I have been asked a few times to name the top 5 places I would like to visit and photograph - and southern New Mexico is always on that list!
Now we are here for Spring Break in partnership with Visit Las Cruces and it is just as amazing as I have dreamt it to be. Yesterday was our first day here and we could not stop exploring! We didn't have an itinerary just a lot of suggestions from locals and web sites. We left the hotel before breakfast and didn't return until after dinner!
Here is a picture tour of our first day!
First we went to the town of Mesilla for breakfast, followed by a walk and a little touristy shopping. Mesilla is next door to Las Cruces and is home to some of New Mexico's oldest buildings. I loved the bright colors and Spanish architecture.
We ate at a very charming cafe called Josephina's where we met some really kind locals and ate traditional mexican breakfasts.
After a lovely morning in Mesilla, we got back in our rental car.
Leading up to our trip, our boys have been excitedly chatting and looking up what they might see in New Mexico. They were most excited to see lizards and roadrunners.. so when we saw the sign for Bosque State Park, we headed that way!
It is a little hard to see in this photo - but there is a Road Runner right in the middle of our path! The kids were waiting to hear it say "Beep Beep"
refreshing to see green and flowers after a long Minnesota winter!
We ended up going on a 2-3 mile hike. It was so fun - we meant to only go down the path a bit and turn around but we just kept getting drawn in. The landscape kept changing and we spotted lizards and rabbits and vultures and road runners!
Next we grabbed a quick lunch and - on a whim- drove out to White Sands National Monument.
We are going there again tonight but the kids were just so excited to see it we went yesterday too. Fine with me - I hope to be there a lot this week!
At White Sands, you can rent sleds and slide down the dunes!
Getting back up the dunes was a lot of work and the boys were properly pooped by the end!
Arlo took a little nap under the shade of his sled. Ha!
Finally, after a long day of adventure and with sand covering every inch of our bodies, we headed to the Cattle Baron Steak & Seafood Restaurant. We filled up on fresh salads, steaks and shrimp before heading back to our hotel and passing out for the night! A wonderful action-packed day! Thank you so much Las Cruces Tourism for this amazing opportunity!