Roller Coasters in New Mexico

I didn’t think there’d be many roller coasters in New Mexico, but there are a few! (I don’t think they’ll win any awards like our last state, however.) Let’s take a look around. (Especially since I’m checking prices at the end of the season, make sure to check hours and prices online before your visit.)

Click on the coaster name below for a video of each ride! Ride all the roller coasters in New Mexico from your house!

Cliff’s Amusement Park

The oldest amusement park in New Mexico is Cliff’s Amusement Park in Albuquerque. It’s a smaller park with 3 roller coasters: wooden New Mexico Rattler, steel Galaxy, and kiddie Spin-O-Rama. Otherwise, the park has 13 more attractions including a train, high swings, drop tower, and many of the classics. The Falling Star is a type of ride I haven’t seen in a while – a platform ride with lots of airtime. There’s also a log flume and two raft-style water slides, plus a water splash area of the park, and 6 rides just for smaller kids.

Cliff’s has turned off their online ticket pages now that the season is over, so I can’t tell how much admission costs. But best I can tell, it’s around $30 (to $50?) for adults and a little less for kids and groups of 10+. Make sure to look around for discounted tickets – I saw an old offer on Groupon and there may be something through local businesses. There used to be a “gate admission” for around $6-8 that doesn’t include the rides, but they discontinued that.

Parking is free but might overflow on busy days. It’s in the middle of a city block – and it’s not even the only business in the block! It backs up to a Pep Boys and a Taco Bell, among others. On the other hand, there’s plenty to eat within walking distance if you don’t like the food at the park!

Western Playland

Way down at the bottom of the state, almost to El Paso and the Mexican border, is Western Playland in Sunland Park. And Sunland seems to be a racetrack/casino/hotel situation, with the amusement park added on. In the amusement park, you can find 3 steel roller coasters: the galaxi-style El Bandido, the twisty Hurricane, and the kiddie Mine Coaster. There are 15 more rides for adults, plus 8 more just for smaller kids. In there is a nice big splashdown boat ride and a sky ride, which I’m always fond of.

Admission is $27.65 for an unlimited wristband for riders 42 inches or taller, or $18.49 for riders under 42″. Active military members get $3 off. Or, you can pay a gate admission and then pay per ride. Currently, that’s $5 gate admission (which includes the train and sky ride) and then $3 per ticket. Most rides take one ticket, but some of the bigger ones, including the two bigger roller coasters, take two. If you decide to ride all three coasters with individual tickets, it would cost $20 total. I assume parking is free – it’s practically connected to the larger casino lot.

Ruidoso Winter Park

Our last roller coaster in New Mexico is an alpine coaster found about three hours south of Albuquerque and over an hour north of White Sands National Park. In Ruidoso Winter Park, you can find summer and winter tubing, as well as a zip line ride, and the new Screaming Eagle mountain coaster. To ride just the coaster is $25 for one ride, $65 for 3 rides, $90 for 5 rides, or $175 for 10 rides. Packages are also available. A $50 adventure package is one ride on the mountain coaster, two on the zipline, and 2 hours on the tubing hill. For just $15 more, get unlimited rides on all three for 2 hours.

Water Parks in New Mexico

I’m not sure if a state like New Mexico *should* have more water parks because it’s just so darned hot and dry, or if not wasting all that water is the better idea. At any rate, there aren’t many! Even the biggest amusement park in the state doesn’t have much. There are a few “splash pad” type regional parks beyond what I’ve mentioned here, but I try to keep it to ones that have proper water slides.

• Cliff’s Amusement Park sorta has a water park – there’s a “WaterMania” area of the park with a splash area and a kid’s splash tower with a few small slides that come off it. But the two water raft rides in the park are separate and look like you can ride them in regular clothes. There’s no pricing available now post-season, but I assume it’s included in the price of the park, which I estimate to be in the $30-50 range.
• Carlsbad Water Park, about 30 minutes from the famous caverns national park, is a city park with 5 slides, a pool with a children’s play area, and a short lazy river. Admission is $5.

• The Raton Regional Aquatic Center near the Colorado border has one tube slide and one kid’s slide in an indoor complex. Admission is $4.
• Las Cruces seems to have a few small pools run by the city. A $4 indoor pool has 1 slide, and two outdoor pools have at least one slide each, and each cost $2 per person.
• Bisti Bay in Farmington only has kid’s slides, but looks to have a halfway decent lazy river. Admission is $6.

Did I miss anything? Have you been to any of these parks? What are you looking forward to doing this summer? Let me know in the comments below!