Trails in New Mexico
There are 5 National Park Service units that include territory in New Mexico. The directory below links to every park guide we maintain for the state. For multi-state parks, you'll see the same entry on each state's page — the trail catalog itself is identical.
Trip planning from New Mexico typically means balancing drive time against trail effort. A weekend out of state can be more efficient than a one-day push to a closer unit if it means daylight on the actual trail rather than behind the wheel. Use the per-park guides to compare difficulty and seasonality before locking in dates.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Massive limestone cave system in the Chihuahuan Desert, famous for the Big Room chamber and the summer evening bat flight from the natural entrance.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Center of an Ancestral Puebloan world from roughly 850 to 1250 AD, with massive multi-story great houses aligned to celestial events.
Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument
13th-century Mogollon cliff dwellings tucked into natural alcoves above the West Fork of the Gila River.
Old Spanish National Historic Trail
2,700-mile 19th-century trade route linking Santa Fe to Los Angeles across the southwestern deserts.
White Sands National Park
275 square miles of dazzling white gypsum dunes — the largest such field on Earth — in the Tularosa Basin of southern New Mexico.