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Photo: Asaavedra32, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
A facility of the Albuquerque Biological Park, this park along the Rio Grande has fishing ponds for adults and children, a model boating pond, a cafe, and a gift shop where you can buy fishing licenses, fishing gear, or rent a pedal boat for a ride on the central pond. Trails lead into the bosque to the edge of the river and to a pair of restored wetland ponds. A narrow-gauge train links Tingley Beach to the Albuquerque Aquarium/Botanical Gardens and the Rio Grande Zoo (listed above under See).
Tingley Beach is a recreational area in Albuquerque, New Mexico, located south of Central Avenue on the east side of the Rio Grande. It is part of the Albuquerque Biological Park complex.
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Hosting local performances throughout the year.
Albuquerque's small but pleasant aquarium is well-curated, with exhibits designed to simulate the Rio Grande and the saltwater marshes of the Gulf of Mexico before moving on to ocean species. Among the sea creatures on display are jellyfish, seahorses, eels, and plenty of colorful reef fish, with the highlight being a huge tank at the end with sharks, sea turtles, and rays. Divers enter the big tank every day from 2–3PM to feed the fish.
Next door to the Aquarium, this expansive botanical garden is one of Albuquerque's real gems. The place is an oasis with a variety of gardens to explore, with an emphasis on high desert plants but also with many highlight exhibits that are great for children: an indoor conservatory with lush Mediterranean plants, an insectarium with plenty of creepy-crawlies, an indoor butterfly pavilion that's open in the summer, a large Japanese garden with a koi pond and a waterfall, a recreation of an early 20th-century farm with a barnyard petting zoo, a model railroad, and a fantastic children's "Fantasy Garden" made to look as if you've shrunk down to a bug's size, with giant pretend vegetables, garden tools and bugs.
It may not be as big as your average big city zoo, but this zoo is surprisingly comprehensive for its size, with most of the popular species you can expect to find at any good zoo: polar bears, lions, zebras, tigers, giraffes, elephants, gorillas, etc. And like any good zoo, the animals are in nice, naturalistic exhibits. The highlight exhibit areas are the seals, the polar bears, a large Africa area, and a large elephant enclosure. Every day there are scheduled feedings of the seals and the polar bears; during the warmer months more feeding times, activities, and outdoor concerts are scheduled. A small narrow-gauge train runs through the zoo (Tu–Su 10AM–3:30PM at 20-min intervals), with a conductor pointing out some of the animals and explaining what goes on behind-the-scenes. A separate train line runs to the Aquarium/Botanic Garden.
This great little museum's claim to fame is the largest collection of different species of live rattlesnakes in the world. There's lots of snakes (and various other reptiles) and snake-related memorabilia, such as artwork and films, and the gift shop is not to be missed.
While the location isn't ideal (in a strip mall near Old Town, rather than in the historic district), this small gift shop and museum has some interesting exhibits about turquoise and its manufacture, history, and mythology. Reservations required.