Four miles north of Alamogordo on US-54, McGinn's PistachioLand is a working pistachio ranch that has embraced its roadside attraction status with genuine enthusiasm. The 30-foot concrete pistachio monument is the centrepiece, but there's also a winery (Arena Blanca Winery, producing wine from desert-grown grapes), a gift shop with free pistachio samples, and tours of the orchards in season.
It's the kind of stop that either seems completely pointless or completely essential depending on your outlook. The pistachios are genuinely good — roasted in various flavours on site — and the ranch setting with the Sacramento Mountains as a backdrop is unexpectedly scenic.