64th Stop - Albuquerque, NM
Blog Post #75 - Written June 9, 2026
Stay: October 28 - November 3, 2025
I know that Albuquerque often gets a bad rap. Yes, there are areas of high crime. But... being in the right place at the right time makes Albuquerque an awesome place.
We pulled into our campsite at Route 66 RV Park in Edgewood, NM, on the eastern side of the mountain pass that leads into Albuquerque (we would've loved to be closer in town, but didn't want to risk the steep mountain pass roads with the trailer). We were just finishing getting set up when Q said that it was raining under the RV. We quickly shut off the water and found that the faucet in the bathroom sink was turned on after we had shut off the water leaving Roswell... and after we hooked up here it started running and filling up the sink (which up to this point, we had plugged as we drove. We now no longer plug the sink due to this particular disaster...) and then cascading onto the floor and into the underbelly of the trailer.
Gary spent the evening dismantling the undercarriage of the trailer to dry things out. Luckily, the weather was sunny and dry, just not particularly warm.
There were a few things on our itinerary that we opted not to do since the shutdown was still underway. One day, we'll have to go back and check out Kasha-Katuwe, a formation of giant tent shaped sandstone. It was co-operated by the local tribes and the NPS.
The Petroglyph National Monument was open, so we went for a nice morning hike. There are THOUSANDS of drawings and carvings to look at. Some were hard to see since they have the rocks blocked off, but we sure enjoyed trying to decipher what the pictures were.
Remember how I said that some of the alien based petroglyphs were in northern NM? Well, we found some of them. Supposedly, these are UFOs and Extra Terrestrial beings. The arrows are supposed to tell you whether to look up or down. But I don't remember which direction means what.
We wanted to check out some more New Mexican cuisine, so we got a couple of recommendations. We tried Chili Hills in Edgewood, which was next to our campground. It was pretty good, lots of flavor and not too spicy. The other restaurant was in Albuquerque, Cocina Azul. We won't give this one a glowing recommendation. I'm sure the food was nice, but it was so spicy, you couldn't taste any flavor... Maybe we are just wimps.
One of our favorite places to visit was the Explora Science Center. I think that we went 4 or 5 times during our weeklong stay. It might be our favorite science center that we have visited. It wasn't crazy fancy (well, maybe the elevator was), but it was full of displays that were engaging and kept us there for more than a couple of minutes. The kids particularly enjoyed the bubbles and the foam tinker blocks. Gary and I really enjoyed the Keva blocks and puzzle blocks.
One of our favorite things was the 3D pen. Z especially wanted to stay for hours making crabs and helicopters and such. Those things are pretty cool.
Our other interesting museum trip was to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. It was fascinating to see how our world has benefited from, used, and been affected by radioactivity. We got to use a geiger counter to measure different things (like FiestaWare) that used Uranium and other toxic minerals. It was also hard to read about the fallouts caused by nuclear warfare.
On Sunday, we went to church in Edgewood. It was a Testimony meeting, where members of the congregation can share their testimony at the pulpit. Gary mentioned that we had met a couple from their ward in Crescent City, CA (the ones who were trying to sell us their house). They weren't in town this weekend, so we couldn't say hi to them. But after church, we got a call from a mystery number. It was a family in the ward who had wanted to hear about our travels, but didn't get a chance to talk to us during church. They had reached out to this other couple for our number so they could invite us for dinner.
We are so grateful to have met them and their kindness in hosting us for an evening.
We celebrated Halloween (again!) at the campground. They have a community event where the kids dress up and go for a wagon ride to collect candy from the campers. People both in and out of the campground came to participate. We got to paint some fun pumpkins, too!
Halloween also brought the bittersweet news that we were expecting. Gary's grandpa, "Grumps", passed away at 95. We knew that it was coming and were more relieved that he didn't have to be in discomfort any more. And that we were close enough to drive back to UT for the funeral.
I think his passing made our next event even more special. It was Día de los Muertos. We went to Old Town Albuquerque and found ourselves in the center of a massive celebration of life and memory. The square was filled with beautiful ofrendas; full of food, pictures, stories, and memories of loved ones. It was a spiritually beautiful experience.
Catrinas walked the streets.
Local tribes performed traditional dances.
Hot rods showed off their rides.
The local high school mariachi band performed on a rooftop terrace. Many couldn't hear, so they ventured down to the street. There were some incredibly talented musicians.
We ended the day back at the science center again.
We were grateful that we were on the right part of the country so we could easily attend Grumps funeral. We packed what we needed, put the trailer in storage at the campground for the next week, and got ready for our next adventure into Southern Utah.
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