Comment by batbomb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by batbomb | Hacker News Reader

There’s a lot of mixed reviews of New Mexico in this thread. I would encourage people to go. If you are a fan of the outdoors of Utah and Colorado, archaeology, and can appreciate the food, I’d highly recommend a road trip. The Gila Wilderness, White Sands, Lincoln National forest, Albuquerque, the various Pueblos, Chaco Canyon, Bandelier, Valles Caldera, Abiquiu, Taos, Santa Fe, Santa Fe National Forest (east part, north of Pecos) are all wonderful places to visit for a day, or more in the case of the forests if you want to camp and hike. I personally haven’t been to Carlsbad Caverns, but it’s probably worth it too, though out of the way.

Even better is to do a giant road trip circuit between the northern parts of New Mexico abd Arizona, and southern parts of Utah and Colorado. You can also easily hit San Juan National Forest/Mesa Verde and Durango, Moab and Arches/Canyonlands/Capitol Reef, Escalante, Zion, and the Grand Canyon without too much driving between them all.

I posted this comment yesterday in reply to someone else talking about a different state but it applies here too.

If you keep talking up your state and telling people how great it is it will rapidly take a turn for the worse.

Colorado used to be a lot like you describe then it achieved a "brand image" as a vacation spot, after about a generation of people retiring to their vacation spot and people moving there because "it's beautiful, why not" and the state is in a tailspin (being an early adopter on weed probably didn't help but that's beside the point). Now the cost of living is skyrocketing and Denver/Boulder seem to be hell bent on recreating all the bad (bad for people who aren't wealthy, that is) decisions of a certain west coast state.

Economy, people, natural environment, no place can be highly favorable to all three. You can make big bucks and enjoy nature all you want in CA but the rest of your life will be a rat race. You can live a nice life and make good money in some places on the east coast but god help you if you want to get outdoors once in awhile. There are still many highly rural states where you can enjoy nature and have a nice life but you won't be making big bucks there.

I understand that some people may want to drive tourism business in their state. As someone who grew up in a place where tourism is a major industry I believe it will destroy your culture over time. I understand that you're not advocating people move to NM, just saying it's a nice place to visit but that's the first step and I'm not gonna re-write my entire comment to be specific to that case.

I'm not necessarily advocating for the state. The circuit I mentioned is very popular especially among europeans. I would recommend going in September or early October if possible.

I would personally move back to New Mexico, but I wouldn't paint a rosy picture of it. I like the culture, I'm sure it's not everyone's cup of tea. I definitely grew up around a lot of animosity from family members about New Yorkers moving to Rio Rancho, so it's nothing new:

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/06/business/rio-rancho-s-tan...

That said, New Mexico has been able to east/west coast gentrification to a minimum (Luckily most people end up going to Phoenix or Vegas instead)

On tourism - tourism is pretty much destroying the world, probably thanks to instagram. The west is susceptible but much of it is protected by virtue that many interesting parts are more than 3 hours from a major domestic or international airport. August is fucked though, partially because of the long European holiday, never do anything in August.

I'm sorry you had to post this, but amusingly my coworker who lived in NM previously, Socorro to be exact (graduated & worked for NM tech), did not have many nice things to say about the town or NM overall. A terse summary of his description would be "If you want your car broken into or stolen and/or house robbed then move to NM."

Though, that's his opinion. I visited with my parents when I was much younger. We went to Taos Valley and I remember it was a really beautiful place. Ski during the day and jump in the pool at night.

Socorro sucks. I'd be jaded if I had to live there. My parents pushed me to go there NM Tech, but I had been going to high school in Utah and would rather go there for college. NM Tech actually said in their brochures at the time (2003) that "students often live on campus or in one of the many affordable trailer parts nearby" or something to that effect.

If it's any indication, I did move back to Albuquerque in 2009 to try to find a job after graduating with a degree in Physics - because I did miss the culture and the place, even though I loved Utah too, but I couldn't make it work at the height of the recession. Utah wasn't much better - I had to take a part time mobile app QA position, but more of my adult friends were there.

There are pure science jobs available at Los Alamos but they can be a bit hard to come by, I would consider moving back to Santa Fe for the right position.

I would also say that Albuquerque does have my favorite weather. Winter shows up but it's not obnoxious, same with summer. September is the best month for a nice trip

I grew up in NM, and it's not necessarily an amazing place to live. But it's a fantastic place to visit! So much amazing wilderness of all kinds, and all kinds of culture.

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