Your Manhattan Project Road trip for 2024

Since “Oppenheimer” stormed the silver screen, locals and travelers are more interested than ever in what remains of the top-secret lab and makeshift town that supported the Manhattan Project during World War II. Here’s a guide of what you can see in a day’s journey back in time.

Head out from Santa Fe around 10 a.m. to sidestep early-morning commuters, many of whom are driving to work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Head north from Santa Fe on U.S. Highway 84/285 on a drive that should take 35-45 minutes. In Pojoaque, turn left (west) onto NM 502. Although this road has been widened and paved over many times in the past 80 years, you are now on the route that Manhattan Project scientists, staff and members of the U.S. Army took up the hill to the town that didn’t exist.

Get the full itinerary.