15 Best Sights in Southwestern New Mexico, New Mexico

Caballo Lake State Park provides winter nesting grounds for golden and bald eagles, often sighted gliding aloft as they search for prey. Fishing and water sports are popular at the lake, and hiking trails lead through the desert areas where yucca, century plants, and numerous varieties of cacti are abundant. A great time to visit is late March or early April, when prickly pears and other succulents are in bloom.

A primary destination here is the splendid Catwalk National Recreation Trail, a 250-foot-long metal walkway drilled into the sides of the massive rock cliffs of the breathtaking Whitewater Canyon—which is only 20 feet wide in places. This is one of the most verdant, beautiful canyons in the state, with the creek and tumbling waterfalls surrounded by gorgeous rocks and shade trees. The Catwalk, first installed as an access route for water lines critical to local gold- and silver-mining operations in the late 1800s, was rebuilt in 1935 for recreation purposes. A number of famous outlaws, including Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch, have used the canyon as a hideout because of its remote, and almost inaccessible, location. You need to be in reasonably good physical condition to scramble up some stone stairways, but the 2.2-mi round-trip trail is well-maintained and worth the effort; there is a nice alternate route that is wheelchair accessible. Bring your bathing suit so you can enjoy standing under the waterfalls and splashing in the creek. Admission is $3.

Capsicum matters greatly to New Mexicans, and much of the research into this invaluable agricultural product takes place at NMSU's Chile Pepper Institute, where visitors can explore the Hall of Flame and the gift shop. Formal tours are available by appointment.

NM 52 leads about 40 mi west from I–25, near Truth or Consequences, to Winston and Chloride, two fascinating mining towns just east of the Gila National Forest. Prospectors searching for silver in the nearby ore-rich mountains founded the towns in the late 1800s; abandoned saloons and false-front buildings, and pioneer relics still remain. Though the communities are designated ghost towns, the moniker is belied by the 50 or so residents currently living in each place, and Chloride has several businesses in operation.

Heading south on I–25 beyond Socorro and San Antonio, there are a couple of noteworthy stops. The first one, one of the region's most compelling attractions, is El Camino Real International Heritage Center. The beautiful, contemporary Heritage Center opened in 2005, after many years and much effort by New Mexicans to create a monument to El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Road. The history of the period from 1598 through the late 1800s—when Spanish and Mexican colonists traveled the 1,500-mi route from Veracruz to Santa Fe most heavily—is the focus of the captivating exhibits here. But El Camino was also a vital trade route that linked ancient peoples from North America to Mesoamericans, and that earlier era is touched on as well. The kind of determination needed to cover this rugged ground is amazing to consider, particularly while gazing at the unbroken horizon and stark environment of the Jornada del Muerto ("Journey of the Dead Man"), the nickname for the region this part of the road passed through. Today, this international trade route lives on in the form of the near parallel I–25. There are picnic tables, but no food is available here.

Several miles north of the Catwalk on U.S. 180 is the Glenwood State Trout Hatchery. There are picnic tables and a fishing pond with Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep grazing nearby.

The famed Hatch Chile Fest celebrates 40 years in 2012. Show that you're not a chile rube and mingle with aficionados who know their Nu Mex 6-4s (an heirloom variety regenerated from 1960s seeds) from their Big Jims (a medium-hot chile, cultivated locally). Between tastes (don't worry, some varieties are no hotter than a standard bell pepper), check out the Chile Festival Parade, play some horseshoes, or sign up for the Chile Toss contest.

The ghost town of Kelly, 4 mi south of town, is reputed to be haunted, and during the Old Timers Reunion a 7K race finishes here (it begins in the village). During its boom time 3,000 people lived in the town. You cannot go into the mine, but you can get a permit to walk around and collect rocks at Tony's Rock Shop in Magdalena at 9th and Kelly (575/854–2401).

Although there are arts festivals in spring and fall, the biggest event of the year in Magdalena is the Magdalena Old Timers Reunion, held for three days in early July. The festival, which draws about 5,000 and has the biggest parade in New Mexico after the state fair's, began quietly 30 years ago. With the end of cattle drives and the shutdown of the rail spur in the early 1970s, cowboys began returning at the same time each year to greet each other and reminisce. Over the past three decades, the reunion has grown into an event-packed weekend including both kids' and adult rodeos, Western swing dances on Friday and Saturday nights, a fiddling contest, a barbecue dinner, and an authentic chuck-wagon cook-off. The parade takes place Saturday morning, and the crowned reunion queen must be at least 60 years old. Most events are held at the Magdalena Fairgrounds, and admission is free.

The first winery worth a look is the Rio Grande Vineyard & Winery, just over 4 mi south of Old Mesilla. The comfortably appointed tasting room has a fine view of the Organ Mountains, and proprietor Gordon Steel is congenial and informed. Try the Queue Tendre white or the dry Syrah.

It may be hard to imagine as you gaze into the infinite blue of New Mexico's southern sky, but someday soon those wispy contrails you see lingering from rocket engines may be the residue of vehicles carrying tourists into Earth's orbit—and beyond.

In October 2005 the White Sands Missile Range hosted the first of a series of X Prize Cup competitions, aimed at enabling private industry to become involved in (relatively) economical space travel. Some of the launch technologies that resulted have been pivotal to the development, barely five years later, of the facility that will house Virgin Galactic and make space tourism a reality (though cash flow is more likely to come from suborbital satellite launches and payload cargo). Visitor centers in both Hatch and Truth or Consequences are planned to launch as soon as Spaceport flights are operational; bus tours that will originate from those centers are part of the program. But to get on board SpaceShipTwo, it will cost you around $200,000.

The University Art Gallery displays both historic holdings—19th-century Mexican retablos, for example, representing the world's largest collection of this religious art form—and contemporary ones, such as Robert Rauschenberg lithographs.

The University Museum, housed in a grand 1930s white stucco, red-tile-roof WPA building, shows off NMSU's role in regional archaeological research. Exhibits draw on extensive holdings of Southwestern and Mesoamerican pottery, and temporary exhibits delve into both regional and international subjects, from Diné (Navajo) weavers to African art.

Finally, 28 mi down, you may not notice, but you will have crossed into Texas and the town of Canutillo, home of the newest winery in the bunch, Zin Valle Vineyards. They favor sweet wines, such as Gewürztraminer made from grapes grown on-site.

Near the Chile Pepper Institute, the Zuhl Geological Collection comprises a rich abundance of petrified-wood samples (vibrant reds and yellows mark the Late Triassic pieces from the Chinle region of Arizona), fossils, minerals, and an oviraptor dinosaur nest.