Thinking about a family camping trip to the Carlsbad Caverns with my wife and three children (11, 9, and 7). What other great places will be on the way from Los Angeles, Ca. Have always traveled north but it's time to travel east. Thanks in advance.Jason

If you're taking I-10 there is lots to do in Tucson, Arizona - Desert Museum, Air Museum for starters. Gilbert Ray campground or Catalina State Park are tops.Then a stop 50 miles east is Kartchner Caverns just west of Benson, AZ with a great campground. It's altogether different from Carlsbad. Kartchner is still growing! Take the Throne Room tour. Also near the Benson, AZ area is Tombstone - kinda commercialized but still fun with a shoot out in the street once a day. It's a well-preserved western town. Nearby Bisbee has a fantastic mine tour where everyone dons a yellow slicker and puts a headlamp helmet on and then hop on an ore car for the tour. Retired miners give the tour and it's very well done.A little further east is Chirichuca Nat'l Monument with some great trails and awesome unique formations. It's a beauty. There a campground for smaller RVs.Then there's not too much along I-10 until you pass thru El Paso and just before Carlsbad where you'll find Hueco Tanks State Park and a little further is Guadalupe Nat'l Park.For Carlsbad, staying at Brantley Lake State Park is nice. Have a great trip.

X2 to 2gypsies. He hit them all. We especially liked Chirichuca Nat'l Monument. Just make sure you take the natural entrance at Carlsbad.Rich

Tucson Air Museum is tops for me, even better than the big hole in the ground called "Grand Canyon". Even though the Grand Canyon is not the largest one, and Canyon DeChelly is much steeper and easier to see. Canyon DeChelly is not a National Park, so it is possible for handicap people to drive into the canyon! What a concept! If you go to Canyon DeChelly, it is to the West of Albuquerque (I 25) and north of I40. Best way to go is get off I 40 in Gallup (or close to it) (Make sure you fill up with gas near the interstates, as fuel must be trucked into the smaller towns, making it more expensive). Then head towards either Monument Valley or south to I40 for the return trip towards LA. If you want to take in Monument Valley, and it is not summer, you might consider the Indian run campground, it does not have hookups, and will be fine in the spring and fall, but summer you might like Goldings with it's full hookups, but not the valley to look at. From Monument Valley, then the south rim of the Grand Canyon is not to far away. From there, go back to Williams and I40. Going west to Kingman, I always go west to Laughlin. It is the same distance to get to Barsto Via Laughlin or stay on I40. I like to stop there, take in a casino dinner or breakfast, and then go home the next morning. Riverside RV park is huge, full service, offers free rides to their casino. It is not as much fun as before, when most parking was on the Arizona side, and free boats transport the gamblers back and forth across the river. Are you planning on going in the summer? You might want to check weather.com and check the average temperatures for that month of the year. Also check Google Maps. If you find a area, then click on Map, and Terrian, you can see the elevation. Higher elevations are much cooler than the valleys. So Tucson is cooler than Phoenix. Going a little further east, like Benson will be even higher elevation and probably 10F cooler. I want to visit Columbia NM. someday. it is the only town invaded by another Army since the 1800's. You can google Columbia NM and get a lot of information about it. Only a few miles south of I10. Closer to El Paso Tx. I went through El Paso on my trip to Carlsbad Caverns. Remember it is a border town, and safe in the daytime in the better parts of town. So if you see the local residents have bars on most of the windows, it is not a great place to spend the night parked on the street. Might find another park to have your picnic. Yes I did go to the mines in Bisbee. It was interesting. The mine is about 65F all year long. Very cool in the summer, but warm in the winter. I also toured a "Dry" cave. Most caves have water in them. This one was about 70F but very high humidity, so not very comfortable, and I was happy to get out of it. I visited the Tombstone and Benson areas several times over Thanksgiving from 1996 to 2002. It was very interesting each time. The trip to Carlsbad, I also went to Albuquerque in October 1992. It was featured in Motorhome Magazine, and the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta was a lot of fun. I went back many times to the balloon Fiesta, held the first full week of October. So if the first is on a Saturday, then that weekend and the following week and weekend. But if the first is on a Sunday, it will be starting on Saturday the 7th for 9 days! Probably a great trip as a destination in itself, and yes worth taking the kids out of school for a short time. Have a great trip!Fred.

Caverns of the Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon South Rim, Meteor Crater.Williams AZ, Winslow AZHatch NM for the world's best chilis.UFO Museum, Roswell, NM

Things on the way to Carlsbad Caverns, NM | Good Sam Community

DesertHawk
Explorer
Mar 12, 2014
Should be a nice time to visit Cloudcroft, perhaps on your return home leg.

In the Carlsbad area, Sitting Bull Falls would be worth a day trip, kind of neat place with cave(s) & formations behind the Falls. If it is still open Clickly.
mikestock
Explorer
Mar 13, 2014
Be sure and be at Carlsbad at dusk to see the bats swarm out to devour every mosquito for miles. I regret that we didn't because it didn't fit our rushed schedule.
djsamuel
Nomad
Mar 13, 2014
mikestock wrote:
Be sure and be at Carlsbad at dusk to see the bats swarm out to devour every mosquito for miles. I regret that we didn't because it didn't fit our rushed schedule.

That is not to be missed. Excellent.
fcooper
Explorer
Mar 19, 2014
If you get to Deming, NM, check out the Deming Luna Mimbres Museum. We thought we'd spend an hour in there, and spent 1/2 day and did not see it all. It was so good, we came back on our return trip to see the remainder.

Great mexican restaurant about a block away, Irma's restaurant.

The Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, AZ was great also. If you're lucky, the surviving B-17 pilot will be giving the lecture on the B-17.

Have fun

Fred
SageCrispin
Explorer
Mar 19, 2014
+1 for Pima Air and Space.

Closer to your home-we loved Anza-Borrego, but probably a no go in July.
Chock_Full_o__N
Explorer
Mar 20, 2014
If you're coming across, hmmm...is it I-40, to Albuqueque? I can't remember. But if you're coming that way, be sure you stop at the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest NPs. They are adjacent and right off the interstate. When you go south at Albuqueque, you'll head right through Roswell. You gotta see the museum, just to say you did!

About 13 miles north of Carlsbad it a great KOA. Just a little further down the road is the Living Desert SP. It's up on top of a small mountain; no camping there but a nice museum and collection of live flora and fauna.

Oh, and another vote for staying for the bats! It's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.
wepampercampers
Explorer
Mar 21, 2014
Looks like lots of great feedback for NM. But before you get there...
If you're not an interstate kind of a person, take CA-62 to AZ-95 and camp in River Island State Park in Parker, AZ. The area has gorgeous, red, cliffs and wild burrows.

Also, I love this website: PublicLands.org Just select the state, then you can zoom in to see all the public lands along your route.

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