9 Best Sights in Southeastern New Mexico, New Mexico

The Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, which started as a personal collection evolving from founder late Don Anderson's patronage of artists, since the 1960s has become an important showcase of contemporary art. This 22,000-square-foot, salon-style museum exhibits sculpture, painting, print, and textiles, and it continues to evolve. Among the 500-plus pieces is an impressive collection of the dramatic, large-scale fiberglass sculptures by the late El Paso artist Luis Jiménez. The remarkable and competitive Roswell Artist-in-Residence program, whose participants' work feeds the ongoing collection, is operated by the museum's foundation and provides a home, studio, supplies and a stipend to participating artists.

About 8,000 diving permits are issued per year for folks who strap on tanks and plunge into the 80-foot-deep artesian spring–fed pool at the Blue Hole, which is also open for public swimming during daylight hours (no fee). Cliff diving is great fun here, as is snorkeling and coming face to face with the many koi and goldfish that have been deposited here over the years.

Stella Salazar runs the dive shop (575/472–3370) adjacent to the Blue Hole; hours are generally restricted to the weekends, although the pool is open seven days a week. Tanks, air, weight belts, and a few other basics are available there. Weekly dive permits are $20; annual permits are $50.

The museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, houses the Anne C. Stradling Collection of more than 10,000 artworks and objects related to the horse—paintings, drawings, and bronzes by master artists; saddles from Mexico, China, and the Pony Express; carriages and wagons; a horse-drawn grain thresher; and clothing worn by Native Americans and cowboys. An indoor children's exhibit offers kids the chance to climb and touch an adobe home, a tepee, a wagon, as well as lots of other hands-on activities.

Depending on your point of view, the International UFO Museum and Research Center will either seem like a display of only-in-America kitsch or a real opportunity to examine UFO documentation and other phenomena involving extraterrestrials. This homespun nonprofit facility is surprisingly low-tech—some of the displays look like they've seen previous duty on B-movie sets (the museum is, coincidentally, inside an old movie house). The blowups of newspaper stories about the 1947 Roswell crash, its fallout, and 1950s UFO mania make interesting reading, and you can view the videotaped recollections of residents who say they saw the crash firsthand. The gift shop sells all manner of souvenirs depicting wide-eyed extraterrestrials, along with books and videos. Though some of the exhibits are whimsical, the portion of the museum devoted to research accumulates serious written collections and investigations of reported UFOs. The city hosts AlienFest (575/914–8017) over the first weekend of July each year.

The National Solar Observatory–Sacramento Peak, 20 miles south of Cloudcroft on the Sunspot Highway at an elevation of 9,200 feet, is designated for observations of the Sun. The observatory, established in 1947, has four telescopes, including a 329-foot Vacuum Tower that resembles a pyramid. One observation point has a majestic view of White Sands and the Tularosa Basin. During the day you can inspect the telescopes on a self-guided tour and watch live, filtered television views of the Sun. Interactive displays at the visitor center allow you to, among other activities, make infrared fingerprints. The community of Sunspot, home of the observatory, is an actual working community of scientists—not a tourist attraction—so you should stay within areas designated for visitors.

The impressive Roswell Museum and Art Center often gets overlooked in favor of alien hoopla, but it contains a very good collection of Southwestern artists, including works by Georgia O'Keeffe, Henriette Wyeth, Peter Hurd, plus early modernist pieces from members of the early Taos and Santa Fe art colonies. The extensive Rogers and Mary Ellen Aston Collection of the American West has displays of Plains Indian artifacts and Spanish armor. Robert H. Goddard's collection exhibits the inventions and journals of the rocketry genius, who conducted some of his early experiments near Roswell. The Robert H. Goddard Planetarium, which is part of the museum, is open only occasionally, generally on holiday weekends and for celestial events—call ahead for the schedule.

You truly have to see Sitting Bull Falls to believe that a cascading, 150-foot-tall waterfall flowing into beautiful, crystal-clear pools exists in southeastern New Mexico. It's no mirage—and you can even swim in the waters of this oasis. A 1-mi hike from the parking lot over a paved trail takes you to a desert riparian area lush with ferns, watercress, and cottonwoods. At the parking lot, the forest service provides rock ramadas for picnics. There are viewing decks and restrooms, and 16 mi of hiking trails lace the area. The park is open for day use only. If you want to camp overnight, drive southwest on NM 137 until you reach the New Mexico–Texas state line and Dog Canyon Campground in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. During extreme drought conditions, call first to make sure the area hasn't been closed.

Twenty-eight miles south of Carrizozo, take CR B-30 east off U.S. 54 and in 5 mi you come to Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, one of the Southwest's most comprehensive and fascinating examples of prehistoric rock art. The 21,000 sunbursts, lizards, birds, handprints, plants, masks, and other symbols are thought to represent the nature-worshipping religion of the Jornada Mogollon people, who lived in this region between AD 900 and AD 1400. Symbols were pinpointed and identified through the extensive work of two members of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico's Rock Art Recording Field School. Fragrant desert creosote and mesquite can be found here, along with cacti that blossom brilliantly in early summer. A rugged trail snakes for 1 mi, and from its top you can see the Tularosa Basin to the west and the Sacramento Mountains to the east. A short trail leads to a partially excavated prehistoric village. You can camp at the site, and there are 10 covered shelters with picnic tables, barbecue grills, restrooms, and water. Two RV sites with electricity and water are available for $10 per night.

White Sands National Monument encompasses 145,344 acres of the largest deposit of gypsum sand in the world, where shifting sand dunes reach 60 feet high. The monument, one of the few landforms recognizable from space, has displays in its visitor center that describe how the dunes were (and are continually) formed from gypsum crystals originating at a dry lake bed called Lake Lucero, where winds and erosion break down the crystals into fine particles of sand. A 17-minute introductory video at the visitor center is very helpful if you intend to hike among the dunes. There are also a gift shop, snack bar, and bookstore.

A 16-mi round-trip car ride takes you into this eerie wonderland of gleaming white sand. You can climb to the top of the dunes for a photograph, then tumble or surf down on a sled sold at the visitor center. As you wade barefoot in the gypsum crystals you notice the sand is not hot, and there's even moisture to be felt a few inches below the surface. Gypsum is one of the most common minerals on earth and is finer than the silica sand on beaches. A walk on the 1-mi Big Dune Trail will give you a good overview of the site; other options are the 4¾-mi Alkali Flat Trail and the 600-yard Boardwalk. The Nature Center in the Dunes museum has exhibits and other information that includes interpretive displays with depictions of animals and plant life common to the dunes, along with illustrations of how the dunes shift through time. The center usually is open during regular hours, but is staffed by volunteers (so it sometimes closes unexpectedly). Call first to make sure it's open. The picnic area has shaded tables and grills. Backpackers' campsites are available by permit, obtainable at the visitor center, but there aren't any facilities. Once a month from May to September, White Sands celebrates the full moon by remaining open until 11, allowing you to experience the dunes by lunar light. Call for information and reservations for monthly auto caravans on Saturday to Lake Lucero, the source of the gypsum sand deposit. Rangers lead tours daily at sunset, starting at the visitor center.