Outside Albuquerque

In every direction from the city, you’ll find some great natural attractions. To the west lies Acoma Pueblo [1], an ancient pueblo that seems to have grown out of the tall, windswept mesa on which it’s built, and the dramatic, wide-open scenery out this way is the stuff of movie backdrops.

A winding road through the mountains southeast of town brings you past the ruined Salinas pueblo missions [2]—an intriguing bit of early conquest history and little visited.

South along I-40, the Rio Grande continues through its fertile valley to the Bosque del Apache [3], a lush network of marshlands maintained for migrating birdlife; the drive down is a long one, but you can make a day of it with stops at out-of-the-way eateries and a scenic dirt-road route back.

To the east is the start of one of three routes to Santa Fe [4], the Turquoise Trail [5], which leads through the vestiges of New Mexico’s mining past.

An equally scenic route north is the more circuitous Jemez Mountain Trail [6], past red rocks and hot springs. Or you can zip directly up the main highway, where you’ll pass another remarkable bit of scenery, the windswept region known as Tent Rocks [7].