New Mexico in 5 days
 

We are flying to Albuquerque on October 19 arriving there mid afternoon. We have about 5 days, then we need to be in Tucson, AZ October 24 evening. First time for us in New Mexico. Love nature, scenic view, culture. Would greatly appreciate if we could get some suggested itineraries. Thanks.

just did a route from Albuquerque back via Tucson and Phoenix

Some interesting spots

East side of the Manzanos/Salinas Pueblo Missions

Then via T or C to Silver City/Gila Forest and Cliff Dwellings National Monument. Not sure of weather in November, I went in August. It definitely has a possiblility of snow.

Down to Lordsburg NM (very good Motel 6 there, by the way) and to Portal/Cave Creek

If the weather and roads are good you can go from Portal over the Chiricahuas and then visit the Chiricahua National Monument from the west side. However it was still monsoon time so I went back up to I-10. From the I-10 you can visit places like Tombstone or stay in Sierra Vista and visit some of the reserves nearby. This is a famous area in August for hummingbirds. Better in November but I'd look into whether there are Sandhill Cranes at any of the wintering spots, such as around Willcox Playa or in New Mexico around Bosque del Apache. The best time for crane viewing is around sunrise, so you'd want to be staying nearby, eg Willcox.

Here are some links from the Wings over Willcox festival
Wings Over Willcox


Another place to look into is Madera Canyon (Santa Rita Lodge). Empire Ranch is also interesting.
https://www.empireranchfoundation.or...ap-directions/

Though I love Cochise County, Arizona (the area in the post above that begins "If the weather . . . " and lived there 25 years until recently, I'd recommend skipping it, unless you're birders, and stay in Northern New Mexico (Santa Fe, Taos area) for the 4 full days (20th - 23rd) you have, one of the most beautiful & entertaining areas in the SW, really no time to dawdle in SE AZ or the very time-consuming road to Silver City.

Then assuming you're driving to Tucson (7-8 hours + stops from Santa Fe, about an hour less from Albuquerque), the fastest way is I-25 south, turn off at Hatch, NM (stop at a roadside stand & buy some famous Hatch chilis) onto highway 26, a very pretty road, join I-10 west at Deming, then straight west to Tucson.

In case you haven't seen it there's another thread going now that may have some information for you:

https://www.fodors.com/community/uni...tober-1671161/

One more thought, you might consider flying from Albuquerque to Tucson. Southwest has flights with 1 stop, maybe other airlines too, that will save time compared to driving. Or maybe that's the plan already?

Thanks. So we are considering to spend 3-4 days in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Taos, then on our way to Tucson, we are looking into staying in Las Cruces or Silver City for a day. Any preference?

About an hour west of Santa Fe is Bandelier National Monument, which has very interesting ancient dwellings.

We drove through Silver City on our way to Gila Cliff Dwellings (about an hour north on a Very curvy road). It looked like more of an interesting town, not a big city but might be fun place to spend the day.