New Mexicans' favorite national park for Labor Day picnics
Elizabeth Tucker Elizabeth TuckerElizabeth Tucker Journal Staff Writer
PublishedModified
A poll from familydestinationsguide.com — which surveyed 3,000 families across the U.S. to determine the most popular Labor Day picnic destination — determined Whites Sands National Park was the most popular place to celebrate the end-of-summer holiday in New Mexico.
Picnickers at White Sand can enjoy sledding down the dunes, stargazing and photography opportunities.
While you cannot have your picnic in the caverns directly, Carlsbad Caverns has designated picnic areas on the surface.
Bandelier National Monument's picnic sites are surrounded by the high desert landscape and a variety of archaeological sites.
Top 3 labor day picnic destinations for New Mexico
Dune climbers footprints are highlighted by the sun at White Sands National Monument.Richard Pipes
A lone hiker strikes out across the dunes of White Sands National Monument, with the San Andres Mountains in the background.Richard Pipes
A group of soldiers walk past water misters placed along the Bataan March course to keep them cool Sunday April 14, 2002 at White Sands Missile Range. More than 4000 runners and walkers joined March survivors to commemorate the 60th Anniversary on April 14, 2002.ADOLPHE PIERRE-LOUIS
Ripples of gypsum sand caused by high winds at White Sands National Monument.Richard Pipes
With sleds in hand, Mark Heltman, 9, and his father Greg Heltman, both of Albuquerque, climb a dune at the White Sands National Monument on Thursday, August 23, 2007GREG SORBER
Balloons at the White Sands National Monument near Alamogordo, N.M., on Saturday morning, Sept. 19, 2009, during the 18th annual White Sands Balloon Invitational.Rene Romo
Pods on a yucca plant bend in the wind at White Sands National Monument.Richard Pipes
One of the rooms in Carlsbad Caverns, lit up for visitors to see the formations.PAUL BEARCE
A pair of visitors gaze at one of nature's sculptures in Carlsbad Caverns National Park over the Labor Day holiday.PAUL BEARCE
-A ranger, cloaked by the dark, shines her flashlight, lower right, onto a boulder, lower left, where bat guano miners scorched it to leave black marks so they could find their way out of Carlsbad Caverns, early last century. The ranger was leading a group of 75 people on the King's Palace guided tour, a one mile tour that travels through four chambers: King's Palace, Papoose Room, Queen's Chamber and Green Lake Room in Carlsbad Caverns.Jake Schoellkopf
A group of National Park scientists and environmentalists tour a section of Bandelier National Monument that was thinned to help stop erosion.EDDIE MOORE
Frijoles Canyon at Bandelier National MonumentKarl Moffatt
Donna Widdowson(cq), from Pennsylvania, climbs into one of the cliff dwellings in the Bandelier National Monument. Widdowson was celebrating her 50th birthday touring the monument January 24, 2006.EDDIE MOORE
Visitors walk along the "Long House" cliff dwellings at Bandelier National Monument.EDDIE MOORE
The Tsankawi trail in Bandelier National MonumentNANCY TIPTON
Visitors walk the main loop trail through Bandelier National Monument as members of the Rocky Mountin Youth Corp. and the National Parks Service work to restore some of the walls of Tyuonyi Pueblo ruins in the park.Eddie Moore
A double rainbow arcs over the mountains of the Dome Wilderness near Bandelier National Monument after a summer thunderstorm.Journal File
