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Plan your Manhattan Project visit

Visit Manhattan Project sites at Los Alamos

MAPR is not a traditional national park where visitors can drive through an entrance gate to begin exploring. The park is spread out across visitor centers, historic sites, museums, points of interest and more. We work with community partners to provide a variety of places and experiences that collectively share the story of the Manhattan Project.

 

Manhattan Project Historical Sculpture of J. Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves
A statue of J. Robert Oppenheimer and Leslie Richard Groves located in downtown Los Alamos.

Things to do:

  • Visit the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Visitor Center: Step inside and learn how Los Alamos looked and felt during the Manhattan Project era. National Park Service personnel can answer your questions.
  • Explore the Bradbury Science Museum: Located at 1450 Central Ave. and open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday 1-5 p.m., the museum is free and showcases artifacts from the Manhattan Project, including Oppenheimer’s desk chair and a replica of the Fat Man bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945.
  • Join a guided walking tour beginning at the Los Alamos History Museum: The Los Alamos Historical Society’s extensively trained volunteers will show you around Bathtub Row, Fuller Lodge, and even J. Robert Oppenheimer’s house. Formerly the Los Alamos Ranch School, these buildings were purchased by the United States for use during the Manhattan Project and are now owned and operated by Los Alamos County. 
  • Print your own walking tour map for a self-guided stroll through the atomic city.
  • Visit the filming locations for “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s Academy Award-winning biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer.
  • Take a Manhattan Project road trip from Santa Fe to Los Alamos and surrounding areas

Can I get a badge? I want to tour the Lab!

While we appreciate your enthusiasm and understand why you’d want to tour such an interesting place, Los Alamos National Laboratory is a working national security laboratory and not open to the public. Badges are for authorized personnel only. To find out more about what goes on at the Lab every day, check out our news site.

What about seeing the behind-the-fence sites at LANL?

Access to the 11 MAPR sites on Los Alamos National Laboratory property is extremely limited, and the only way to view these sites in person is by taking a Behind-the-Fence Tour. We offer these tours on select dates in May and October, and, due to space constraints, each year only a fraction of all the people who want to take the tours are able to attend. 

Those who can’t make it onto an in-person tour can still see the behind-the-fence MAPR sites via our Virtual Tour, Secret City App, and video library.