This came from the best home school field trips email list.
Hopefully, it will be helpful to you all!
Anyone who is interested in NM may want to try the Silver City area
in the southern part of the state. What you will find:
1. Silver City. A town that cropped up during the silver rush. In
the last 10 years or so, it's become popular with eastern transplant
artists and I recently saw it listed in teh top 100 art communities.
This has resulted in a pretty eclectic vibe in the downtown. The
town is quaint and there is a pretty good museum re: Silver City and
area right there as well.
2. The City of Rocks State Park.
Look this one up. It's a very large area of enormous boulders and
monoliths formed by 30 million year old volcanic ash eroded into soft
and beautiful formations. Kids and adults alike love to meander and
climb. Have lunch at a BBQ pit or a picnic. 360 degree sunsets of
color. I've never used them, but there are also some kind of RV
hookups.
3. The Catwalk
An easy hike, which I now believe is handicap accessible, through a
pink granite box canyon w/ a river/stream under the trail. It's nice
and lovely.
4. The Gila Cliff Dwellings
I haven't been there in a long time. I remember it as a magical
place when I was little. Ancient indian cliff dwellings.
5. Deming Museum
I don't know of a darn thing to do in Deming except the museum.
However, I think that the museum is pretty gosh darn great. It's
well donated to and ancient pottery is there along side a huge
variety of modern antiquest--including a garage with an old fire
truck, ambulance, and other vehicles. There is some really cool
stuff there. IT's not far from teh city of rocks.....
6. Hillsboro
Hillsboro is at the start of hte gila national forest. You will drive
through here if you are coming from the North, e.g. Albuquerque.
It's a very small old town (silver and gold rush). It's a pretty
sweet little town. At the start of town you will see a very large
black shiny "rock". What it actually is is a mound of solidified gold
slag. And, a very little known fact is that there is a house in
Hillsoboro that is Made of Gold Slag Bricks.
Los Pablanos Corn Maize on October 10th at 9:50.
Los Pablanos farm is located on Montano,
just west of 4th street. You make a right hand turn into
the farm area, and a left hand turn into the parking lot, walking down the
road to reach the gazebo to gather at. Los Pablanos Maize will cost $4.00 for those 6 to 12, $6.00 for teens and $8.00 for adults.
Maps of the maze
will be given out to aid you in finding your way through. In past years this
has been stroller accessible. Sign up with me if you intend on
participating, please list which group you are with when emailing me, fullhousewithsix@aol.com
October 16th
Join us at Ness Pumpkin Patch. Ness Farms is located off I-40, exit 196,
south 22 miles to the farm, passing through the town of Estancia. Arrive by
9:50, Cost is $3.00 per person for the hay ride and pumpkin picking,
EVERYONE RIDING must pay, irregardless is you take a pumpkin or not. Sign up
with me by the 10th,
at fullhousewithsix@aol.com
so that I can call in our numbers.
Please state in your email,
which group you are with when signing up.
To all of you who plan to attend the CAPE Homeschooling convention coming up THIS weekend, I know you will have a blast at the convention but I thought you might be interested in a few FUN things to do in Albuquerque as well.
The Rio Grande Botanic Garden is located across the plaza from the Albuquerque Aquarium and bordered on the west by the famed Rio Grande and the largest cottonwood gallery forest in the world, the lush and peaceful Rio Grande Botanic Garden is an oasis in the desert. The Garden currently encompasses 36 developed acres, including a 10,000 square foot glass conservatory housing native and exotic plants from desert and Mediterranean climate zones and the seasonal PNM Butterfly Pavilion featuring hundreds of free-flying North American butterflies and moths. (The butterfly pavilion is closed October through most of May.) Walking distance through the aquarium and garden is about 1.6 miles. The Rio Grande Botanic Garden is a facility of the Albuquerque Biological Park .
Open every day of the week, 9am - 5pm
Admission Prices~~
Aquarium and Garden only
$7 for Adults13 - 64 years
$3 for Seniors 65 and older
$3 for Children 3 - 12 years
ALSO~~
You won't want to miss the Albuquerque Aquarium takes visitors on a journey down the Rio Grande from Albuquerque to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico. Fresh water riverine, estuarine, surf zone, shallow waters, coral reefs, open ocean and deep ocean species are represented along the way. Other highlights include an eel tunnel, seahorses, luminous jellies and a 285,000 gallon ocean tank where brown, sandtiger, blacktip and nurse sharks swim alongside brilliantly colored reef fish, eels, sea turtles and open ocean species. The Albuquerque Aquarium is a facility of the Albuquerque Biological Park.
Open every day of the week, 9am - 5pm
WAIT!
Don't forget to visit the~~
Rio Grande Zoo
Founded in 1927, the 64-acre Rio Grande Zoo offers visitors close encounters with more than 250 species of exotic and native animals. Popular species include seals and sea lions, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, elephants, polar bears, giraffes, hippos, camels, tamarins, koalas, Mexican wolves, mountain lions, monkeys, jaguars, zebras and rhinoceros. State-of-the-art exhibit design and eye-pleasing landscaping enhance zoo animal husbandry by creating naturalistic habitats with trees, grasses, water features and rockwork. Walking distance through the zoo is about 2.25 miles. The Rio Grande Zoo is a facility of the Albuquerque Biological Park.
Open every day of the week, 9am - 5pm
Zoo Only
$7 for Adults13 - 64 years
$3 for Seniors 65 and older
$3 for Children 3 -12 years
Have lots of fun enjoyed these amazing facilities right in Albuquerque!
ALL ABOARD for FUN!!
*Garden visitors, young and old, will be echoing
that familiar call during the *Train Tracks in Your Backyard Garden* model
train show on *April 14 and 15*, *9:00am to 5:00pm* at the Rio Grande Botanic Garden .
Enthusiasts from the New Mexico Garden RailRoaders Club
will demonstrate how
to bring backyard gardens to life with motion and sound through the use of
miniature, G-scale trains and their unique, complementary landscape. The
show and demonstrations are *included with regular Botanic Garden
admission*(adult $7; child/senior $3).
Club members will showcase their personal collection of model trains in active
displays set up through-out the Botanic Garden. They will be available to
give advice on how to get started installing trains in personal gardens and
will have photo tours of the best garden train layouts in the state. They'll
also share background stories about the Botanic Garden's permanent garden
railroad display, with its village and mining scenes, to make the complex
come alive for visitors. *Train Tracks in Your Backyard Garden *will get
everyone on track to have a dynamic garden this summer.
*Contact: *Catherine.Hubbard at Catherine.Hubbard@cabq.gov>
*, *(505) 848-7181
I think our children would say that Chaparral Park and the Lea County Museum are their absolute favorite places to be in Lovington, NM. They love the fact that at the museum they can go into the out buildings and really experience them. They will pretend that they are an old time post master or the proprietor of the mercantile. Sometimes, we love to just go sit at an antique school desk in the one room schoolhouse. I especially enjoy sitting in the parlor of the old Love house. Somehow, I can feel a little bit of how the old pioneers must have felt.
Jim Harris, the director of the museum,is an amazing man. He is a professor, writer and is always willing to sit and talk about the history of our state and county. He is at the museum from dawn to dusk or beyond most days it seems. He wrote the following to share with you all about the Lea County Museum.
Almost daily I hear some visitor to the museum say something like, “If these rooms could talk, what stories we would hear.”
It’s a natural response to the Lea County Museum, a place of several structures--a hotel, a 1909 home, a one-room school house, a mercantile from the early 1900s, 1 1950s home, a store that stood on the edge of the caprock in the early 1900s--all of them filled with historical artifacts big and small.
In one display case, a belt designed by a Navajo jeweler whose ancestors made the Long Walk in the 1860s.
In a replica of a blacksmith shop, a harness from a team of horses pulling a wagon out West so that New Mexico settlers could start a new life.
In one permanent exhibit on the second floor of the old Commercial Hotel built in 1918, dresses owned by a native Lea County woman who wore the elaborate gowns to parties thrown by President Kennedy just after his inauguration in 1961.
The year 1961 might not seem like history to some, but the dresses worn by Dessie Sawyer and all the other objects on display at the museum speak to visitors of times past. They tell of stories of who we are and from where we came.
Most visitors to the Lea County Musuem don’t need guides to hear the narratives of the history on display. The articles donated by families and friends in Southeast New Mexico are emblematic and suggestive enough to fill many volumes of story books and many chapters of history texts.
The museum does provide, however, contexts within which to understand the artifacts. Each month at the museum there are lectures, performances, presentations, exhibits, and entertainment designed to provoke the visitor to think about our history.
The Lea County Museum is an educational institution, and the volunteers and board members who keep the old places alive want everyone to feel at home and hear the stories from our region’s past.
I thought this might be of interest to those of you
in or near the Albuquerque area.
Happy Stargazing!
*The Albuquerque Astronomical Society (TAAS)
and the Space Exploration 2007 Conference
present a free and open to the public program
Sunday, March 25, 2007 at 6:30 PM*
*Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid North Hotel Ballroom
5151 San Francisco NE*
*6:30 to 6:55 Bruce Levin "What are we looking at?"
Breathtaking photos of astronomical objects of*
* and studied by astronomers of all disciplines.
**7:00 to 7:30** Dale Murray "Observing using binoculars"
Explores binocular backyard astronomy.
**7:30 to 8:00** Alan Hale "Hale-Bopp 10 years later"
**8:00 to 9:00** Observing with TAAS scopes and astronomers*
**
As spring rapidly approaches, I've been thinking about venturing out a little more with my children. I am always on the look out for great field trip opportunities- hopefully ones that are free or cost little!
I thought I would take some time on our NM blog to share some of the awesome places to spend some time in our great state. I will start off with some places that I have been myself and personally enjoyed.
I would really love it if you all would post some of your favorite spots in NM. Please feel free to post them in the comment section, email me or send me a message. I'd love to hear from you!
I live in Lea County, NM which is in the SE corner of NM. This is flat, flat land with a rich heritage of ranching and of course oil production.
The Western Heritage Museumis located in Hobbs, NM and is a wonderful place to visit. My children love looking at the amazing display of history.
The museum's exhibits strikingly depict the vast region's fascinating background. As the largest non-mountainous land formation in North America, the Llano Estacado covers an area larger than the combined states of Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Throughout the centuries, this expansive area was comprised of rich grasslands that supported life for millions of buffalo, as well as a number of Native American peoples.
Long known as “The Great American Desert, ” the Llano Estacado was avoided by Europeans for centuries. It wasn't until the 1880s that bison hunters discovered the La Pista de Vida Agua, or Trail of Living Waters, which ran across northern Lea County. From that point on, the area underwent extensive exploration by the legendary Buffalo Soldiers and others.
Such efforts of early explorers convinced some that there was enough water to sustain livestock—if one was lucky enough to gain control of the few springs and lakes in the region. However, with the advent of the windmill, which pumped life-giving water from far below the surface, life on the Llano Estacado was changed forever. Now, enterprising homesteaders, cowboys, and ranchers were able to move onto the seemingly inhospitable rangelands to begin staking a future for themselves and their families.
As these hearty pioneers slowly began to tame the region, one last secret was discovered deep within the bosom of the Llano Estacado: oil! And with this discovery, the face of the Llano Estacado was to be transformed yet again. . .
Come discover for yourself the compelling history, the rugged men and women, and the rich traditions beautifully showcased in the Western Heritage Museum and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame in Hobbs!
The museum has Regular hours of operation: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Tuesday – Saturday.
Cost is:
Adults - $3
Seniors (65+) - $2
Youth (6-18) - $2
Children 5 and under - Free
Come visit us in the land of the high winds and tumbleweeds!
The Editor of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is looking for beautiful pictures of one-room schoolhouses to use on the front covers! The pictures should clearly define a season as the magazine is quarterly, and the pictures should also be of high quality resolution.
Do you live near Red River? Are you planning a trip there? Why not visit the Little Red Schoolhouse, take some pictures, and send a picture to the TOS editor?! You could be featured in the international TOS magazine!
Send an 8 x 10 picture (or the negative) along with any details about the school to:
COVER PHOTO SEARCH
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
P.O. Box 10
White Pine, TN 37890
If your picture is chosen, in addition to being featured in an international magazine, you will receive several free issues to share with friends and family!
Do you know of any other one-room schoolhouses in New Mexico?! Please share!
There are so many field trip opportunities in our state. Listed below are some possibilities. Please share stories about your homeschool groups favorite trips.My homeschool group combined a service project with a field trip when we visited the Albuquerque Rescue Mission.Each family brought a box of supplies for the homeless, and we received a very informative tour of the facility.You can set up a trip like this, too.Just contact the Albuquerque Rescue Mission.
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