Socorro is a small desert town on the Rio Grande, south of Albuquerque, with a much bigger hinterland than its main street suggests. The town itself has an old plaza, one of New Mexico's oldest missions, and the New Mexico Tech campus, but the reason to linger is the strange, open country around it.
To the south, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge turns winter mornings into a show of cranes, geese, water, and cold blue light. West on US 60, the Very Large Array spreads its radio dishes across the Plains of San Agustin like a piece of science fiction made real. Farther into the Jornada del Muerto, Trinity Site is open only on rare public days, but it gives Socorro's landscape a historical weight few small towns can match.
Socorro is not polished. It is a practical college and highway town with long drives between sights. But if you have a car and a day to spare in central New Mexico, it offers a good mix of desert history, geology, birds, and science.