New Mexico – Meow Wolf Museum

The Experience *Spoiler’s Ahead*

The very first room of Meow Wolf is the facade of a classic American home with two stories. Nothing seems to be out of place beyond that the home is inside the Museum building. Before entering, a staff member instructed us to look in the mailbox for our first clue to the overall storyline. From the first clue and subsequent exploration, we gathered that a family lived in the home had began doing experiments, which somehow opened dimensions or portals to otherworldly places and times. There is a lot more to the story, like how, why, and each family member’s role.

Once inside the home, we were more excited to crawl through the fireplace and other rooms before looking for more clues. While some people took the storyline very seriously, I was more focused on ensuring I didn’t miss any rooms, which is harder than it sounds. Many of the otherworldly rooms connect to one another, so you end up down a rabbit hole that might eventually come back to the original American home.

My Favorite Rooms

The otherworldly rooms range from beautiful to weird and everything in between. Here are some of my favorite rooms:

• Laser Musical Instrument: My ultimate favorite room was completely dark with almost nothing in it. Except in the middle of the room was a triangular-shaped object with three rows of lasers coming from the ceiling straight to the floor. The rows had probably seven or eight laser beams evenly spaced like strings on a guitar. When you ran your hand through the laser light, a sound would play. It was a laser musical instrument!!! I was completely mesmerized and I forced Rebecca to come back to the room when it was less busy and we could hear the notes.
• Musical T-Rex Skeleton: I suppose I love the interaction element of the musical instruments because one of my other favorite rooms was a giant neon plastic T-Rex Skeleton. When you used one of mallets on the rib cage a note would sound. So much fun!
• Tiny Japan Street: This is one of those tiny elements that would easily go unnoticed. On the upper level near the stage, there is a little area in the sky with paper lanterns, warm tones, and signs to look like a little alleyway from Japan. You can pop out of the window and take a picture.
• Neon Spaceship and Treehouses: On the second story in the otherworldly side of things, there is a small round spaceship with neon light that changes color. This one reminded me a lot of the “Breathing Light” exhibition at LACMA, but also more generally the color focus of James Turrell pieces. On this level there are many little “treehouses”, each more fantastical than the next. I loved them all.