I-40 Through New Mexico and Arizona - Things To See

If you want to do a little side trip when in Flagstaff area. Take a drive through Oak Creek Canyon down to Sedona. Very scenic drive. You may want to leave your trailer in a campground when you do this.

I remember passing something about petrified forests and meteor crater but had no time to stop. Would love to see it next time I pass by on I-40. Not sure of exact location but they were in the area.

If you have enough time and want to venture off highway 40 you may want to consider Monument Valley & the Grand Canyon. Both are spectacular.

Meteor Crater at exit 233. Don't miss it. And they have a nice little basic RV campground right there, too.

Albuquerque edit: And if you have any interest in things military you should check out this Nuclear Museum at the south end of town. It's really a fascinating place to wander through, and outside they have lots of military aircraft and other equipment from those years long ago.

Petrified Forest, exit 311 in AZ is well worth the trip.

Stand on a corner in Winslow, Arizona!

When are you planning on traveling? Albuquerque has some interesting places to visit. What are your interests? The Old Town area is quaint, the Sandia Peak Tram, National Hispanic Cultural Center, The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Petroglyph National Park all within 5 Miles of I-40, Santa Fe is about 60 miles north. Several nice RV Parks west of town off I-40, 5 Casinos in the Albuquerque area, a couple just west of Albuquerque one, Sky City even has an RV Park.

On a trip in September 2012, we enjoyed the drive through the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. In New Mexico, a special treat was a stop at the KOA in Tucumcari: pleasant scenery and a homecooked dinner at a reasonable price, delivered to our RV.

Gallup NM is an old tourist stop on 66, lots of indian crafts.
Just into AZ is the Petrified National Forest park which you can loop down through and circle back to Holbrook AZ. Further west is Homolove State Park, fairly new, good ancient indian ruins.
Further west, past Meteor Crater, just before you get to Flagstaff, is Walnut Canyon park with a nice walking tour of cave dwellings.
After Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon, is Seligman, AZ where you can get off the interstate and take old 66 as far as Kingman AZ. The last "town" on that route is Hackberry. Be sure you stop awhile there. It's only a store, but it's full of old 66 memorabilia.

Near Santa Rosa just Off I-40, Santa Rosa Lake State Park would be a nice place to overnight. Never been there myself.

NM State Parks are a good bargain. $10 without electric, $4 more for electric. Most have nice showers (no extra cost) & no entry fee or day fee on top of camping fee as in TX & CO.

There is much to see & do in the Santa Fe & Bandelier Nat'l Mon't area of New Mexico -A Trip Report 2012.

Easy to get to Santa Fe by taking US 298 at Cline's Corner ( Exit 218) to I-25 then South on 25 to Santa Fe & on to ABQ & I-40. At I-25, this is the Glorieta Pass & Pecos Area: Civil War Battlefield and Pecos Nat'l Historic Park, the remains of an Indian pueblo.

Los Alamos is a very neat small city in itself. Free bus system with very neat buses. Very pretty setting up in the high country. Somewhat of a gated community as well. We only drove through & stopped at a SuperMarket. A nice town. http://www.visit.losalamos.com/
http://www.losalamosnm.us/transit/Pages/default.aspx

More on the Santa Fe Area Expanded & ABQ.

Just minutes north of Albuquerque (off of I-25, exit 242) in Bernalillo, is Coronado State Monument where Francisco Vásquez de Coronado—with 300 soldiers and 800 Indian allies from New Spain—entered the valley while looking for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold. Next to it: There is a Bernalillo city campground (used to be a state park) at the entrance to the State Monument. Wasn't a bad site some years ago, haven't been there in some time. Coronado Campground

The ABQ Aquarium is really neat, small but excellent.

Over by Grants (I-40 W from ABQ): El Morro National Monument is neat to see & has a small campground; there is a private campgound near by as well. Near Grants or can be reached from Gallup. We went from Gallup to Zuni Pueblo then to El Morro (we lingered too long at the Pueblo and didn't get to hike the trial at El Morro, got there too late in the day; its a neat trail too, we had hiked it before). Of course one could go to it from Grants as well.