The Best Offbeat Travel Experiences in Northern New Mexico

Watching Zozobra Burn (Santa Fe; tel. 505/988-7575): Part of Las Fiestas de Santa Fe held in early September, this ritual draws crowds to the core of the city to cheer as "Old Man Gloom," a giant marionette, moans and struggles as he burns. The Fiestas also include Masses, parades, dances, food, and arts.

Theater Grottesco (551 W. Cordova Rd. #8400, Santa Fe; tel. 505/474-8400; www.theatergrottesco.org): This theater troupe likes to shock, confuse, confound, and tickle its audience's funny bones. Their original works -- presented for about a month each spring or summer, and sometimes in the winter as well -- combine adept movement with sound, story, and, well . . . complete brilliance.

Black Hole (4015 Arkansas, Los Alamos; tel. 505/662-5053): Oddball history buffs will love wandering among this shrine to the nuclear age. Packed to the ceiling with the remains of the nuclear age, from Geiger counters to a giant Waring blender, it's peace activist Edward Grothus's statement about the proliferation of war and the materials that make it happen.

D.H. Lawrence Ranch (NM 522, San Cristobal; tel. 505/776-2245): North of Taos, this memorial offers a look into the oddly touching devotion for this controversial author, who lived and wrote in the area in the early 1920s. The guest book reveals a wellspring of stories of pilgrimages to the site.