Planning trip through NM and AZ any cool points of interest?

Kartchner Caverns just south of Benson, AZ.

All sorts of places in both states. We live in El Paso and are always hitting something new or making return trips from those two areas.

Aztec Ruins National Monument near Farmington.
Like Mesa Verde, but here you are allowed to wander through the dwellings at your own pace.

We did what I called the "Big holes in the ground tour" two years ago, which included the Caverns of the Grand Canyon, the Grand Canyon south rim, Meteor Crater, Calsbad Caverns, and White Sands Missile Range (where I served in the Navy).

We also took in the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest which are next to each other.

At the south rim, we took the train from Williams, then stayed 2 nights at the GC, then back to Williams. Using the shuttle, we saw just about everything there was to see, short of hiking down to the river.

Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos.

Acoma Sky City pueblo and the Petroglyphs. Acoma is on top of a mesa about 60 miles west of Albuquerque and gives a glimpse of native life long ago and what some people continue to do to keep their heritage alive. Petroglyphs are on the west side of Albuquerque and it is just cool to see something from that long ago.

You picked a nice time of year to visit the desert.

In addition to what the other posters noted, I recommend the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson; Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix; Sandia Peak Tramway in Albuquerque; and perhaps the Very Large Array west of Socorro (depending on your route).

No lack of things to visit where you're headed! :C

If you find yourself on the western side of AZ, stop in Kingman and visit the Route 66 Museum. There's lots to see in there.
Happy travels!

May I suggest Old Town Albuquerque. Great Mexican restaurant there. Drive up to Sante FE or ride the train up and down the Valley. Go to Isleta Reservation 5 miles S of ABQ. Gosh! I was raised on Bosque Farms and never think about it. You could ride the train to Belen and see several of 150 trains on BNSF/day. Busy place. Lok up

visitalbuquerque.org/things-to-do/tours-sightseeing/

Cool points of interests depend on your interests. I am a geologist, with a sense of geological time scale, so the Holbrook meteor crater is a key point of interest. It is as if this relatively small piece of rock hit us just yesterday, and today another could wipe out the human race in an instant.

But I was first trained as a historian, so I like to visit early settlements (San Antonio is great for this). Otherwise, a quiet place in a forest with wildlife wandering through the camp; national forests work for this.

OTOH, my two youngest sisters will be traveling from theme park to theme park, and my oldest daughter is looking for hotels with ghost stories, my youngest for art museums and galleries (so she would be headed to Taos and Santa Fe). My grandson, I'd be taking to historic railroads.

Little out of the way but I would recommend Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands