Heading to New Mexico

I would do the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway while you are in the Albuquerque area. There are hiking trails at the top of the mountain.

http://www.sandiapeak.com

Oh, and don't forget to visit Walter White's house! :)

If you're going thru Amarillo, stop for Cadillac Ranch to get a few pics and to graffiti a few cars.

Merlisk wrote:

Does anyone have any advice on good places to see and hike? We've two sons - 13 & 9 (by the time we leave).

Bandelier near Santa Fe / Los Alamos is a good place to camp and hike.

Pecos wilderness near Santa Fe has good hikes.

Carlsbad of course is a hike all its own.

Check out White Sands if you have time.

On the way to Carlsbad be sure to go down US-380 / US-54 and visit Valley of Fires BLM campground. It has a great nature walk across the top of the lava flow.

30 Amp power with water. Great shower house. Dump station.

Valley of Fires

Another good stop is Three Rivers Petroglyphs. It has two 50 amp with water sites. Nice walk through the rocks and cool markings on the rocks.

Three Rivers Petroglyphs

I've never been there - but want to visit Bottomless Lakes SP just outside Roswell

Bottomless Lakes

Coming back into Texas two great stops are Monahans Sandhills SP and Balmorhea SP.

While you can drive through the sand dunes at White Sands - you can't camp there in an RV. You can at Monahans - hopefully you won't get too much sand in the rig.

Monahans Sandhills SP

Balmorhea is simply the very best swimming hole in the entire Texas State Parks system.

Balmorhea SP

If your going to be in the area of Santa Fe, head on up to Red River.

Not sure how much hiking you want to do but you can hike the La Luz trail from the foothills in Albuquerque (approx. 5800 ft.) up to the Sandia crest (approx. 10,400 ft.). It would be an all day hike. Carry water and you need to plan on big temperature changes. We're still getting snow in the mountains. You didn't mention when you were heading out. As others have said, plan to do laundry every few days and get groceries as needed. Enjoy New Mexico.

Thank you, both. Good advice.

We've done extensive web searches on NM and have written to them and gotten the standard tourist documentation. We've also checked out books from the library that are pretty good. But, sometimes, it's hard to distinguish between what's worth doing and what the tourist bureau thinks is beneficial to the local businesses. :)

You still have some time, so I'd suggest that you pay a visit to the NM tourism site and order yourselves some materials:

https://www.newmexico.org/

Lynn

I would plan on doing laundry every 3-4 days and take clothes accordingly. Going any longer than that would result in a lot of clothes, especially considering the number of towels for 4 people showering each day.

If you plan on doing a lot of cooking, rather than eating out a lot, I would plan on grocery shopping every few days unless you have lots of storage room to put the food.

I carry a small tool box with the basic tools. Have never needed to do any significant repairs, but good to have the basics just in case.