Alamogordo is a quiet town near the White Sands Missile Range, White Sands National Park, and The Three Rivers Petroglyph Site in the Tularosa Basin with lots of hidden gem treasures, museums, and stores. It sits between the Sacramento Mountains (Sierra Blanca Mountains) to the east and the San Andres Mountains to the west. The towns of Ruidoso and Las Cruces aren’t far off either.

Within the town are two museums I have visited and enjoyed. One of them, the Tularosa Basin Museum I really enjoyed! It was chock full of information and artifacts from the area. There are exhibits on the geology of the Basin, the flora and fauna of the area, the White Sands, American Indians both ancient and recent, The Spanish, the Buffalo Soldiers and other campaigns, the turn of the century, space exploration, the atomic bomb, and a whole lot more. I absolutely recommend checking it out and then looking at the bookstore that accompanies it. The New Mexico Museum of Space History… needs some work, to be honest.

The best thing about Alamogordo though… is the McGinn’s Pistachioland Store. The place has ice cream, plenty of pistachios, spices, hot sauces, wines, and so many more souvenirs from the Land of Enchantment. The pistachio ice cream… is amazing.