Things To Do In Portales

The Range

• Pistol range with 20 covered positions
• Two multipurpose ranges for pistols, rifles, and shotguns.
• High-powered rifle range with 20 covered positions and prone positions
• Tactical range with moving targets and dropping plates
• All ranges are outdoors

  The Rentals

  • Patriot Outdoors rents firearms for all ranges, from pistols to Class 3 rifles
  • Customers may purchase targets or bring their own

    At a Glance

    Multiple outdoor ranges accommodate Patriot Outdoors' firearms classes, which are designed for all skill levels. They also sell bows, firearms, and gear and accessories. The facility's open skies and desert landscapes also serve as the backdrop for paintball fields, including two speedball fields and one 4-acre field with various obstacles. For something different, an indoor rock-climbing gym presents members with areas designated for top-rope climbing and bouldering. Different routes challenge beginner, intermediate, and advanced climbers.

Merchant Kitty puts self-expression at its clients’ fingertips with classes and workshops in fabric stamping, decoupage, and paper art. After building a Mother’s Day basket or set of painted cards, take home a personalized gift or piece of custom home decor to bring your unique style into your daily life.

Like the kids and families who make their way through its 3.5 miles of husk-lined trails, the corn maze at P Bar Farms wears a different costume each Halloween. This year, it celebrates the Oklahoma City Thunder's NBA Finals appearance with a winding logo-shaped maze that has 95 different decision points and innumerable twists and turns. After navigating the hand-cut labyrinth, a feat that generally takes most maze-goers about one hour, folks can make their way around the property and enjoy P Bar Farms’ many other fall-flavored activities. The Main Barn serves as the hub where visitors can recharge with concessions, relax at picnic tables, or challenge a rooster to a sing-off during free karaoke sessions. Outside, families can enjoy a hayride over to the farm's pumpkin patch or make their way to the barnyard to pet farm animals. The property's big red barn plays host to adrenaline-fueled laser-tag matches, and mini golf allows for more leisurely family fun.

Pecos Flavors Winery opened fairly recently—in 2004, originally just as a Roswell-based tasting room—but it brims with New Mexico history. The facility's current tasting room, for instance, takes on the identity of a southern New Mexico ranch. Its bar is a century old, plucked from Hondo Valley. Nearby, a statue of Billy the Kid keeps watch, staring grudgingly at anyone who spills their glass.

Befitting its state pride, Pecos has an extensive selection of New Mexican wines. More than 80 different blends of regional wine populate the Pecos collection, including the winery's own varietals grown at a pair of Chaves County vineyards. Pecos offers a number of other New Mexico products, too, such as coffee, sauces, and chocolates, as well as beers gathered from in-state breweries.

Three years after founding Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts in 1997, Louise Hopkins Underwood’s operation finally found a permanent home in the city's vacated Fire Department Administration Building. These days, her vision for a thriving contemporary-arts community has grown into a four-block campus with nine buildings spread across 64,000 square feet. The LHUCA team repurposed those structures—warehouses and former municipal buildings among them—into arts spaces that include an exhibition hall and four galleries whose nearly 5,000 square feet display local, national, and international artists. The renovated Icehouse accommodates rehearsals and performances of dance, music, and performance art, and the 159-seat Firehouse Theatre's 5.1-surround-sound mix brings films to life more effectively than hiring Dr. Frankenstein as a projectionist. Along with showcasing the work of prominent figures, the center's teachers nurture up-and-coming artists with classes in disciplines such as oil painting, bagpiping, and creative writing.

Owners Jeff and Michelle Dow met at the University of Iowa on athletic scholarships for gymnastics. After decorated careers that included spots on the U.S. Nationals team, the duo moved to Lubbock and founded Tega Kid's Superplex in 1995. Assisted by a skilled staff, they entertain and educate kids in teamwork and the athletic arts during sports programs, camps, and events. Though planted in gymnastics classes and fertilized with hand-grip chalk, the 18,000-square-foot facility has blossomed into a diverse space that teaches noncompetitive dance, cheerleading, tumbling, and swimming lessons that follow the USAG Junior Olympic Program's curriculum. The facility also houses a preschool, afterschool activities, and summer events and is a licensed provider of Motion Evolution, an interactive fitness program for kids.