Hi,
My husband and I are going to be flying into Albuquerque on Sat, March 21st. We want to do a 1 week road trip of New Mexico, but we were also interested in possibly seeing Canyon de Chelly, which would take us out of our way.
My question is, if we only had to see one cliff dwelling site, should it be Canyon de Chelly or Gila Cliff dwellings?
Also, we were going to do a loop of NM, hitting Gila Cliff, White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, Roswell, then on to Santa Fe and back to Albuquerque. On the way, we would love to see some ghost towns and possibly stay in strange, haunted or otherwise quirky places. Any suggestions on towns we should hit on our way to and from all the spots I mentioned above?
Thanks so much!
-Maya
Canyon De Chelly or Gila Dwellings (NM road trip)
On the whole, Canyon de Chelly is much more impressive than the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Mesa Verde in SW Colorado is even more spectacular, but that is even farther out of your way.
I wish you%26#39;d asked a little earlier for recommendations. If you%26#39;re doing Santa Fe, you should also include Taos/Taos Pueblo...and if you were to go a little farther Northeast to Cimarron, you could stay at the historic, (and ghostly) St. James Hotel there.
Be sure to go east from White Sands through Alamogordo, to Cloudcroft (9.000ft. elevation in the pines), and then over to Artesia, enroute to Carlsbad Caverns...nice scenery!
Another old hotel that has been recently redone as a B%26amp;B is the Wortley in Lincoln, NM...one of our better Old West towns, with several buildings remaining, including the courthouse where Billy the Kid made his last escape in a gun battle during the Lincoln County Wars.
Every opinion is personal of course, but I%26#39;d pass on Gila, and Canyon de Chelly on this trip, and include Acoma Pueblo (the ';Sky City';) atop a mesa, only an hour west of Albuquerque off I-40, and then also include Taos Pueblo. These two are both among the ';must sees'; in our Land of Enchantment. IMHO!
:-)
Also, between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, take NM-14 the ';Turquoise Trail'; rather than I-25. Old mining towns of Cerrillos, and Madrid, and the later has many unusual shops featuring art, jewelry, etc.
Have a great trip!
Canyon De Chelly or Gila Dwellings (NM road trip)
I have not been to Canyon de Chelly, but from what I%26#39;ve heard, it is more extensive than the Gila Cliff Dwellings. On the other hand, the logistics of visiting Canyon de Chelly are more complicated than the Gila Cliff Dwellings, and you will be a considerable distance from the other places you want to see on the rest of your journey.
Silver City is the nearest decent-sized town to the Gila Cliff Dwellings (44 miles away, but it%26#39;s a two-hour drive). Silver City has some interesting shops and places to stay, and some folks think the Palace Hotel may be haunted. Silver City will put you in easy driving distance to White Sands and other points in southern NM, and is about 4 hours drive from Albuquerque.
With only a week, you have a lot to see. Save Canyon de Chelly for another trip. There is so much to see in NM. Do you want to head north to Santa Fe and Taos, or just stay in the southern part of the state? Here%26#39;s a plan to do some of both! Visit www.newmexico.org
Day 1 Sat Fly into Albuquerque. Stay near Old Town, maybe Bottger Mansion B%26amp;B www.bottger.com or the old style Monterey Non Smokers Motel www.nonsmokersmotel.com . If you get in early enough, visit a museum or 2. Rattlesnake Museum is great fun!!
Day 2 Sun Drive south to Silver City area. If you leave ABQ early enough you will have time to visit Gila Cliff Dwellings. Hopefully our Silver City expert will post as I have not been in this area since I was a kid. There are a number of historic lodgings available in the Silver City area.
Day 3 Mon To Alamogordo to see White Sands. Also a nice space history museum . Stay in Cloudcroft at the Lodge at Cloudcroft which is ';haunted'; www.thelodge-nm.com
Day 4 Tues Drive to Carlsbad Caverns and leave early. Visit the Caverns the rest of the day.
Day 5 Wed Drive north to Roswell, see the UFO Museum for a short time then drive up to Santa Fe. Stay near the Plaza. La Fonda Hotel is an old Harvey House and also is supposedly haunted. www.lafondasantafe.com
Day 6 Thur Drive up to Bandelier Nat Mon. I think this place will be a great visit for you and if you can%26#39;t get to Gila Cliff Dwellings, a nice alternative. Also a visit to the science museum in Los Alamos is worth a quick stop. Stay in Santa Fe or drive up to Taos to spend the night. The Hotel La Fonda (another one) is in Taos as is the Historic Taos Inn.
Day 7 Fri Visit Taos Pueblo which should be opening back up March 23. Drive on back to Santa Fe area, possibly to the old mining town of Madrid about 45 minutes south of Santa Fe. www.visitmadridnm.com Maybe stay at http://madridcasita.com for the night
Day 8 Sat Drive Hwy 14 south toward Albuquerque. Maybe drive up to Sandia Crest if the road is open. Stay near airport.
Day 9 Sun Depart.
Somehow I forgot a day in Santa Fe. Add that instead of Bandelier Nat Mon.
Wow, thanks so much everyone for your great suggestions and amazingly quick responses!
Armed with the info you%26#39;ve provided I now have a few more questions.
First I just want to let you know that my husband and I are young, adventurous and on a budget. We want to do more outdoors-y things, rather than more city-things.
I can definitely see going to the Bandelier Nat. Mon. instead of Gila Cliffs, but, I forgot to mention that another reason we wanted to go down that way is to visit the ghost town Mogollon. Now, my question is, is Mogollon worth a visit or is it basically a tourist trap/amusement park type of town? If it%26#39;s NOT a tourist trap, we would go down to visit it, then stay the night in Silver City and in the morning drive to Gila Cliffs and then make our way to White Sands for sundown.
If you guys think that Mogollon is a waste of time, my husband and I re trying to stay away from the super-touristy stuff, are there any real ghost towns in NM that we can visit? We%26#39;re in our early 30%26#39;s and pretty fit, so we don%26#39;t mind long hikes. Though we won%26#39;t be getting a 4W drive car... so we%26#39;d still like to be on semi-paved roads if possible.
So far, this is what our itinerary looks like:
Sat - Fly in late at night into Albuquerque, stay night at airport hotel
Sun - Pick up car in the morning and drive to Mogollon, then on to Silver City and spend the night there. (Is there anything else to do/see in that area? Is Silver City a cool/interesting place?
Mon - Early in the morning drive to Gila Cliff Dwellings, maybe hike a little in the surroundings, then make our way to White Sands for the sunset. What%26#39;s a good place to stay around/in White Sands? We don%26#39;t have a tent or an RV... any campsites out there that rent camping equipment?
Tue - Spend first part of the day at White Sands then make our way to Carlsbad Caverns and do a little caverns touring. A good place to stay there?
Weds - Spend first part of day in the caverns and around then make our way to Roswell and try to get to Santa Fe in time for dinner. Is that feasible? If not, what%26#39;s a good place to stop over? Any interesting spots on the way?
Thurs - Spend day in Santa Fe
Fri - go to Los Alamos and Bandelier Monument and back to Santa Fe
Sat - either more Santa Fe or maybe make it out to some hot springs, like Ojo Caliente... or some other ones... or visit the Taos Pueblo. Drive to Albaquerque to spend the night at Airport hotel for our early morning flight home.
Sun - fly back to New York.
Does this sound do-able? Are we missing out on some great sites/hikes?
thank you all again,
-Maya
Mogollon is worth a visit (too small and too remote to be a tourist trap), but now is not the time of year to do so. The road to Mogollon is reasonably well-paved (it does not require a 4WD vehicle), but the speed limit is something like 15 MPH so it takes a while to travel... and there is still a possibility of snow and ice on the road. Note that this road (NM159) is closed *past* Mogollon each year from November until May.
The one-hour drive from Silver to Glenwood (the town nearest Mogollon) is easy and pleasant, and just outside of town the Catwalk is a nice place to see and hike.
There are a couple of other ghost towns within the general vicinity of Silver City. About 50 miles or so from Silver is Steins (pronounced %26#39;Steens%26#39;), just off of I-10 near the NM-AZ border. It%26#39;s pretty small and can be thoroughly viewed in a half-hour or so. Another one, Shakespeare, has more to see... but is open only one weekend per month and will be closed during your visit.
Another really unique attraction of the area, a short 30-min. drive from Silver, is City of Rocks State Park. You could easily incorporate it into your plans for Monday, as your return from the Gila Cliff Dwellings will take you right by it.
I%26#39;ll stop here for now. If you decide that you are still interested in coming to Silver City (I think you should be!) and the Cliff Dwellings, etc. I can give you some further details and suggest some slight adjustments in your itinerary.
Thanks for your suggestions, Mitch!
I think we will still try to visit Mogollon, we%26#39;ll see how the road is and if it%26#39;s too icy and difficult to drive on, we%26#39;ll turn back!
I do think we%26#39;ll go to Silver City and Gila Cliff, please tell me your suggestions for changing my itinerary.
Do you know if I want to go to White Sands, is staying in Old Mesilla better/more interesting than staying in Alamogordo?
Thanks again,
-Maya
Maya:
Looking over your itinerary, I think you may have bitten off more than you can chew. Keep in mind that NM is the fifth-largest state in the US, more than twice the size of New York... and while there is plenty to see, the distance between points of interest can be considerable.
As currently written, your itinerary involves at least 6 hours of driving on Sunday, about 7 hours on Monday, at least 3 hours on Tuesday, and close to 6 hours on Wednesday. That amount of driving means that you have less time to see and enjoy the places you are spending so much energy driving to.
A couple of thoughts:
1. If you can drive about two hours or so on Sat. after arriving in ABQ, you could reach Truth or Consequences (known as %26#39;T or C%26#39; for short) and enjoy the hot springs there. (Don%26#39;t forget that you gain two hours by flying west, as we are on Mountain Time.)
2. On Sunday, it%26#39;ll take you two hours to Silver City, another two hours to Glenwood and on to Mogollon (pronounced muggy-OWN, by the way), and two hours back to Silver. You may want to drop Mogollon and enjoy the Catwalk in Glenwood, which would cut two hours of driving off of your day, or even just hang out in and around Silver City.
3. Get up early on Monday and head to the Cliff Dwellings by 8:30 or so in order to get there in time for the once-daily guided tour, which usually starts at noon (you can visit the Cliff Dwellings on your own, but the guide really adds to the experience). On the way back, head east on NM35 through the Mimbres Valley (very different scenery than NM15, the road to the Cliff Dwellings) and connect to NM61, visit City of Rocks, then drive on US180 and overnight either in Deming 1/2 hour drive) or Las Cruces/Mesilla (about 1.5 hours).
4. Spend the morning strolling around Mesilla, then on to White Sands and Alamogordo. There%26#39;s a good space museum in Alamorgordo. Then on through Cloudcroft (a cute mountain town) to Carlsbad, where you might catch thousands of bats leaving the cave at sunset (check to make sure that it%26#39;s the right time of year for this).
5. Much as I enjoyed Carlsbad, you may wish to consider saving the Carlsbad/Roswell portion of your trip for another time. It puts you about as far away from Santa Fe as you can get while still being in NM.
Frankly, if this was my first trip to NM (you didn%26#39;t mention if you%26#39;ve been before) and I only had a week, I%26#39;d spend the bulk of my time in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Taos. But if you%26#39;re willing to spend a lot of time going from point A to point B, my proposed adjustments may lessen the fatigue a bit.
Hope this helps!
Mitch
A point of clarification on item #2: it will take you 2 hours to drive to Silver City *from T or C*. If you drive from ABQ it will take at least 4 hours.
metal_chic,
A couple of things to consider. New Mexico is the 5th largest state by area in the U.S. Just a casual look at your itinerary reveals some major driving days nearly every day of your trip.
The west is really big and vast and the scale of maps doesn%26#39;t equate the same as it does in the east.
Once off any of the few Interstate highways, you%26#39;ll be surprised how much longer it takes to drive just about anywhere.
Not to mention, travel delays on your way out of the NY or any connections you need to make which can throw the schedule off or exhaust you to the point of needing extra time to acclimate once here.
Adjusting to our higher elevations is also not to be taken lightly. I mean, we%26#39;re not up in the Himalayas, but for flatlanders, you%26#39;ll want to expect at least a day of adjusting to things.
Start by upping your intake of water a few days before leaving home by double or triple. Taking a good multi-vitamin daily seems to help too.
I%26#39;ve visited many of the ancient ruin sites in the southwest and you%26#39;ve chosen some really good ones ( except for not including Chaco Canyon), but with your time frame you may need to think about how much time you really want to spend in the car. Especially at this time of year when the days are getting longer, but still short compared to the summer months.
Another thing to think about is Taos pueblo.
I%26#39;m convinced there are three kinds of time in New Mexico. Scheduled dates of re-opening the Pueblo are often fluid and subject to change.
There is native american time which is unique and runs at a pace only native americans can understand or appreciate in its connection to the earth and lack of urgency.
Then there is locals time which given our nickname of ';Land of Manana'; is almost as unpredictable and much slower than the time you see on your watch.
Then there is the time you see on your watch. Good for catching flights, movies, etc... but not entirely honored or adhered to by most of the population here regardless of ethnic heritage. This place moves slower, is less predictable than most and reuqires some patience and flexibility.
In the end, have fun, try to relax, soak up some sun, be safe and enjoy our wondrously magical state.
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