New Mexico Vacation

[SamC.]

I'm considering taking a few days off mid-Sept to visit New Mexico. (First time) Basic plan is fly into Albuquerque, grab a rental car and go. Preference is non-resort, out of the way, interesting places & things. Any recommendations would be much appreciated!

[kghjr]

Originally Posted by SamC.

I'm considering taking a few days off mid-Sept to visit New Mexico. (First time) Basic plan is fly into Albuquerque, grab a rental car and go. Preference is non-resort, out of the way, interesting places & things. Any recommendations would be much appreciated!

Are you looking for historical places? Chaco Canyon, Acoma Pueblo, Santa Fe, Taos, all to the west and north. Acoma Sky City is a pueblo on top of a table mesa and is the oldest continually inhabited place in the western hemisphere, like more than 800 years.

White Sands, way south, and out of the way.

If you only have a few days, stay north or west. There is not much to see south and less to see east.

Take the drive to the top of Sandia Peak as you leave Albuquerque and then take the back road to Santa Fe, through Madrid, an old abandoned mining town taken over by hippies in the 60's and now a certified village, too small to be a town.

Valles Caldera National Preserve and Bandelier National Monument makes a nice day trip.

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge out of Taos is worth the trip. The drive from Santa Fe to Taos is a good one. If you go to the Gorge, go a bit farther past the bridge to the off-grid earth-ship community. They have tours of some of the homes but;lt into the sides of arroyos in the same fashion as the Anasazi cliff dwellers, southern exposure.

If you take the back road to Santa Fe, then take the high road to Taos, another back way of scenic wonders.

If you are looking for scenic beauty, you chose wisely.

[SamC.]

Fanstastic. This is precisely what I am looking for. Many thanks!

[sammyg2]

If you get to white sands, you might as well drive a little further to see Carlsbad caverns.

IMO everyone should see that at least once in their lifetime.

[Seahawk]

Great suggestions so far.

I would add staying in Magdalana: Village of Magdalana



From there you can drive some really remote, often very beautiful routes.

I have pretty much driven all the roads in the screen shot above. Bear in mind I love the desert, especially the high desert, so my impressions of beauty are some what skewed.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

. Bear in mind I love the desert, especially the high desert, so my impressions of beauty are some what skewed.

Same here, what I really like might not appeal to most. my favorite place in NM is the Organ mountains, other opinions may vary

[javadog]

I'd probably make a stop here, were I there:

The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

[SamC.]

Paul, I"m all in on this. Thanks for your time in responding.

[craigster59]

Maybe stay in an Earthship in Taos as your home base?
https://www.airbnb.com/s/Taos--NM?type=earthhouse&listing_types%5B%5D=23&s_tag=h1-RWyXX&allow_override%5B%5D=

[tcar]

Originally Posted by kghjr

Are you looking for historical places? Chaco Canyon, Acoma Pueblo, Santa Fe, Taos, all to the west and north. Acoma Sky City is a pueblo on top of a table mesa and is the oldest continually inhabited place in the western hemisphere, like more than 800 years.

White Sands, way south, and out of the way.

If you only have a few days, stay north or west. There is not much to see south and less to see east.

Take the drive to the top of Sandia Peak as you leave Albuquerque and then take the back road to Santa Fe, through Madrid, an old abandoned mining town taken over by hippies in the 60's and now a certified village, too small to be a town.

Valles Caldera National Preserve and Bandelier National Monument makes a nice day trip.

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge out of Taos is worth the trip. The drive from Santa Fe to Taos is a good one. If you go to the Gorge, go a bit farther past the bridge to the off-grid earth-ship community. They have tours of some of the homes but;lt into the sides of arroyos in the same fashion as the Anasazi cliff dwellers, southern exposure.

If you take the back road to Santa Fe, then take the high road to Taos, another back way of scenic wonders.

If you are looking for scenic beauty, you chose wisely.

Very Good advice here... Sandia Peak, you might want to take the Tram Gondola to the top for lunch... starts in NE Albuquerque... there's an old TWA plane wreck about 3/4 of the way up you can see from the Gondola.

The 'Very Large Array' (VLA) is a huge group of giant radio antennas (27 of them, each about 75 feet in diameter) West of Socorro ( SW of ABQ), sort of out of the way... has been in many movies. They're moved around on RR tracks so in essence, the entire valley floor is an antenna, many miles in diameter.

The NE quadrant of the state is best if you don't have time to head S (White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, Organ Mts).

Grew up in ABQ... love it. Live in Denver, but go down there for R&R often. Bluest, biggest sky...

[Seahawk]

Sam,

From another thread. Magdalena is right down the road and a pretty drive. Same offer applies:

Originally Posted by Seahawk

The four corners area is amazing. Don't miss Chaco Canyon.

A little farther away, but on a road I love is the Very Large Array. My uncle-in-laws son runs the place and I can set up a tour.

As you may have garnered, I love me some road trips.

[Crowbob]

After two days in the desert sun

My skin began to turn red...

[gwmac]

on that side of the state the Catwalk in the Gila,lots of good hiking but take lots of water, Aguirre Springs in the Organs is very nice and 50 miles or so from White Sands.
If you come to the Caverns you are about 50 miles from Guadalupe Mountain National Park with lots of hiking including Guadalupe Peak the hightest point in Texas, McKittrick Canyon, Frijole and Pine Springs.

[AFC-911]

The drive to / from White Sands is a whole lot of nothing...

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by AFC-911

The drive to / from White Sands is a whole lot of nothing...

I drove from Artesia to Orange County in about 14 hours once. Not a whole lot of scenic on that drive cept maybe Cloudcroft.

Heading north from Carlsbad could go through Lincoln, Ruidoso, Carrizozo. I like it up around those parts. Of course I like wind, tunbleweeds, sand and old buildings.

And of course, HO-made chili

[Crowbob]

So on these expeditions, is it possible to just turn off somewhere and sleep? That pic of Sammy's makes me think just outside of town with lights out you'd be invisible to the nekkid eye.

My travels have never incurred long, long stretches of wide-open nothingness.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

So on these expeditions, is it possible to just turn off somewhere and sleep? That pic of Sammy's makes me think just outside of town with lights out you'd be invisible to the nekkid eye.

Doan do that near the reservations on Friday or Saturday night.
You'd need to be at least two ditches away from the highway.

But yes, there is a great deal of "wide open" in New Mexico.

A woman picked up a hitchhiker near Gallup one day, a Navajo woman.

The Navajo woman sat there for a while and then asked, what's in that bag?

The woman driving said "it's a six pack of beer, I got it for my husband".

The Navajo woman said "huh, good trade".

[sammyg2]

I haven't been through there in 20 years but it's all good memories.
Small towns, simple life.

Shiprock

[Crowbob]

I take it I shouldn't worry about a dress code.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

I take it I shouldn't worry about a dress code.

There are places in NM that rival the snobbiest in the world and money flows like BS (Taos, Santa Fe) and there are other places were it doesn't.
The contrast is beautiful.

I tend to focus on the down to earth real pictures and memories.
To each his own.