Geologic Tour of New Mexico — Physiographic Provinces

Tsiping, also called Tsi’pin or Tsi’pinouinge, is a remarkable pueblo ruin located on Pueblo Mesa near the village of Cañones in the northern Jemez Mountains. Although the site is on Santa Fe National Forest land, the site is off limits unless you have a permit. Permits can be obtained from the Coyote Ranger Station.

Tsi’pinouinge means “village of the flaking stone”, a reference to the village’s proximity to lithic-source quarries in the Pedernal Chert on Cerro Pedernal. Based on tree-ring measurements and ceramic styles, Tsiping was occupied between 1200 AD and 1325 AD, during the Classic Period. Tsiping was the northernmost and largest of the Classic Period pueblos. The village had somewhere between 335 to 400 ground floor rooms, sixteen kivas, and a central plaza. Cavate dwellings are located on the southeastern side of the mesa.

Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, at the mouth of Dog Canyon on the western escarpment of the Sacramento Mountains, opened in 1980, but the area has attracted visitors for several thousands of years. The 180-acre state park has a flowing stream and forms an oasis on the edge of the harsh desert of the Tularosa (Spanish, "reddish willows") Valley. The park is named for Oliver Lee (1865-1941), a prominent rancher and state legislator who settled near the mouth of Dog Canyon in the late 1880s. Lee was active in developing water-control projects in the area. Oliver Lee's ranch is one of the many exhibits at the state park. The Visitor's Center houses displays of the geologic and cultural history of the canyon area. Approximately 30,000 people enjoy camping, hiking, and picnicking in the park each year. An interpretative trail along lower Dog Canyon allows visitors a glimpse of vegetation and wildlife in the oasis as well as several cultural sites. The Dog Canyon Trail starts at an elevation of about 4,500 ft in the state park and climbs the steep escarpment of the Sacramento Mountains to the Eyebrow Trail to Joplin Ridge at an elevation of 7,753 ft, for a total one-way distance of about six miles.

This recreation area in the Lincoln National Forest has spectacular cliffs and features a year-round spring-fed stream, waterfalls (the largest of which has a 150-foot drop), and many refreshing clear-water wading pools. There are picnic areas and several hiking trails, including T–68 and T–68A that lead to the spring source of the waterfalls. The Apache name for the area was “gostahanagunti,” which means hidden gulch, and the presence of flakes of worked chert, grinding holes (bedrock mortars), and nearby pictographs testify to long-standing Native American use of this wildlife-rich oasis in the desert.

Elephant Butte Lake State Park is located approximately 5 miles north of the town of Truth or Consequences. Elephant Butte Reservoir is on the Rio Grande in south-central New Mexico east of Interstate 25 between Socorro and Las Cruces. The 301-feet high and 1,674-feet long concrete dam across the Rio Grande that created Elephant Butte Reservoir is the largest dam in the state of New Mexico. Elephant Butte Reservoir was the largest man-made reservoir in the world when the dam was completed in 1916. The dam is considered a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, primarily because the construction of this dam marked the first civil engineering project designed for international distribution of water.

Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, New Mexico, was established in 1959 “in interest of preservation of the memory of the unique, historical occasion of the last hostile action by foreign troops within the continental United States”. It became the only park in the United States to be named after a foreign invader. The creation of the 60-acre park was a gesture of good will between the United States and Mexico. The town of Columbus has been designated a National Historic Site. Across the street from the park is the privately owned Pancho Villa Museum.

This small park, established in 1916 by presidential proclamation, offers a close-up view of one of the most perfectly preserved cinder cones in North America. The road to the summit provides access to the summit crater, and if you have ever wanted to walk into a volcano, Capulin Mountain is one of the few places you can do so. A 0.2-mile-long trail from the summit parking lot descends to the vent at the bottom of the crater. The view from the crater rim encompasses all of northeastern New Mexico as well as parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado.

America's newest national park (as of December 2019), White Sands is famous for its extensive sea of white gypsum dunes—indeed, it is the largest gypsum dune field in the world. Located in the southern Tularosa Basin, the park was established as a national monument in 1933 and encompasses nearly 176,000 acres (275 square miles, including 115 square miles of gypsum sand dunes). The park not only contains the large dune field but also a saline mudflat called Alkali Flat, a smaller ephemeral salt lake (or playa) named Lake Lucero, parts of the gypsum-dust plains east of the dune field, and alluvial fans from the surrounding mountains. The dune field and Alkali Flat extend more than 12 miles to the north of the park onto the White Sands Missile Range.

Also see the White Sands National Park sample chapter from our popular field guide: The Geology of Southern New Mexico's Parks Monuments and Public Lands.

Petroglyph National Monument is located on Ceja Mesa on the west side of Albuquerque. The monument is best known for the estimated 25,000 rock art images carved into basalt erupted from the approximately 200,000-year-old Albuquerque volcanic field. Using stone chisels and hammer stones, the ancestors of the Puebloan Indians cut most of the petroglyphs into the desert varnish coating the basalt between 1300 and 1680 A.D. A few of the markings are much older, dating back to perhaps 2000 B.C. Spaniards and later generations of Albuquerque inhabitants have produced younger petroglyphs with more modern themes. The monument, created in 1990, includes about 17 miles of petroglyph-covered basalt cliffs and five extinct volcanoes.

Rockhound State Park lies in the Little Florida Mountains southeast of Deming, New Mexico. It was established in 1966 as the first park in the United States that allowed collecting of rocks and minerals for personal use. Each visitor is allowed to collect as much as 15 lb of rocks and minerals from the 1,100-acre park; mineral dealers are not allowed to collect for sale. Rockhound State Park actually consists of two separate units, the main park and Spring Canyon Recreation Area. Spring Canyon lies in the northern Florida Mountains, south of the main park, and is open for day use only from Easter through November.

Pecos National Historical Park lies in the extreme western portion of San Miguel County, in the broad valley of the Pecos River where the river leaves its deep canyon in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The timeless cycles of geologic history are on display in the ancient and modern river deposits in the park. The spectacular cliffs of sedimentary rocks on Glorieta Mesa to the south and the rugged mountains to the north provide a beautiful geologic setting for the ruins and contain rocks that record shifting shorelines and the birth and erosion of mountains.

The site is of enormous cultural and historical significance. The pueblo here was occupied at least as early as 1450. The Coronado Expedition passed through here in 1541 en route to the Great Plains. Spanish missionaries followed soon thereafter. In 1621 the Franciscans built the adobe church whose ruins tower over the park today. In 1680 the Pueblo Revolt put an end to the efforts of the church throughout northern New Mexico; the priest at Pecos was killed and the church laid waste. The site was occupied by the Pecos Indians until 1838.