Roswell and Alamogordo how much to do, how long to stay

2gypsies wrote:
Alamogordo - tour White Sands Nat'l Monument - takes an afternoon if not hiking. Oliver Lee State Park is very nice. You could easily drive into Ruidoso if you like casinos. Other than that....not much.

Roswell - never been as it doesn't appeal to us, but perhaps you.

Fort Stockton is much better than Pecos.. . well, not much. If you're ready to stop around Pecos there's Monahans Sandhill State Park.

East on I-10 is Caverns of Sonora - a neat cave tour. They also have a campground.

Another idea after Alamogordo is to skip Roswell and head to Carlsbad and do the Carlsbad Caverns Nat'l Park tour or if you do it on your own, easily done, rent a 'wand' to carry along. It starts talking as you near something special - excellent.

Have a good trip!

Have not been to Cavers of Sonora, other than that;

X2

2gypsies wrote:
Alamogordo - tour White Sands Nat'l Monument - takes an afternoon if not hiking. Oliver Lee State Park is very nice. You could easily drive into Ruidoso if you like casinos. Other than that....not much.

Roswell - never been as it doesn't appeal to us, but perhaps you.

Fort Stockton is much better than Pecos.. . well, not much. If you're ready to stop around Pecos there's Monahans Sandhill State Park.

East on I-10 is Caverns of Sonora - a neat cave tour. They also have a campground.

Another idea after Alamogordo is to skip Roswell and head to Carlsbad and do the Carlsbad Caverns Nat'l Park tour or if you do it on your own, easily done, rent a 'wand' to carry along. It starts talking as you near something special - excellent.

Have a good trip!

We did not see Alamogordo, but we did go to Carlsbad Caverns and Roswell. We made sure to stay at CC until sunset to watch the bats exit the cave--very cool stuff. We were headed to Albuquerque next, so we had to go right through Roswell. It was meh. We stopped at the little Roswell UFO museum. It's hokey but our 12 & 14 year olds thought it was da bomb, LOL. We spent about 90 minutes there, which IMO was about 80 minutes too long.

Stationed at White Sands years ago and been back a couple times. White Sands National Monument is a must (a few hours) and the newer Space Museum in Alamagordo is worth a visit. They also do or did do a tour of the Trinity Atom Bomb test site once a month which is really worth seeing. There is a public campground that,s pretty good a few miles south and there is a decent campgound in Cloudcroft if you preper the mountains. Nothing much in Rosewell if your not into aliens, be off better off snesking into the missile range and try to find the Spanish gold hidden in Victorio Peak.

If you want to purchase an 'alien' from Roswell, Ruidoso has them along the roadsides - ugly green flourescent things standing right next to carved bears.

I agree, if you happen to stop in Deming, the museum is awesome and very well organized. If you're into old time things this is the place to go.

We were in the area a couple of months ago. Stay at least two days in the white sands area unless you are in a hurry. Cloudcroft area is much nicer than Roswell. Roswell is good for a couple of hours for lunch, not much else. It is crowded, dirty, and uninspiring. There are some 'aliens' (plastic statues) posted around town in different colors but it is all pretty lame. Heading south to Artesia, some days the smell will get to you - it is almost as bad as Elizabeth, NJ, but not quite. We spent four days in that area. Next time we'll skip it completely.

Alamogordo

Boothill RV Park........nice folks own/operate (James & Cindy Livers)

White Sands Nat'l Monument.....very interesting
New Mexico Museum of Space History----nicely presented space history
“Shroud of Turin Museum”------replica with very knowledgeable volunteers/FREE
Tour Pistachio Farms/Ranches
Old Apple Barn.......just up the road on Hwy 82 (High Rolls)

Ruidoso (just up the road on Hwy 70)
Inn of the Mountain Gods Casino
Hubbard Museum of the American West-----great western museum

The road west from Artesia is mostly 2-lane blacktop and there is some construction. Not too much traffic, though.

Trailer Village in Roswell is a nice little park with very nice owners.

Pepper's Bar & Grille good spot for a good dinner.

Otherwise not much to do or see in Roswell other than the various UFO "museums".

US 70 is a good route between Amarillo and Las Cruces. Good four lane with light traffic.

I was stationed at White Sands whilst in Uncle Sam's Canoe Club and visited last year. I showed DW several of the missiles I worked on in the Missile park, and they also have the prototype bomb casing of Fat Boy on loan.

Roswell has the UFO museum of course (say hi to my cousins), and it has a small museum at the airport but which consists mostly of only two rooms in the terminal. We missed it because it had closed Saturday afternoon.

Carlsbad Caverns should not be missed. Its a wet cave and a little cold. Wear a jacket and closed shoes. We spent 5 hours in there and were a bit chilled.

I used to ski at Cloudcroft and Sierra Blanca.

Hatch, NM has IMHO, the worlds best chili. Normal harvest is Aug-Sep.

Once a year in Aug? there is a public trip to Trinity Site from Alamagordo. I flew over it once but never got to visit.

Off topic, but there is a great local museum in Deming. We spent about 5 hours in there. All done by volunteers and very well done.

Also recommend white sands.

Fred