Great Western Road Trip: Texas & New Mexico

On any road trip, the goal is to see the great sights: big cities and national parks. However, you often spend as much time driving to them as you do actually seeing them. So you want to make sure you have something to see while you're driving.

We started our trip in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We took I-44 west to Oklahoma City and got on I-40 West. For us, there wasn't much to see. We even skipped the OKC Bombing Memorial, though for anyone who hasn't been there before, it is quite an interesting and well-done national landmark.

The roads themselves were smooth and drove fine, but they were very boring: the same type of scenery we're always used to: oak trees, some kudzu and other assorted greenery with only very small hills and some plains and farmlands. But, it's not like you can stretch your eyes out, somehow the small hills still prevent you from seeing too far.

However, when traveling west on I-40 about 60 to 30 miles east of Amarillo, the landscape changes for the better. There were somehow more hills and more plains at the same time, a lot more variety in the landscape and you could often see much further as well. The vegetation becomes a sharp thorny undergrowth with some interesting flowers and few trees. One of the best parts along that stretch was seeing how the occasional creek and stream cut through the hills to form red gorges in the grassy plains. Another nice site was the many windmills along I-40 in Northeast Texas. They make for a simultaneously grand and somber addition to the landscape.

One thing I'd like to say is that major Texas roadways are often very well-kept, particularly nearing major cities. There, the overpasses are painted with the city's particular colors and logos and the barriers between lanes and spaces between off-ramps, merges, and overpasses are filled with gardens. These small touches make the hassle of driving through a large city much more bearable and even and enjoyable experience.

Because Carlsbad Caverns in Southeast New Mexico was our first major goal, we headed south from Amarillo. That took us along I-87/I-27 and it was fairly uneventful. It had the similar prairie-type vegetation of northeastern Texas, but it was mainly just flat and not too much to look at. We stayed the night in Lubbock, Texas and headed out early the next morning.

Lubbock itself was just an average city. It was interesting seeing a completely flat downtown area because it made it easy to see everything there was, but that's just saying that there wasn't much worth seeing. However, I have to say that the Texas Tech campus on the west side of Lubbock is very beautiful and worth driving around if you're ever in the area.

We headed west on I-62 towards Carlsbad, New Mexico. It was very flat with little more than a few fields and occasional pools of water. On the first part of the stretch there was also very little plant life. The barrenness itself did make it a bit interesting, but not for too long.

Around 30 minutes before the New Mexico border, the vegetation started becoming more desert-like, particularly with lots of sotol plants. Sotol plants are fascinating little plants that resemble agaves with a tall stalk rising from the middle that is decorated with a large bunch of small white flowers. They're very intriguing from the road, but up close they're not as exciting.

Once you arrive in the town of Carlsbad, you take a short stretch of 396 South to Carlsbad Caverns. At first, this resembles the most recent part of the trip, but soon you see the Guadalupe Mountains rise in the distance and excitement begins to build. Then, as you enter the national park, you drive through a short stretch of windy roads that slowly scale the mountains up to the Carlsbad Caverns Entrance and Visitor Center.

On this part of the drive, there is much more vegetation, with a large variety of flowering cacti and more of the intriguing sotol plants. At the top of the road, just near the Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center, there's a very nice view of the surrounding hills and plains and it's a great place to stop and get out your binoculars. Carlsbad Caverns itself was a tremendously incredible experience, but for more information and pictures of that, check out my other article.

After returning through Carlsbad, we took I-285 North to Roswell, New Mexico. This stretch was also fairly flat with the same prairie-type vegetation and more of the sotol plants. Roswell, New Mexico is also another great story, but one for which you'll have to read another of my articles.

Leaving Roswell on I-380 West to I-25 (San Antonio, NM) was a spectacular stretch of road and definitely the best yet. After just 30 minutes west of Roswell, you come upon a much larger mountain range that is sparsely covered with yellow grasses and short dark-green trees/bushes. This combination of plant-life makes a very pretty contrast.

This stretch of road is also very nice because you pass by many older and usually crumbling buildings that have been made out of stones and mud-mortar or mud-bricks and they were often built in the pueblo style. It gives a lot of depth to the mountains that tower around you. This mountain range lasts about an hour and takes you through Smokey Bear State Park and Lincoln National Forest.

There's some great places to stop and enjoy the mountains and plains near Smokey Bear State Park or further on close to Carrizozo, New Mexico. We were driving through on an unusually windy day and saw hundreds of tumbleweeds blowing by the road and often blowing up onto our windshield. Once, when we stopped to look at the mountains, we had a hard time standing still because of all the wind.

On just the other side of Carrizozo (still on 380-W) cuts through a short stretch of the Valley of Fires. Though the interstate drives through only two or three miles of it, this humongous lava flow is actually 44 miles wide. It's an amazing site with thick black lava, ancient juniper trees and more cacti, sotol, and other desert plants. There's a great nature trail to walk (or hike if you wish) among the mounds of lava, see the plants and occasional animal life.

As you go further on 380-W, a fresh range of mountains surround the road on every side, but they are miles away across vast prairie-plains of yellow grasses and smaller light-green shrubs.

As soon as you reach I-25 and head north, you find a beautiful mountain range, much closer up, on your left-hand (Western) side. It's much nearer than the massive mountains from the previous stretches of road, but it's got a character all its own. The late afternoon sun strikes it just right to produce an amazing array of shadows that give it lots of depth and make it simply stunning. I only wish I could've taken a picture, but there were no decent intersections where I could park on the left side of the road for the perfect shot.

The mountains on the west continue the whole way to Albuquerque, but the first one (that takes about 30 min. to drive by) is the most stunning. The vegetation is much more of a simple prairie type. One other thing that sets this drive apart is that although there are mountains the whole way, the ground itself is much more flat between you and them and this somehow manages to give the mountains an even more imposing look.

The roads we've traveled so far have taken their time to really build up to the grand sights. But they are here and we expect only better to come. Check for more articles while I update on more roads out West.