Meow Wolf

Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return is a massive interactive art installation inside a former bowling alley. What begins as a Victorian-style house quickly opens into more than 85 rooms filled with secret passages, glowing forests, strange creatures, surreal technology, and a mystery you can investigate (or completely ignore) as you explore. The project was funded largely by Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin.

This is not a traditional museum where you quietly look at art on the walls. You can open doors, crawl through passageways, touch installations, read documents, and search for clues explaining what happened to the family that once lived in the house. The experience works equally well as a story-driven mystery or as a giant psychedelic playground.

Meow Wolf’s greatest strength is its novelty. It is unlike anything else I have seen around the country, and experiencing it for the first time was genuinely very cool. Repeat visits are still enjoyable, but the price becomes harder to justify once you know what to expect. The venue also hosts concerts and special events, which are often excellent and provide a good reason to return after you have already explored the main exhibition.

Give yourself at least two hours, although curious visitors can easily spend much longer. Wear comfortable shoes and avoid carrying anything bulky, since some areas involve stairs, narrow passageways, and crawling. Meow Wolf is open to all ages, but the flashing lights, loud noises, enclosed spaces, and crowded rooms may overwhelm some visitors. Bring some hand sanitizer too—just trust me.

If you have never been and are not a pretentious art fan, you will likely get good value out of a visit. It is a little expensive, but Meow Wolf remains one of Santa Fe’s most distinctive attractions and one of the rare tourist stops that truly feels unlike anything else.