13 Best Sights in Albuquerque, New Mexico

The city's foremost outdoor draw, the BioPark comprises four distinct attractions: Aquarium, Botanic Garden, Zoo, and Tingley Beach. Verdant grounds are the setting for summer performances, the River of Lights brings crowds over the winter holidays, and exhibits like River Otters, Komodo Dragons, and the Sasebo Japanese Gardens have year-round appeal. The garden and aquarium are located together, just west of Old Town (admission gets you into both facilities) while the zoo is a short drive southeast, off 10th Street SW, and Tingley Beach (and its trout-stocked ponds) lies between. An electric shuttle connects them all.

In a modern, light-filled space, the Albuquerque Museum serves up a brilliantly curated selection of contemporary art from the museum's own Southwestern artists–centric collections and world-class touring shows; it also presents illuminating shows with regionally topical themes. The must-see Common Ground galleries represent an important permanent collection of primarily 20th-century paintings, all by world-renowned artists with a New Mexico connection; a changing rotation of 19th- and 20th-century photographs from the museum's extensive local archive lines the museum's walkway halls. Other spaces dig even deeper into compelling aspects of Albuquerque and regional history.

The Sculpture Garden contains more than 50 contemporary works by an internationally known roster of artists that includes Basia Irland and Fritz Scholder; Nora Naranjo-Morse's spiral land-art piece resonates deeply in a place defined by water and land-rights issues. Visitors may pick up a self-guided Sculpture Garden map or come for the free (with admission) docent-led tours at 11 am Wednesday and Saturday (March through November); docent-led tours of the galleries, also free, are held daily at 2 pm, year-round.

Watching the Isotopes (a sparkling Triple A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies) at this sweet 13,279-seat ballpark is always great fun, and with the New Mexico United pro soccer team playing here now as well, there’s yet more opportunity to join a rousing crowd while the setting sun vividly colors the Sandias to the east. The 'Topes season runs April through September while the United play March or April through October.

A showpiece for the city, and a showcase for Hispanic culture in Albuquerque's historic Barelas neighborhood, this beautifully designed space contains a vibrant art museum, multiple performance venues, a restaurant, a fresco-lined Torreón (tower) depicting the span of Hispanic (and pre-Hispanic) history, a 10,000-volume genealogical research center and library, and an education center. Its acoustically superb Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts and smaller Albuquerque Journal Theatre host ballet and flamenco performances, a bilingual film series, traditional Spanish and New Mexican music, the famed world music festival ¡Globalquerque!, Opera Southwest, and more. Exhibits at its museum include works by local artists as well as internationally known names and often feature traditional and contemporary craftwork. A vintage WPA-era school contains the library and La Fonda del Bosque restaurant, which features Latin fusion fare indoors and out on the patio.

Previously known simply as the National Atomic Museum, this brilliant Smithsonian affiliate traces the history of the atomic age and how nuclear science has dramatically influenced the course of modern history. Exhibits include replicas of Little Boy and Fat Man (the bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II), a compelling display about the difficult decision to drop atomic bombs, and a look at how atomic culture has dovetailed with pop culture. One particular highlight is the restored 1942 Plymouth that was used to transport the plutonium core of "the Gadget" (as that first weapon was known) down from Los Alamos to the Trinity Site for testing. The campus contains the nine-acre Heritage Park, which has a B-29 and other mega-airships, plus rockets, missiles, cannons, and even a nuclear sub sail. There are also children's programs and an exhibit about X-ray technology.

With the landmark 1793 San Felipe de Neri Catholic Church still presiding along the north side, tranquil Old Town Plaza is a pleasant place to sit on wrought-iron benches under a canopy of shade trees. Roughly 200 shops, restaurants, cafés, galleries, and several cultural sights in placitas (small plazas) and lanes surround the plaza. During fiestas, Old Town comes alive with mariachi bands and dancing señoritas; at Christmas it is lit with luminarias (the votive candles in paper bag lanterns known as farolitos up in Santa Fe). Mostly dating back to the late 1800s, styles from Queen Anne to Territorial and Pueblo Revival, and even Mediterranean, are apparent in the one- and two-story (almost all adobe) structures.

Sandhill cranes make their winter home here or stop for a snack en route to the Bosque del Apache, just south in Socorro. Albuquerque is right in their flyway, and the Open Space Center provides a most hospitable setting for them. The outdoor viewing station opens onto the site’s expansive field, which faces out to the Sandia Mountains; the hush—aside from the occasional flock circling above (look for them from mid-October through February)—is restorative. Complementing the experience inside are changing art and photography exhibits, an interpretative display on the adjacent 14th- to 15th-century Piedras Marcadas Pueblo ruins, and well-informed guides. A native garden interspersed with mosaics and sculptures fills the patio at the center’s entryway; the latter theme is introduced when you make the turn-off from busy Coors Boulevard—Robert Wilson’s large-scale public art installation Flyway is at the northeast corner as you approach. Ongoing family activities, occasional live music, and educational and other special programming are on tap year-round; easy walking trails heading down to the shores of the Rio Grande start just beyond the entrance.

Vibrant with growers and maker wares, the sprawling Sunday market here (May from October, 10–2) is a fine excuse to explore this wondrous, light-filled, almost cathedral-like space, said to have been the largest steam locomotive repair facility in the country in its heyday. The early-20th-century Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe buildings here, built on the Atlantic & Pacific originals from the 1880s, put you at the center of how Downtown (or New Town, as it was then known)—and modern Albuquerque—came to be. The market occupies the 1917 Blacksmith Shop. Nearby, the railyard's 1914 Storehouse building now houses the growing Wheels Museum, which captures local rail history with model train equipment and lots more ( www.wheelsmuseum.org). A spectacularly massive 1944 AT&SF Steam Locomotive (No. 2926) is currently under restoration in the Sawmill neighborhood and may be visited during limited public hours; it may eventually find its home here as well ( www.2926.us).

Along the banks of the Rio Grande, this 270-acre refuge in an especially tranquil portion of the bosque (about midway up on the Paseo del Bosque trail) is the nation's largest cottonwood forest. There are numerous walking and biking trails that wind into the 53-acre Aldo Leopold Forest and down to the river. Bird-watchers come to view all manner of migratory waterfowl, but especially the sandhill cranes that swoop in in late fall. Constructed half above ground and half below the edge of a pond, the park's interpretive Rio Grande Nature Center—a distinctive Antoine Predock design—has viewing windows and speakers that broadcast the sounds of the birds you're watching; frogs, ducks, and turtles may be seen (and heard) as well. On the Center's grounds, a native plant garden offers a nice meander under the cottonwoods. Active programs are available for adults and children, and the center's Nature Shop has a small but good selection of plush critters, books, and more.

Well over two centuries after it first welcomed worshippers, this lovely adobe structure is still active (mass is offered daily). A National Register of Historic Places site erected in 1793 (to replace Albuquerque's first Catholic church, which was founded here in 1706), its Spanish Colonial base was charmingly modified with a touch of Gothic Revival (note the spires) in the mid-19th century. Its tan stucco and fresh white trim stand out at the north end of Old Town's plaza, and while it has been expanded several times, a surprising amount of its original adobe walls (some 5 feet thick) and other features remain. Small gardens front and flank the church; the inside is a respite from the tourism bustle beyond its doorstep—the painting and iconography are simple and authentic, the atmosphere hushed. Next to it is a shop and small museum that displays relics (vestments, paintings, carvings) dating from the 17th century. Call ahead to arrange a tour. There's a hidden treasure behind the church: inside the gnarled tree is a statue that some speculate depicts the Virgin Mary.

One of the world's longest aerial tramways, here tramway cars climb nearly three miles up the steep western face of the Sandias, giving you a dazzling close-up view (whatever the season) of the imposing rock formations and wind-blown wilderness. From the observation deck at the 10,378-foot summit, you can scan some 11,000 square miles of spectacular scenery, including desert, volcanos, mountains, and more. A graceful hawk or an eagle soaring above or mountain lions roaming the cliffs below may also be spotted. An exhibit room at the top surveys the area's wildlife; a few steps away is Ten 3, where fine dining and a casual eatery and lounge await (reservations required), or you can access the Sandia Peak ski area.

It's much colder and windier at the summit than at the tram's base, so pack a jacket. Tram cars leave from the base at regular intervals for the 15-minute ride to the top. Purchase tickets (all round-trip) up to 24 hours advance online (or in-person on the day of); the parking fee is included.

A former lumber-yard building located by the one-time AT&SF Railway line in the city’s old Sawmill district has been turned into a grand food hall that resonates with a sense of history and place. Some two dozen dining, shopping, and drinks vendors offer an eclectic range of high-quality (and, yes, higher priced) wares. A carefully honed selection of mostly independent enterprises, all embrace a definitively fresh and local ethos—some by way of Santa Fe, like Dr. Field Goods (an established spot with food-truck roots), and others talented transplants from afar (Flora and Flora Taco-to-Go). Whether poké, sushi, taters, or tapas, a lush dessert, or a savory cone, the same commitment to in-state growers, makers, and suppliers is apparent. Stroll around a bit and you can’t help but appreciate the original architectural details (just gaze up at the fabulously restored wooden ceiling). Paxton’s Taproom has a seasonal rotation of New Mexico--brewed beers, as well as a steady set of the state’s best craft beers on tap (wines lean local as well as international). The cool Mobile Bar is ready to serve out on their grassy patio, where any food bought inside may be enjoyed as well.

This museum features magnificent 20th- and 21st-century prints, as well as photos and paintings that rival the finest collections throughout the Southwest. Changing exhibits cull from more than 30,000 archived pieces, which include groundbreaking works by modernist giants such as Bridget Riley, Richard Diebenkorn, and Elaine de Kooning. Photography—from the likes of Ansel Adams, Patrick Nagatani, and Beaumont Newhall—is a particular strength, and provocative shows have featured immense prints, complemented with video projections and a range of mixed-media installations. Transcendentalist master Raymond Jonson's work, as well as other landmark acquisitions he made, are displayed. The museum's vision for the future is to allow yet more of their impressive holdings—a Picasso print, an O'Keeffe painting—to be seen regularly. Lectures and symposia, gallery talks, and guided tours are often scheduled.