Las Vegas, NM

[colin]

Las Vegas has always been my favorite town in New Mexico. I try to get out there every time I'm in the area. July 4th weekend they have a bit festival on the plaza, so I avoided that area this time and hung out elsewhere.

Las Vegas is basically two separate cities, both of which have their own school districts and business districts. West Las Vegas is the older section with the plaza and adobe-styled homes.

East Las Vegas is the newer section and was built to accomodate the railroad (West Las Vegas is on top of a hill) and is on the old highway. Most of the road motels are in this area, as well.

Downtown East Las Vegas:

Carnegie Library and surrounding park/square:

Houses around the library square:

From 2005:

Just outside of town in Gallinas Canyon is Montezuma Castle, a former resort and now home of United World College's American Southwest campus:

Hot springs in front of the castle:

From Johnson's Mesa:

From 2003:

The Plaza:

[MJLO]

Colin, are depressing out of the way places like crack to you?

Great pictures my friend, I always enjoy what you bring to the table!

Always something new and educating.

[Mith242]

Nice pics Colin. You know I've been around Las Vegas (NM) several times but never stopped. I never knew there was so much historical buildings there until recently. I think I'm going to have to stop by there one of these days while I'm out there.

[colin]

You really think Las Vegas looks depressing??

I never thought it did. The streets in the downtown area normally have more people and traffic on them, but this was a Sunday, and they had their Fiesta right down the street, which is where everyone was. I was there last year as well during July 4, and made the mistake of staying at the Plaza, which is right on the Plaza (figure that one out) where they hold the fiesta. Also, the area around Carnegie Library was actually busy with people getting out of church, but the pictures don't show it.

I would have moved there originally instead of Tucson were there any jobs in my field there. I don't know that I would have done well with the small town life anyway.

Mith, Las Vegas is totally worth checking out just for the architecture. I've always thought it was an undiscovered gem, because it's such a beautiful place but really has almost no tourist industry. Because of that though, there aren't many restaurants besides fast food or the Spic n' Span, which is mostly a breakfast place. There used to be a Korean restaurant on the plaza, but that's gone now. I generally just eat Arby's when I'm there. Mmmmm...Arby's.

[Mith242]

You really think Las Vegas looks depressing??

I never thought it did. The streets in the downtown area normally have more people and traffic on them, but this was a Sunday, and they had their Fiesta right down the street, which is where everyone was. I was there last year as well during July 4, and made the mistake of staying at the Plaza, which is right on the Plaza (figure that one out) where they hold the fiesta. Also, the area around Carnegie Library was actually busy with people getting out of church, but the pictures don't show it.

I would have moved there originally instead of Tucson were there any jobs in my field there. I don't know that I would have done well with the small town life anyway.

Mith, Las Vegas is totally worth checking out just for the architecture. I've always thought it was an undiscovered gem, because it's such a beautiful place but really has almost no tourist industry. Because of that though, there aren't many restaurants besides fast food or the Spic n' Span, which is mostly a breakfast place. There used to be a Korean restaurant on the plaza, but that's gone now. I generally just eat Arby's when I'm there. Mmmmm...Arby's.

Yeah I certainly didn't think it was depressing either. I'll certainly check it out one of these days. I'm still trying to figure out whey I've never heard more about it. Looks like it has a lot of great history there. Hopefully there's some sort of restaurant around offering some New Mexico cuisine. Man I really dig the food out there. It's not Tex-Mex or quite like any of the other border states food. Also different from Mexican food in general too.

[convulso]

i know this is an old thread. but damn - i just realized that there were separate topics under the regional headings on UP (west, south, midwest, etc.) - idiotic of me to never have clicked on the regional subforum links - i always clicked directly on topics (state names, city names, individual topic names) until i discovered these regional topics the other day. i've got a lot of looking back to do.

but wonderful pics, colin. i actually avoided this town on my first trip through northern NM because i thought, based on name alone, that it was a tucumcari-style roadside (well, not exactly roadside) trap with a deliberately catchy name. like you, i love northern new mexico (and a lot of northern AZ), and it's taken my living in tucson for several months for me to warm to this region as much as to the northern portions of NM & AZ. i'd been through the southern reaches on all my trips as often as i'd visited the northern parts, but something about the area further north has always just seemed more...i dunno....in my blood. i guess it's partially the lack of big cities, but i think it's also the changes that the consistently higher elevations bring. i've always 'felt' the magnitude of how high i am every time i've been in northern NM and AZ - like standing on an ocean of land...as cockamamie as that must sound.

anyway, ya gave me a reason to visit las vegas with this post.

[colin]

anyway, ya gave me a reason to visit las vegas with this post.

[tombarnes]

I haven't been there in years. It's nice to see the old Montezuma Castle restored. I think you may have something there about New Mexico being more "real" than Arizona, at least in some respects. Santa Fe, however, has turned to tourism with a vengeance of fake adobe. I'd still like to go there again some time soon.

[colin]

Yeah, and they opened it for tours pretty recently too, so there's yet another cool thing to do in the Las Vegas area.

Santa Fe is ridiculous. I don't even like driving through there anymore. Taos is almost as bad, but I still really like it.

[dgreco]

awesome pictures, very old town feel, thanks for posting them.

[Mith242]

Glad I saw this topic again. I'm thinking of stopping here my next trip to New Mexico in April.

[DaltonGA]

Las Vegas looks more like a small southern city than a southwestern city. Town square, old buildings, historic former resort hotel, looks like a lot of places I'm familiar with in the southern Appalachians. I've never been to Las Vegas, NM, and I expected it to look more like Taos or have a more Spanish/Southwest flavor. The area is not as arid as I had expected either.

I was aware many of the towns of southeast New Mexico had a southern feel, Roswell, Hobbs, Clovis, etc and I assume the proximity to Texas was the reason for that. The images of Taos, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and various Indian pueblos are the image I had of New Mexico as a whole.