At the Rio Grande Botanic Garden you’ll see how dry stream beds, called arroyos, suddenly fill with water during the thunderstorms that mark our summer monsoon season, and see the amazing diversity of plants that live in these regions. The Botanic Gardens’ heritage farm recreates a local farm of the 1920s, with live animals and crops.

The BioPark hosts many regular and special events, including summer concert series at the Zoo and Botanic Gardens as well as occasional sleepovers in the Aquarium.

Rio Grande Nature Center is located in the bosque, or cottonwood forest, that lines the river along its course. This state park, which includes an interpretive center, encompasses 270 acres of woods, wetlands, meadows and farmland where native wildflowers and animals flourish. As you walk along the trails here you might see roadrunners, sandhill cranes, Cooper’s hawks, great horned owls, turtles, beavers, muskrats, cottontail rabbits, rock squirrels and even coyotes! The Nature Center frequently hosts lectures, tours and other special events.

If you want to learn more about black bears, mountain lions, elk, pronghorn antelopes, prairie dogs and other animals native to this region, you can visit them at Wildlife West Nature Park, just east of Albuquerque in Edgewood. This 122-acre facility has 30 wildlife exhibits connected by two miles of trails. Wildlife West hosts chuck wagon suppers, hayrides and harvest festivals.