Historic Magdalena, N.M. Photo by Rebecca Rutherford
By REBECCA RUTHERFORD
For the Los Alamos Daily Post
For spring break I wanted to take my junior foodie somewhere special, with a lot of history, science and great restaurants! After some consideration, I picked Magdalena, NM.
Why would I want to go there, you might ask?
- Tumbleweeds Diner
- Kelly Mine
- VLA (24 miles away)
- Pie Town (50 miles away)
Magdalena is a small village in Southern NM, just about 30 minutes outside of Socorro. All said, it’s about a 3 hour trip from Los Alamos to there.
We drove through Socorro, where we grabbed lunch at El Camino, classic NM and American diner food in a fun, retro space, and also visited the Socorro Mineral Museum. The museum is open seven days a week and has a ton of great rock specimens from NM and around the world.
After that it was an easy 30 minute drive to Magdalena. The museum is free.
I booked us a room at High Country Lodge, a classic motor lodge that has been nicely updated. Rates are $75 for a single and $95 for a double. Room was clean and comfortable.
Magdalena is named after the “Lady on the mountain” , a rock formation on the mountain said to look like a woman’s profile. Magdalena is a ranching community, but also home to art galleries, and many historic buildings. We had fun driving and walking around the town!
Kelly Mine is about 4 miles outside of town, but you need to purchase a pass if you want to actually go into the mine area to collect, passes can be purchased at rock shops in town. Road requires 4wd, and the site is hazardous. My vehicle was unable to make it up there, but we did walk around and view it from afar. The site is dangerous, with a 1,200 feet deep open mine, so caution is advised, and check in with one of the local rock shops to check conditions, and for instructions to get to the site. The site is famous for Smithsonite specimens, and there are many other varieties of copper based minerals and other rocks.
For my foodie kid, the star of the town was the Tumbleweeds Diner. They opened in 2021, and have been serving up amazing dishes ever since! We kept seeing posts about their food in a local Facebook group and this was a deciding factor in our road trip.
Contact info:
1408 first street (highway 60)
Magdalena, New Mexico 87825
Call or text 575.418.7537
INFO@TUMBLEWEEDSNM.COM
It is advised to call or email before going, as this is in the country and sometimes unexpected things (power outages, blizzards, etc.) may occur. We lucked out and had no issues, so we went there for dinner. We got the Joe Burger (double smash patties, cheese, green chile, chipotle and cilantro aioli, pickles, pickled onions, lettuce, tomato, on buttery brioche bun), the hot chicken sandwich (hella hot spice level- basically a nashville hot chicken) and we shared fries.
The food was hot, fresh and amazing! The homemade sauces and pickles really stood out, and the flavor on the chicken sandwich was perfect, not too hot but very tasty. The fries were perfectly cooked and went great with all their sauces! They serve beer and wine as well. My junior foodie got a chance to talk to Chef Michal and his wife Osiris gave us the tour. The murals on the outside of the building were all painted by Chef Michal.
The next day we headed for the VLA (Very Large Array) about a 24 mile drive from town. From their website:
The Very Large Array, one of the world’s premier astronomical radio observatories, consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin fifty miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. Each antenna is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter. The data from the antennas is combined electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 36 km (22 miles) across, with the equivalent sensitivity of a dish 130 meters (422 feet) in diameter.
We had fun looking at the antennas and reading about the science behind the array, and how it has brought us some truly amazing images of space. We also saw a herd of antelopes. Highly recommend you make the trip at least once.
From there it was about a 30 mile drive to … Pie Town! Pie Town is in the middle of nowhere, and home to the Pie-o-neer and The Gatherin’ Place 2 again, call ahead to verify hours before making the trek out there. Pie-o-neer was closed but we were able to grab lunch and pie at the Gatherin’ Place! We got a fried pork tenderloin sandwich, onion rings, and a turtle pie (buttermilk with chocolate, coconut and pecan). Everything was great and service was fast and friendly.
It may not be as exciting as, say Disneyland, but it is a heck of a lot closer, cheaper and still made for a fun and unique spring break road trip! New Mexico is full of such little gems, you just have to know where to look, and be down for some driving. Take a trip, get out there and explore our awesome state.
The Joe burger from Tumbleweeds Diner in Magdalena. Photo by Rebecca Rutherford
The hot chicken sandwich from Tumbleweeds Diner in Magdalena. Photo by Rebecca Rutherford
Mural on the exterior wall of Tumbleweeds Diner in Magdalena. Photo by Rebecca Rutherford
View of the Very Large Array (VLA) on Old Hwy 60 in Magdalena. Photo by Rebecca Rutherford
Entrance to the VLA on Old Hwy 60 in Magdalena. Photo by Rebecca Rutherford
The Gatherin’ Place in Pie Town, N.M. Photo by Rebecca Rutherford