Southeast New Mexico Tour 2017

Spring break came early this year and Sally, Betty and I headed south looking for warmer weather. We decided to go back to New Mexico and see the sites we planned on seeing a couple years ago when they gov. shut down.  Our trip goals were Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands.

We departed from home on Saturday morning driving south to Moab, we thought we might take in Arches for a little bit but when we arrived the line was over an hour wait to get in. We stopped for lunch at the Moab Diner, it was delicious as always. We made our way south to Monticello but first stopping a the "Hole in the Rock" and looking around. we made it to Cortez and stopped at Mesa Verde to get information for the next day. They were a half hour from close so we didn't have time go into the park, we planned to be in there most of the day Sunday. We pulled into Durango and got our room, then went looking around before going to dinner. We walked main street top to bottom and got a couple souvenirs. We started to get hungry and I knew Shifty had a favorite joint in Durango to eat so I texted him for the name of the place, Seriously Texas BBQ, sorry but by far the worst place we ate the whole trip. After we told him, he said we should have went to the other one on the north end of town.

 

 

Sunday morning we got an early start and went to Mesa Verde to tour the cliff dwellings. We woke up to a new coating of snow on the mountain tops. Come to find out they don't open tours until late April, so we drove from site to site and walked around the areas that were open. We still a lot of very cool stuff. I hadn't been there since I was 11 or 12 so it was all new to me. We seen all the major sites, in the park and took some good pictures. The weather was nice so we didn't mind walking around. Cliff Palace was still the high lite of the park and we got as close to it as we possibly could. By three we were tired and hungry and seen the major sites in the park and knew we had a long drive a head of us. We left the park and drove into Cortez where we had lunch at Main Street Brewery, one of the best places we ate at. After lunch we got on the road and headed south with time being a factor we decided to do the Four Corners Monument on the way home. we pulled into Albuquerque around six pm, stopped and fueled up and hit the Wal Mart in town to get some snacks for dinner and the drive to Roswell. The sunset behind us and we continued down the road for another 3 and half hours. Pulling into Roswell late we got our hotel room and hit the beds quickly. Tomorrow we hit Carlsbad Caverns.

 

 

Monday morning we got up early again to make our way to Carlsbad Caverns, an hour and half south of us. We arrived at Carlsbad around 9 am and got our tickets for the cave.

We rode the elevator down the 745 feet, it took the elevator 58 seconds to travel the distance. We arrived in the cave and stepped out to a cafeteria and gift shop. We started our self guided tour of the cave going into the "Big Room". They could have named it Enormous and been safe. This cavern is 7 football fields in length and some 15 stories high in some spots. The natural entrance trail comes into the cave just as you start the loop, we ran into a couple folks coming in that way and they said it was definitely a hike, we were happy we did the elevator.

Walking through the Big Room it is a 1.2 mile loop with all sorts of formations and pools. The day was not crowded so we could take our time through cave. The cave was awesome. We took most of the day going through it and by the end of walk we seen everything we could. Riding the elevator back to the top we talked to some folks that had done the hike into the cave and they were happy to be riding the elevator.

We surfaced and had lunch at the cafeteria topside. We got some souvenirs at the gift shop and looked around the topside of the park and went to the natural opening to get pictures of it. The pics didn't turn out to well because the opening just dropped off into the Abyss.

The Ranger at the opening let us know they were just getting ready to to do closing sweep in the cave and trail. Cave swallows and wrens were plentiful at the opening and bats were also there. The evening bat flight wasn't for a few hours though and we didn't have time to wait for it. We drove back to Roswell and ate dinner at Los Cerritos a great Mexican restaurant in Roswell. Good food, servings were huge and service was awesome. We returned to the hotel and went for a hot tub, the only disappointing part of the hotel was the pool and hot tub everything else was top notch.

Tuesday morning we loaded up and headed to White Sands Nat'l Monument. White sand dunes in the middle of the desert and 3.5 hours from Roswell. We arrived at the monument around 10 am and did the tour in the shop and watched the video about the dunes. We drove into the park and played on the dunes for about a hour.

 

 

The white sand was gypsum and very fine. The wind was howling and blowing the sand everywhere. We took a couple hikes and called it a day and stopped at the gift shop and got some more souvenirs of course. We headed back to Roswell, stopping in Alamogordo for lunch at a local burger shop called Hi-D-Ho Drive inn huge burgers and tasty, little slow so don't be in a hurry. We stopped at the Pistachio form and got some fresh pistachios. This is pistachio heaven! We drove back to Roswell via Ruidoso a little tourist town with little shops and a few historical sites surrounding Billy The Kid. Most of the shops were closed by the time we got back to them. A small Park City. We arrived in Roswell had a quick bite to eat and crashed in bed early. The White Sands are definitely worth the trip.

Wednesday morning came and went we slept in and didn't care. Today was Roswell day, looking around and seeing the sights of Roswell. We first started with breakfast at Martin's Capital Cafe awesome place. We asked the waitress what we should see in town and local. She gave a number of ideas and places. We first went to the "Bottomless Lakes State Park" not a highlight in our book but it was cool to see the area. We came back into town and hit the highlight of Roswell the UFO Museum.

  

Roswell is the sight of the crash landing of a UFO in 1947. The theme of Roswell surrounds this significant event. Everywhere you go little aliens are found even on the street lamp bulbs. We looked around the museum the rest of the morning. Watched a couple videos of actual accounts of the crash and people that witnessed it. Still have to make your mind up if it is true or not but they have a lot of compelling evidence. We walked main street and seen the shops and got a couple more items and I bought me my very own alien. Roswell was fun to tor and lots of cool things to visit. We ate at Peppers Place that evening and enjoyed a good dinner, and then a fresh custard at a local shop.

 

Thursday was travel day. We were heading home via Cortez. We made our way along route 550 out of Roswell that took through the mountains south of Albuquerque and through Lincoln. This is the place of the historical McSween and Billy The Kid sites. We stopped at a couple places and looked around. Cool stuff if you are into it. We then came into Capitan the birth place of Smokey The Bear.

They have a visitors center and information about Smokey Bear and the burial sight. We looked around and seen the sights in town for a little bit and then headed for Albuquerque for lunch at the Standard Diner. We headed north to Farmington and then over to Shiprock and out to the Four Corners Monument. Little did we know they close at 4:30 pm, we arrived at 4:45 thinking they wouldn't close until sunset. Oh well we saw the flag poles and went on into Cortez and wish we had eaten at Main Street Brewery but we didn't we ate at the Farm Bistro, the name should have given it away to us. Okay food but pricey! We called it a night after a soak in the hot tub. Where I ran into a high school classmate and her family, small world!

 

Friday we loaded up for our last leg of the trip and home bound. We pulled into Moab about 10 am and thought we better hit it early to get through with EJS beginning, but we cruised right through main street, I drooled a couple times seeing some of the jeeps that were in town. We got to Helper around noon and stopped at the Balanced Rock Cafe for lunch another good place to eat. We made it home about 3 pm.

2,403 miles later we pulled into home with great memories of a good trip. Next up we'll see where the dart lands.

For more pictures visit my album here.