Best route thru New Mexico?

Lndwarrior

Lndwarrior

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Gary
Planning a bucket list trip that will have me landing at Sedona and then onwards towards Texas. Looking for interesting things to see along the way.

It seems I have two choices - Hwy 40 straight east from Sedona until I hit flat land.

Or southward a bit to pick up Hwy 260 to Hwy 60 and eastward to Hwy 85 then south thru Truth or Consequences.

I'm VFR and will be flying roads.

So which route would be more interesting for someone who has never seen New Mexico?
 
An enormous part of NM is Restricted, that you may not have many options. Santa Fe is an excellent choice for a stop, even over night.
 
Kind of out of the way but you have KSKX in Taos and KAXX in Angel Fire. To the west is Abiquiu. Abiquiu is famous for all the rock outcroppings that Georgia O'keeffe painted. Closest airport to Abiquiu is Los Alamos, but due to the Los Alamos labs it has a very weird traffic pattern. I love that part of northern new Mexico. Go hunting just north of abiquiu every year. Wanted to ride the coal fire train in Chama through colorado this year, but Covid shut it down on the New Mexico side. New Mexico was very strict on covid protocol.

There's not much scenery to the south.
 
Head 40 nm ENE of Sedona and overfly Meteor Crater, then just follow I-40 through Albuquerque.
The I-40 gap in the Sandia Mountains is fun if you are low enough.
 
I would by pass NM until further notice. But if you must come, as Domenick states Meteor Crater is a huge hole in the ground that folks like to see. Northeast NM is where the mountains, rocks and trees are. After Truth or Consequences you WILL make a left or right turn until you can clear the restricted areas. I never got through the restricted areas even in the air ambulance.

With restricted areas stretching across the state from near El Paso to Socorro VOR (ONM) a southern route will be south. If you can stand a few mountains the northern route will be the most scenic. And still easily navigable. Maybe from Sedona head toward Winslow and pick up I-40 to Double Eagle. Which will take you over Gallup. Continue on I-40 skirting north of the Class C at Albuquerque (ABQ) and then pick up I-25 and planning a stop in Sante Fe will keep you away from the restricted areas. After that you can continue I-25 and easily stay away from higher ground and go to either Tucumcari or Dalhart.

Wx forecast are usually pretty accurate for such a desolate area. This time of year you have 2 weather choices....clear and +99 or bad with snow. And we don't get much snow in the northwest. NE will see a little more snow. And you will hear folks complain when the vis drops below 40 miles....:rofl:

Gallup is a decent and quick fuel/bathroom stop. I don't think you will be met by the state police anymore to make sure you get gas and GET OUT.

Familiarize yourself with high density operations. Even in winter the DA can be over 6500 here in Gallup.
 
Annually I fly to Double Eagle II (AEG) to visit my sister and her family in Albuquerque, and follow I-40. Meteor Crater is actually in Arizona, but is just south of I-40 between Winona and Winslow, so you get a nice view of the big hole following I-40. Santa Fe, Taos, and Angel Fire are all interesting places to visit.
 
A few years back I flew west to east along the northern route (I-40) and east to west along the southern route. There is an 18 nm corridor between the border and the restricted areas with El Paso (KELP) in the corridor. The restricted areas stretch about 130 nm north from the corridor.

Your choice may depend on where in Texas you are headed.
 
Yes, Meteor Crater is totally worth a look! Beautiful scenery in NM for sure, and with high plateaus I can be at my LOP altitude and performance cruise speed and be skimming along at only 2000' AGL or so. Really gives a perception of speed and that I'm actually going somewhere.

Gallup's a good stop. On the way to OSH one year, loaded to max gross and with 85 degrees ambient temp, I set a personal record there for longest takeoff roll. :eek: Still a decent margin for safety, but the loss of performance is indeed eye-opening.

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Used to be based at AEG. I love flying all of the area north of I40. If flying I40, the canyon it goes through east of ABQ can be nasty in a small plane when it’s windy, and I always liked going around the Sandias to the north anyway.
 
Agree with I 40, but much prefer going south of Albuquerque thru “ Abo Pass rather than thru the canyon or north, much lower terrain 7500 with highways 60 then 54 back up to I 40 at Santa Rosa. Belen is a cheap fuel stop if one needs to refuel with large long runways. Mountainair and Vaughn are emergency strips along this route. Any turbulence, just throttle back to flap speed(white line) and ride the tail wind going East. This route will have you 3000’ above the terrain with straight highways till you meet up with I 40 again. The turbulence thru the pass East of Albq can be quite severe, even for autos.
 
Southwest of ABQ are the plains of St. Augustine which has that giant radio telescope on railroad tracks and further southwest there are some beautiful forested mountains. Much of NM is quite beautiful just look for the highest elevations on you chart.
 
Racerx said:
Kind of out of the way but you have KSKX in Taos and KAXX in Angel Fire. To the west is Abiquiu. Abiquiu is famous for all the rock outcroppings that Georgia O'keeffe painted. Closest airport to Abiquiu is Los Alamos, but due to the Los Alamos labs it has a very weird traffic pattern. I love that part of northern new Mexico. Go hunting just north of abiquiu every year. Wanted to ride the coal fire train in Chama through colorado this year, but Covid shut it down on the New Mexico side. New Mexico was very strict on covid protocol.

There's not much scenery to the south.
Click to expand...
You are correct so far but see my post. There is lots of beautiful country south if you fly the highest terrain but by the time you get near Las Cruces is does get ugly.
 
Racerx said:
There's not much scenery to the south.
Click to expand...

However, there’s nothing like seeing White Sands National Monument close up. Fly north from El Paso, staying within the 2 mile corridor between restricted areas, to Alamogordo KALM. Get a rental car there, to see the sands and the missile range exhibit. It’s not trivial to get there, so you can enjoy the scenery without crowds. I really enjoyed it.
 
You can fly south from Meteor Crater and then along the Mogollon Rim to the east. Follow the edge east and south to about White River, then east of there is rather scenic. You can then proceed further east and somewhat north and fly over the Very Large Array to the west of Soccorro. Depending on where you are going in Texas, you can then go south along the Rio Grande to El Paso. As suggested above the White Sands National Monument is rather neat. And Alamogorodo has a good Space Museum as well, with Ham's grave on the grounds.
 
Unfortunately I don't believe the missile range exhibit or the space museum are open. Kind of a bummer.
 
Racerx said:
Unfortunately I don't believe the missile range exhibit or the space museum are open. Kind of a bummer.
Click to expand...
It's open, just not to reg'lar folk:

Effective Wednesday, 23 September 2020, the WSMR Museum will be open to visitors with base access, to include:

  • CAC Card Holders
  • DoD Service Members
  • DoD Civilian Employees
  • Dependents
  • DoD Retirees
  • Exception to Policy Conditions
The Visitor’s Center will not issue base access passes to anyone not on official DoD business.​

https://wsmrmuseum.com/
 
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