 

Indeed, the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History is an outstanding museum. The exhibits are very interesting, with excellent descriptions for people with all levels of background knowledge (or none at all). 

This was so interesting. The people working on the Manhattan Project in New Mexico in 1944 were issued anonymous drivers' licenses! This engineer is a 5'9" man with medium brown hair; his full name is "Number 224."

The Gadget. 

Fat Man.

I have only one complaint about this museum and that is that there is nowhere to sit while watching their videos. 

There are so many interesting exhibits. 

It's always exciting to see LLNL discussed at a museum. When I was a little kid, almost all of my friends' dads worked at the Lab (affiliate link here and below) and that seemed perfectly normal to me. Turns out, growing up in Livermore is different than growing up in other places!

From my hometown to my current town! "Broken Arrow" is the military term for a nuclear weapon accident. The one that occurred in Fairfield, CA in 1950 killed 19 people, including General Robert F. Travis, for whom Travis Air Force Base is now named. 

I didn't expect to see pieces of the Berlin Wall here, though in retrospect it's not surprising. It's almost as exciting to see Berlin Wall pieces as it is moon rocks. 

  

My favorite exhibit at the museum was about toys and games during the Atomic Age. 

It's fascinating how wildly inappropriate some of them seem from a 2026 perspective. Pencils with real uranium?! A game where you drop bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?!

  

The Boys' Life magazine reminds me of a book I've been wanting to read: The Radioactive Boy Scout. It's a true story and highly disturbing. 

  

Add a flux capacitor to the list of things I didn't expect to see at this museum. Hey - Arco, Idaho! We ate a lousy meal and spent the night there. 

The hands-on kids' space, called Little Albert's Lab, is outstanding. 

Three Mile Island souvenirs?! 

Hey! We were just there!

The nuclear waste is simulated.... 

But the cube of uranium is real. 

Don't miss the temporary exhibit, American Nukes. It's a collection of 90 photos of nuclear weapons displays across the US. Some of them are in expected places, like this museum or on military bases. Others are in public parks and even schools. We've seen a number of them in our travels. 

After finishing the indoor exhibits, head outdoors where there are a wide variety of aircraft, missiles, and other big stuff (technical term) on display. 

  

We had a great time at the Nuclear Museum, aka the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. I definitely recommend a visit. 

We spent over 4 hours at the museum and had a lot of driving ahead of us. Tomorrow I'll tell you all about the last things we did in New Mexico before it was time to fly home.