Hi! I’m Mark, the New Mexico Travel Guy, and welcome to my “New Mexico and Beyond” blog. This blog documents my travels as I chip away at visiting EVERY town in my home state of New Mexico. But rather than check off a list of places as quickly as possible, I’m taking my time, highlighting events, travel advice, photos, and the people who live in this amazing Land of Enchantment. I also have a background as a conservation biologist, so I have a tendency to nerd out on wildlife, nature, and conservation along the way. Consider yourself warned.
As for the “and Beyond” part of this blog, I still travel abroad from time to time. Since I’ve already visited over 100 countries, I’ve mostly moved past the big-city tourist circuit. Instead, I tend to gravitate toward smaller, less obvious places. I’ll sprinkle some tales from those adventures throughout this website, too.
A quick note on how I approach this. Every place I write about, I’ve been to, and almost every photo is snapped by yours truly. Most of the time, I like to fly under the radar. I just go, pay my own way, and see what it’s like. Every now and then, I get a chance to see things behind the scenes, and when that happens, I’ll let you know. The goal is to give you an honest sense of what to expect.
Thanks for reading and happy travels!
Mark (The New Mexico Travel Guy)
Mark Aspelin, The New Mexico Travel Guy (www.newmexicotravelguy.com), is a travel writer, conservation biologist, project manager, and author of two books. He’s currently working on his third book, the upcoming Moon New Mexico travel guide (Fall 2027), published by Moon Travel Guides, and wrote the Northeastern New Mexico chapter for the 2026 edition of Fodor’s New Mexico. Mark has visited over 100 countries and all 50 U.S. states, just enough to land in the Travelers’ Century Club and make choosing a favorite place nearly impossible. He’s currently on a questionable mission to visit every town in New Mexico (there are over 500) and write a story about each one, with plans to wrap it up sometime before his early to mid 100s. Mark balances his writing with conservation and project work from his home base in the East Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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