San Rafael is a convenient base for exploring the badlands country south on NM-53, the Pueblo culture along I-40, and the Zuni Reservation an hour to the west. None of these are more than a couple of hours' drive.
Destinations
Day Trips from San Rafael
01
El Malpais
New Mexico national monument near Grants, shaped by lava flows, cinder cones, sandstone bluffs, and lava tubes.
02
Grants
Route 66 highway town turned uranium capital, with black lava fields and ice caves just beyond town.
03
Laguna
New Mexico pueblo hill settlement dominated by the 1699 San José de la Laguna Mission
04
Zuni
New Mexico pueblo community beside Dowa Yalanne mesa, deeply tied to Zuni history and craft.