So here is my preliminary itinerary, if anyone has any recommendations or suggestions, please let me know, especially roads I should avoid due to us being in a motorhome. Is this too aggressive of a schedule also Ruidoso, Alamogordo, Belen, and the relax day can be moved around to different days. Any information would be greatly appreciated, also if anyone has any recommendations of an alternative base camp site in the case the Valley of Fires is full, I was thinking of using Circle B in Ruidoso as it was suggested in one of the previous posts. However, it seems Valley of Fires would be a better base to do Alamogordo, and Belen. Also, we were trying to stick with the State parks as they are much cheaper than the Private parks.
1. Friday 03/07 – Leave Austin for Fort Stockton via 290 and I-10, I would like to avoid I-10, but we are leaving late Friday night, I am not sure I want to be driving back roads at night. Any suggestions? We should arrive at Fort Stockton at around 2 or 3 in the morning on the 8th and hope to stay at the Hilltop RV park for the remainder of that night, get some sleep and head out later in the day.
2. Saturday 03/08 - Leave fort Stockton late morning for the Carlsbad Caverns area via 285, should be about a 3 hour drive. Spend most of the afternoon there, then head off to Bottomless Lake State Park near Roswell via 285 and NM/2, about 2 hours away. Stay the night there at the State Park.
3. Sunday 03/09 – Check out Roswell, not sure if much will be open on a Sunday, and kind of relax from the major driving. Stay at Bottomless State Park another night.
4. Monday 03/10 – Maybe check out anything cool that was not open Sunday in Roswell, then head out to Valley of Fires in Carrizozo, NM, via 380 about 2.5 hours. Crossing our fingers that we will be able to get a spot there, since they do not take reservations. We are hoping to use this area as our base for the rest of the trip in NM.
5. Tuesday 3/11 – Head down to Ruidoso for the day, this is where I may need route suggestions, google has me taking NM-37 45 minutes, is this a safe road to take in a Motorhome to get to Ruidoso? Or should I backtrack on 380 to 70 and take 70 to Ruidoso? Come back up to Valley of Fires to stay the night.
6. Wednesday 3/12 – Head down to White Sands in Alamogordo via US-54, about 2 hours, again is this a safe road to take in a Motorhome to get to Alamogordo and back to Valley of Fires to stay the night?
7. Thursday 3/13 – Head up to Belen via 380 and then I-25 about 2 hours, to catch the Rail Runner (The kids love trains) and take up towards Albuquerque and if we can hang to Santa Fe and back. Now I think I read it takes about 1.5 to take the full ride up one way. So it just depends, is this feasible for a day trip? Or even worth it? We would be driving back to Valley of Fires for the night.
8. Friday 3/14 – Relax day, no driving, stay at camp site for the day to prepare for the drive back to Texas.
9. Saturday 3/15 – Leave Valley of Fires to Fort Stockton via 380, 285, about 6 hours. Stay the night at Hilltop RV park.
10. Sunday 3/16 – Leave Fort Stockton via I-10, 290 to Austin, another 6 hours.
