New Mexico Parks and Recreation Areas with Hiking

Rising 200 feet above the valley floor, this massive sandstone bluff was a welcome landmark for weary travelers. A reliable waterhole hidden at its base made El Morro (or Inscription Rock) a popular campsite. Beginning in the late 1500s Spanish, and later, Americans passed by El Morro. While they rested in its shade and drank from the pool, many carved their signatures, dates, and messages. Before the Spanish, petroglyphs were inscribed by Ancestral Puebloans living on top of the bluff over 700 years ago. read more...

Phone: 505-783-4226   Price Range: $0 - $3   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Ramah   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Birding, Hiking, Camping   Details Provided By: El Morro

El Malpais National Monument and Conservation Area was established in 1987 and is a relative newcomer to the National Park System. This monument preserves 114,277 acres of which 109,260 acres are federal and 5,017 acres are private. El Malpais means the badlands but contrary to its name this unique area holds many surprises, many of which researchers are now unraveling. Volcanic features such as lava flows, cinder cones, pressure ridges and complex lava tube systems dominate the landscape. Closer inspection reveals unique ecosystems with complex relationships. Sandstone bluffs and mesas border the eastern side, providing access to vast wilderness. read more...

Phone: 505-285-4641   Price Range: N/A   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Grants   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Backpacking, Biking / Bicycling, Birding, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Rock Climbing, Wildlife Watching, Camping, Auto Touring, Nature Walks, Star Gazing   Details Provided By: El Malpais National Monument

Here, great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert and have created the world's largest gypsum dune field. The brilliant white dunes are ever changing: growing, cresting, then slumping, but always advancing. Slowly but relentlessly the sand, driven by strong southwest winds, covers everything in its path. Within the extremely harsh environment of the dune field, even plants and animals adapted to desert conditions struggle to survive. Only a few species of plants grow rapidly enough to survive burial by moving dunes, but several types of small animals have evolved a white coloration that camouflages them in the gypsum sand. read more...

Phone: (505) 679-2599   Price Range: $0 - $3   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Holloman AFB   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Backpacking, Biking / Bicycling, Birding, Hiking, Auto Touring, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs, Star Gazing   Details Provided By: White Sands National Monument

Best known for mesas, sheer-walled canyons, and several thousand ancestral Pueblo dwellings found among them, Bandelier also includes over 23,000 acres of designated Wilderness. The best-known archeological sites, in Frijoles Canyon near the Visitor Center, were inhabited from the 1100s into the mid-1500s, and earlier groups had used the area for thousands of years. read more...

Phone: (505) 672-3861   Price Range: $0 - $10   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Los Alamos   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Backpacking, Birding, Hiking, Wildlife Watching, Camping   Details Provided By: Bandelier

Chaco is remarkable for its monumental public and ceremonial buildings, and its distinctive architecture. To construct the buildings, along with the associated Chacoan roads, ramps, dams, and mounds, required a great deal of well organized and skillful planning, designing, resource gathering, and construction. The Chacoan people combined pre-planned architectural designs, astronomical alignments, geometry, landscaping, and engineering to create an ancient urban center of spectacular public architecture - one that still amazes and inspires us a thousand years later read more...

Phone: 505-786-7014   Price Range: $4 - $8   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Nageezi   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Historic Park   Activities: Biking / Bicycling, Hiking, Camping, Nature Walks   Details Provided By: Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument offers a glimpse of the homes and lives of the people of the Mogollon culture who lived in the Gila Wilderness from the 1280s through the early 1300s. The surroundings probably look today very much like they did when the cliff dwellings were inhabited. It is surrounded by the Gila National Forest and lies at the edge of the Gila Wilderness, the nation's first designated wilderness area. This designation means that the wilderness character of the area will not be altered by the intrusion of roads or other evidence of human presence. read more...

Phone: (505) 536-9461   Price Range: $3 - $10   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Silver City   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Backpacking, Biking / Bicycling, Birding, Fishing, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Wildlife Watching, Camping, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs, Star Gazing   Details Provided By: Gila Cliff Dwellings

Fort Union was established in 1851 by Lieutenant Colonel Edwin V. Sumner as a guardian and protector of the Santa Fe Trail. During it's forty-year history, three different forts were constructed close together. The third and final Fort Union was the largest in the American Southwest, and functioned as a military garrison, territorial arsenal, and military supply depot for the southwest. Today, visitors use a self-guided tour path to visit the second fort and the large, impressive ruins of the third Fort Union. The largest visible network of Santa Fe Trail ruts can be seen here. read more...

Phone: (505) 425-8025   Price Range: $0 - $3   Open Season: N/A   Camping: No
Nearest Popular City: Watrous   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Hiking, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Fort Union

Between 1821 and 1880, the Santa Fe Trail was primarily a commercial highway connecting Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico. From 1821 until 1846, it was an international commercial highway used by Mexican and American traders. In 1846, the Mexican-American War began. The Army of the West followed the Santa Fe Trail to invade New Mexico. When the Treaty of Guadalupe ended the war in 1848, the Santa Fe Trail became a national road connecting the United States to the new southwest territories. Commercial freighting along the trail continued, including considerable military freight hauling to supply the southwestern forts. The trail was also used by stagecoach lines, thousands of gold seekers heading to the California and Colorado gold fields, adventurers, fur trappers, and emigrants. In 1880 the railroad reached Santa Fe and the trail faded into history. read more...

Phone: (505) 988-6888   Price Range: N/A   Open Season: N/A   Camping: No
Nearest Popular City: Santa Fe   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Historic Trail   Activities: Hiking, Auto Touring, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Santa Fe National Historic Trail

Mammoths, giant bison, and short-faced bears were witness to the first tremblings of the earth and firework-like explosions of molten rock thousands of feet into the air. Approximately 60,000 years ago, the rain of cooling cinders and four lava flows formed Capulin Volcano, a nearly perfectly-shaped cinder cone, rising more than 1000 feet above the surrounding landscape. Although long extinct, Capulin Volcano is dramatic evidence of the volcanic processes that shaped northeastern New Mexico. read more...

Phone: (505) 278-2201   Price Range: $3 - $5   Open Season: N/A   Camping: No
Nearest Popular City: Capulin   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Birding, Hiking, Wildlife Watching, Auto Touring, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Capulin Volcano