New Mexico Stops
Road-trip stops in New Mexico
2 featured New Mexicostops — National Parks, iconic roadside attractions, and Steve’s hand-picked favorites.
New Mexico (2)
- Hotel · ⭐$$
Blue Swallow Motel
The 'best preserved 1939 Route 66 motel' — its neon sign is on every R66 retro-merchandise t-shirt. Twelve rooms with carports, period-correct furniture (rotary phones in the rooms still work), free hot breakfast in the office. Family-run since 2014 by current owners who keep things in 1950s shape. $99–145/night. Tucumcari NM, off I-40 / old R66.
- Scenic · ⭐$$
White Sands National Park
275 square miles of gypsum sand dunes, white as snow, that you can sled down in plastic saucers sold in the visitor center gift shop. The park's eight-mile Dunes Drive loops out and back. Sunset is the photo op — wait until the dunes turn pink. Pack a lot of water, no shade. Adjacent White Sands Missile Range has closures a few times a year. Off US-70 between Las Cruces and Alamogordo.