Interview with Mike Stauffer, Communications Director of New Mexico Tourism Department

Tell us a little bit about New Mexico, what makes this state unique for travelers?

From early man to the Indian cliff-dwellers to the Spanish conquistadors and priests to the Anglo arrival in the mid-1800s, New Mexico has lived through thousands of centuries. We became a state in 1912 and to this day the Indian, Hispanic, and Anglo cultures mix their cultures, traditions, and talents, and yet they remain distinct.

Of the seven life zones on earth, New Mexico can claim six. Aside from stunning beauty, this diversity makes for a wealth of recreational options, as well as animal life. You’ll find the Rocky Mountain range in the northern part of our state and the northern reaches of the Chihuahuan Desert in the southern. We can offer an untold number of outdoor adventures on our lands, 45 percent of which are public. Any one of our over one hundred lakes and rivers, 13 National Monuments and Parks, 29 State Parks, five National Forests, and 12 ski areas are sure to keep you occupied.

We’re the third-largest art market in the nation behind Los Angeles and New York. Our many art galleries, museums, and live performances are influenced by our fascinating cultural history. It was here that evidence of early man (12,000 BC) was found and here that many agrarian-based societies of ancestral people were established by 1000 AD. Areas where those groups made their homes are preserved and honored to this day, as are the multi-story adobe pueblos that the Spanish stumbled upon when they arrived in the 1500s. The Indian, Spanish, and Anglo peoples who have been co-existing here for the last 400 years have come to weave their traditions and views, though they maintain respectful distinctions. Each of our twenty-two pueblos and tribes has their own sovereign lands and governments and 38 percent of the population is Hispanic.

Here we consider science and technology an art. If there’s been advancement in astronomical research, atomic energy, solar power, space travel, or UFO phenomena, it has most likely come out of our state.

And with fewer than two million people in the fifth-largest state in the nation, you’ll easily find solitude without seeking too hard. This is a rare thing in our times of population growth and city sprawl.

What are some of the top destinations in New Mexico?

Carlsbad Caverns
Once you’ve spelunked here, you’ve experienced one of the best and one of the largest caves in the world.

Chaco Canyon Historic Park
You think we understand urban culture today? Come to Chaco Canyon and see what the Anasazi’s major center of commerce.

The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, Chama
Now train travel is exotic again, take this scenic 64-mile ride from Chama to Antonito, Colorado over 10,015-foot Cumbres Pass.

International UFO Museum, Roswell
Whether or not you believe in Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), aliens, and other life forms, you owe it to yourself to at least find out what happened in 1947 in Roswell.

Gila Cliff Dwellings
For the Tularosa Mogollon people, a cave was the best shelter around. Come see the preserved remains of their homes.

Sandia Peak Tramway
Travel to the top of the Sandia Mountains from Albuquerque by way of the world’s longest aerial tram in the world.

Santa Fe
Our state capital began its life as the Spanish “Kingdom of New Mexico” in 1610, making it the oldest capital city in North America.

Taos Ski Valley
If you’re serious about alpine skiing in an unspoiled, uncrowded, powder-packed place where snowboarders dare not show themselves, try the 3,274 vertical feet of Taos Ski Valley.

White Sands, Alamogordo
Bring your sunglasses and a big sense of play for this treat. This isn’t just nearly 300 square miles of white sand – it’s a dune-textured sea of luxurious gypsum.

Have you seen an increase in people looking for adventure trips in New Mexico?

The opportunities for outdoor sports and recreation in New Mexico are as varied as the state’s terrain. Few states can boast six of the earth’s seven climatic zones, nor are they blessed with the towering mountains that rise above New Mexico’s high desert plains. With thirteen National Monuments and Parks, 29 State Parks, and five National Forests, New Mexico has an outdoor adventure for the weekend sightseer and avid backcountry explorer alike!

For some of those who want to get way off the beaten path, do you have any tips on new exciting destinations around the state?

When the Spanish explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries stumbled across New Mexico’s natural hot springs, they discovered the healing properties that the Native Americans had known about for centuries. Explore the riverbanks long enough and you’ll come across any number of natural springs. But for those who don’t have the time to search, there are a handful of funky, old-style spas within easy reach of Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos where you can enjoy the same invigorating experience that revived the weary travelers of yesteryear. Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs, 40 minutes north of Santa Fe, comprises several mineral pools. On the other side of the Jemez Mountains in the town of Jemez Springs, the eponymous spa has an unpretentious bathhouse more than 100 years old that offers a similar no-frills experience amid the mountain pines. South of Albuquerque, more new-age amenities are being added to the traditional offerings at the hot springs of Truth or Consequences. Choose among five natural mineral pools and a roster of massages, wraps, cranial-sacral therapy, and reflexology.

Bandera Center/Ice Caves
Hike the rim of an 800-foot-deep volcanic cone that exploded some 10,000 years ago. Cave inside the icy 17-mile lava tube, always a perfect 31 degrees Fahrenheit. They say that the floor of the ice is approximately 20 feet thick and that the deepest ice dates back to 1100 BC.

Bisti Badlands
Also known as the Bisti Wilderness area, it is little visited and largely unknown. The Bisti Badlands covers 4,000 acres of an amazingly scenic and colorful expanse of undulating mounds and unusual eroded rocks, hidden away in the high desert.

Blue Hole
Santa Rosa’s Blue Hole is an 81-foot-deep artesian well bordered by a ring of sandstone featuring azure waters in a soda bottle–shaped configuration. The well was once used as a fish hatchery, but it now serves as a dive-training and recreational site for those with water on their minds. Because the water has a stable temperature of 61 degrees F, you can dive here year-round (winter is the busiest season) with just a quarter-inch wetsuit as thermal protection. Down in the well, the scenery is surreal. The cylindrical sides are as wide as 130 feet in places, and the gray rock walls are covered with a thin film of algae. The water itself is a deep, clear blue, with visibility up to 80 feet. A metal grate covers the opening to the spring, which feeds the well with a flow of 3,000 gallons of water per minute. The Santa Rosa Dive Center is open on weekends to rent gear and provide air fills. The shop opens midweek only by appointment for certified divers and groups.

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
The refuge is an ideal destination for the devoted bird watcher. Encompassing over 57,000 acres along the Rio Grande, the refuge was created in 1939 as a winter habitat for ducks, geese, sandhill cranes and wading birds. Here, tens of thousands of birds–including sandhill cranes, Arctic geese, and many kinds of ducks–gather each autumn and stay through the winter. Feeding snow geese erupt in explosions of wings when frightened by a stalking coyote, and at dusk, flight after flight of geese and cranes return to roost in the marshes.

Cimarron Canyon State Park
Set in New Mexico’s high country, where spectacular palisade cliffs and clear running waters dominate the landscape, Cimarron Canyon State Park is part of the 33,116-acre Colin Neblett Wildlife Area — the largest wildlife area in the state. The cool, high mountain park offers excellent trout fishing. Anglers can fish eight miles of premier brown trout waters for stocked browns or rainbows. Smaller trout and solitude can be found in the Cimarron River’s tributaries — Clear Creek and Tolby Creek. Crenelated granite formations make up sheer palisade cliffs that dominate the park’s scenery. From the main canyon, day hikes and cross-country skiing are popular. Elk, deer, bear, turkey and grouse attract hunters in the fall and winter. Wildlife viewing is plentiful as songbirds, elk, deer, bear, turkey and grouse call the park home.

Chama Valley
Give yourself a break from the 21st century. Get away to the beautiful Chama Valley. Wander the same tracks as silver barons, cowboys and the settlers of the real Old West. Natural beauty, adventure, history wait you. Enjoy fishing, camping, and cowboy poetry at one of the areas lodges or ranches.

Christ in the Desert Monastery
The Monastery is situated in a beautiful canyon in northwestern New Mexico, surrounded by miles of government-protected wilderness, thus assuring and promoting solitude and quiet for the cenobitic life. The chief architect of the original monastery was George Nakashima, famous Japanese-American woodworker and architect. The electricity and water-pumping at the monastery is solar-powered, as sunshine is plentiful throughout the year.

Las Huertas Canyon
Spanish for “the gardens,” Las Huertas Canyon affords a very scenic drive up the less-traveled western slopes of the Sandia Mountains. Its creek is entirely spring fed and along it you’ll find box elder and peach leaf willow as well as other willows and alders. Picnic, camp, or fish there.

Shakespeare Ghost Town
Walk the streets trod by Billy the Kid, John Ringo, Curley Bill, Russian Bill, The Clantons, Jim Hughes and Sandy King. Walk a portion of the Butterfield Trail. See 28 points of interest and hear stories of the West as it really was. Take the guided tour of seven buildings including the Grant house, saloon, Stratford hotel, old mail station, general merchandise, old powder magazine, blacksmith shop and assay office.

Slaughter Canyon Cave
Ranger-guided tours of Slaughter Canyon Cave take you into an underground wilderness without electricity, paved walkways, or modern conveniences. In this wild cave, darkness is broken only by the flashlights and headlamps of rangers and tour members. Highlights of the two hour, 1.25 mile tour are the 89-foot high Monarch, one of the world’s tallest columns; the sparkling, crystal-decorated Christmas Tree column; and the Chinese Wall, a delicate, ankle-high rimstone dam. Old bat guano mining excavations attest to the human history and impact in the cave.

New Mexico Museum of Space History
The Museum of Space History in Alamogordo is a complex consisting of the space museum, Planetarium, IMAX dome theater, Hubbard Space Science Education Facility and the International Space Hall of Fame. You can learn about life in space, satellites, rockets and more. Older kids will find it as fascinating as adults.

Plaza Blanca and Dar al-Islam Mosque
An Islamic mosque might seem an unlikely place of worship in a region known for its devotion to the faith of the Spanish throne. But if you visit the Dar al Islam mosque, built in 1981 by renowned Egyptian architect Hassan Fathi and hidden away in the hills of the Rio Chama valley, you’ll find a stunning structure of adobe topped by a softly sculpted dome that seems very much at home in its high-desert environment. In the valley below sits the natural wonder known as Plaza Blanca, also immortalized as “The White Place” in a 1940 painting by O’Keeffe. The sandstone cliffs, spires, and oddly shaped rocks create an otherworldly, contemplative retreat that glows golden in the late-afternoon light. Allow yourself some time to linger as the spot gently embraces you with its ineffable sense of peace and timelessness.