The New Mexico Haunted Trail

New Mexico's haunted places sit close to its oldest settlements: adobe missions, mining boomtowns, hotels built when the railroad decided which towns survived and which didn't. High-desert distances reward slow travel here, with long stretches between stops and history that runs from Spanish colonial churches through the Apache Wars to a twentieth-century penitentiary riot. The featured loop keeps to a short, walkable cluster around Taos and Albuquerque for a weekend without much driving involved. Close to sixty venues fill out the broader statewide list for anyone extending the trip toward Santa Fe or further south.