aeiger

Hi We are planning to fly into El Paso TX and pick up a car. Drive to Alamagordo and then on to Roswell NM for about 3 days end of April. Does this sound doable? We haven't been here before and I am wondering about the distances. We prefer to go to El Paso over Albuquerque because of flight availablity. Thanks for helping.

Pat2003

aeiger, I cannot help you with your inquiry regarding Roswell but you may be interested in knowing that we really enjoyed our arrival to ELP airport. It is new, bright, renting a car took only a few minutes, everyone at the rental counter was friendly and helpful. Finding our way from the El Paso airport was very easy. We got an initial help at the rental counter and had also the AAA's map. It was a very easy drive to Alamogordo. There were almost no cars on the road and scenery was very different thus interesting to us. We stayed in Alamogordo for three nights and wished we stayed longer. We promised to return one day to the area. I think it took us less than 2 hours to get to Alamogordo. If you want to know how long exactly it took us I can check our travel journal. If you really, really want to know. I can also check what route we took to Alamogordo from the airport. We were planning to return there in March/April but were advised against by a number of locals who described to us frequent sand winds. Anyway, I hope you will enjoy this area as much as we did. There is much more to Alamogordo than just an access to White Sands National Monument. If you have any questions I'll be happy to share our own experiences with you. Returning our rental car took about one minute.

alfisol

We did a similar trip a few years ago - flew into El Paso, stayed first night in Alamagordo then to Roswell.

The flying into and out of El Paso was interesting. Both times there were big dust storms and very low visability. We were pelted with dust getting into the rental car, but the dust storm ended just outside the city. Actually, we were very excited with the dust storms because my husband and I are soil scientists and had never seen this type of storm!

Anyway, we saw the space/rocket museum in Alamagordo and walked around the white sands. Then we drove through the mountains, stopped for lunch, and arrived in Roswell in the afternoon.

We spend several days in Roswell, doing all the Roswell things including a few hours at the UFO Museum. I even bought an alien yard gnome as a souvenir.

Roswell is a lovely small city, we found it quite relaxing and fun (with the alien theme and all). We went to a few parks outside town, and drove up to the area near the 'crash' site. Since we're from the East, just driving around and looking at the NM landscape was nice.

We drove down to Carlsbad and went through the caverns. Fantastic! Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Then we stopped at Guadalupe Mt, back in Texas, and took a hike. It was very pretty there (Guadalupe Mt is the hightest mt in TX). We drove back to El Paso, spent the night and flew out the next day.

In hindsight, this was one of our best vacations. I hope you enjoy your trip.

Pat2003

alfisol, we too went to Carlsbad Caverns on this trip but drove there from Alamogordo. We stayed near by for one night, then hiked to McKittrick Canyon and stayed one night in El Paso at the great Marriott near the airport. What time of the year was your trip? We been told the sand storms occur frequently but only in March and April. In our opinion the Space Museum was fascinating and we spent there a few hours. Next to it is a nice hiking trail leading right from the parking lot for a few miles but after a mile or two is not very well marked.

sfamylou

We also really enjoyed Carlsbad Caverns and Roswell, although we spent only about an hour in Roswell. We really liked White Sands National Monument, south of Alamogordo. And we found Ruidoso to be very charming. I'm about to post a trip report!

alfisol

I tried to reply earlier today but was having trouble with the website.

Pat, we took our trip in the late winter, so I guess it was peak sand storm season. Not that we minded!

Other things to do in Roswell -- there is a lovely small art museum (with some world class paintings) and also a nice planetarium. We even did the "drive it yourself" tour around the historic homes of Roswell. I really think we did just about every tourist option there was in that town!

Would love to go back!

Pat2003

Thank you alfisol. I would like to find out how one hikes in White Sands during sand storms. We loved our hikes there but it was so quiet and calm in the end of October. Such a wonderful place to visit.

jet519

We recently spent a week in Las Cruces in mid March so we also flew into El Paso and rented a car. We chose Advantage because it had the best price for a mid-size. It was very convenient, right by the baggage area but instead of the mid-size car we chose when we reserved online, they gave us a big SUV. We did not want that at all and my husband complained but they had nothing else at the time.

So after a few calls, they arranged for us to have a convertible delivered to our hotel in Las Cruces the next morning for the same rate we had reserved. I don't think we put the top down because we did witness some of the sandstorm activity a couple of days.

The sandstorm was not that bad as far as being outside but it was noticeable enough that you could no longer see the mountains at all. On our way back to El Paso, we saw the tumbleweed flying across the highway a couple of times!

We also stayed at the Marriott right by the airport. Very nice and super convenient. The next morning return was so close and fast.

We just bought property in Las Cruces so we will be going there more often and we will have to go to Roswell and White Sands. It sounds like fun. We had gone to Ruidoso and Cloudcroft a few years ago and thought it was beautiful. We stayed at the Inn of the Mountain Gods, very nice.

If you are going at the end of April, maybe the sandstorm season will be mostly over although I hear they are in a drought right now so I don't know if that tends to make it dustier or not. It is no worse that all the tornados in the midwest, hurricanes in the south and endless rain in California so I guess many parts of the country have their pros and cons. We love New Mexico and the climate is great most of the time.