Open Space Visitor Center
Sandhill cranes make their winter home here or stop for a snack en route to the Bosque del Apache, just south in Socorro. Albuquerque is right in their flyway, and the Open Space Center provides a most hospitable setting for them. The outdoor viewing station opens onto the site’s expansive field, which faces out to the Sandia Mountains; the hush—aside from the occasional flock circling above (look for them from mid-October through February)—is restorative. Complementing the experience inside are changing art and photography exhibits, an interpretative display on the adjacent 14th- to 15th-century Piedras Marcadas Pueblo ruins, and well-informed guides. A native garden interspersed with mosaics and sculptures fills the patio at the center’s entryway; the latter theme is introduced when you make the turn-off from busy Coors Boulevard—Robert Wilson’s large-scale public art installation Flyway is at the northeast corner as you approach. Ongoing family activities, occasional live music, and educational and other special programming are on tap year-round; easy walking trails heading down to the shores of the Rio Grande start just beyond the entrance.
