Arenas Valley, NM

Arenas Valley is a Grant County census-designated place in southwestern New Mexico, up against the Piños Altos Mountains and the dry channels that give the community its names. The official name points to the Rio de Arenas, but locals long called the place Whiskey Creek, a name tied to stories about whiskey moving through the arroyo after a mountain storm. A post office operated here from 1946 to 1987, and ZIP code 88022 remains its own little marker. Arenas Valley is a New Mexico community where a dry arroyo, a mountain range, and two names do most of the telling.