Regional Stories
From the cool pine peaks of Sierra Blanca down to the white gypsum dunes below, explore a landscape where ancient footprints, living traditions, and pioneering science share the same horizon.
A Living Landscape
Every mountain trail, petroglyph ridge, and desert sand dune has a story to tell. Take a deeper look at the cultural heritage, living traditions, and natural wonders that connect our communities.
Imagine walking along muddy lake shallows 22,000 years ago, stepping directly in the fresh tracks of giant ground sloths and Columbian mammoths.
Preserving the world's largest gypsum dunefield, White Sands is home to the oldest known fossilized footprints in North America, showing Ice Age families traveling, hunting, and raising children along ancient Lake Otero.
Visit White Sands Site
Three Bands, One Tribe: The Mescalero, Lipan, and Chiricahua Apache living across 463,000 acres of sovereign mountain homelands.
In Apache tradition, "nature explained everything in life." Holding deep reverence for Dził gais’ání (Sierra Blanca)—the sacred peak marking the direction of their homelands—the Mescalero Apache Tribe maintains an enduring legacy of sovereign leadership, language, cultural heritage, and stewardship across our shared mountain watersheds.
Visit Mescalero Apache Site
A resilient mountain forest requires stewardship long before the smoke rises.
Spanning high-altitude ponderosa pines and mixed conifer forests, Lincoln National Forest serves as the vital water catchment for the basin. Proactive forest restoration, selective thinning, and prescribed fire help restore natural fire cycles and protect communities from catastrophic wildfires.
Visit Lincoln National Forest Site
At 5:29 AM on July 16, 1945, the flash of the first atomic detonation turned night into day and forever altered the modern world.
This remote desert site connects the basin to the dawn of the Atomic Age as well as the lived history, public health awareness, and enduring community advocacy of regional downwinder families who lived in the path of atmospheric fallout.
Visit Trinity Site Information
Breaking the sound barrier on desert rails to pioneer human spaceflight.
From Dr. John Stapp's rocket sled tests at Holloman AFB to White Sands Space Harbor shuttle runways, the basin has long served as an active proving ground for aerospace innovation and planetary science.
Visit Space History Museum
Dramatic granite needle spires rising abruptly from the Chihuahuan Desert floor.
Towering along the southwestern rim of the basin, the monument features rugged high-altitude trails at Aguirre Spring, weeping mountain springs at Dripping Springs, and historic passes that have guided travelers for centuries.
Visit Organ Mountains Site
A perennial mountain spring cascading into the arid Chihuahuan Desert.
Nestled at the base of the Sacramento Mountains, Dog Canyon features year-round natural springs, rich riparian desert plant communities, and centuries of human history spanning Apache strongholds and historic ranching.
Visit Oliver Lee State Park
Over 21,000 ancient stories etched into desert stone.
Spanning a desert ridge with panoramic views of the basin, Three Rivers preserves an extraordinary record of Jornada Mogollon rock art, village ruins, and wildlife carvings dating between 900 and 1400 CE.
Visit Three Rivers Site
Walking across one of the youngest volcanic lava flows in North America.
Covering 125 square miles of the northern basin, the Carrizozo Malpais basalt lava flow supports resilient desert vegetation, hidden collapse pits, and specialized wildlife in a rugged black rock landscape.
Visit Valley of Fires Site
Peering at the sun from 9,200 feet in the Sacramento Mountains.
Established for high-altitude heliophysics research, Sunspot has contributed decades of scientific discovery to solar astronomy, taking advantage of clear skies and protected dark sky corridors.
Visit Sunspot Observatory
An ancient closed basin where not a single drop of water flows to the sea.
Regional communities depend on complex groundwater aquifers and pioneering research at the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility (BGNDRF) in Alamogordo to secure clean water for future generations.
Visit Desalination Facility Site
Remote desert peaks safeguarding the recovery of native desert bighorn sheep.
The protected San Andres National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding ranges preserve critical wildlife corridors across the basin, ensuring large desert mammals and intact ecosystems thrive in an undisturbed sanctuary.
Visit San Andres Refuge Site