New Mexico/Southwest Colorado
 

My husband and I will be flying into Alburquerque 10/21 - returning 10/29. We will be renting a car to trip around the New Mexico/southwest Colorado areas. We will not be doing any hiking (soft walks are more our speed). What should we "not miss". Any suggested itineraries or input is greatly appreciated.

8 days is a nice amount of time for your trip. Places to consider are:

Sandia Tramway in ABQ
Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe
Plaza and Canyon Road in Santa Fe
High Road to Taos
Bandelier NM
Chama
Chaco Canyon
Aztec Ruins
Durango
Pagosa Springs
Million Dollar Highway/San Juan Skyway
Mesa Verde
Narrow Gauge Train from Durango to Silverton
Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Colorado NM

You should also consider a small detour to SE Utah, including Moab.

Do a search on this site to get more details.

What are you thoughts on Canyon de Chelly?

It's a place I'd love to go, but I haven't made it there yet. If you decide to include it, you might want to throw in Monument Valley as well.

Have been to Monument Valley.... it was one of our favorites. Just wondering if it's worth going out of our way to see Canyon de Chelly (time wise etc.). Has anyone been?

Take I25 south from ABQ to Socorro. About 30 minutes from there is Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Migrating geese, sandhill cranes, ducks and possibly whooping crane can be seen from the roads. Need to be there at dawn (birds fly out to eat shortly after dawn) or near dusk when they fly back in to roost. Off the beaten path turn onto US60W at Socorro to midway between towns of Magdalena and Datil to the Very Large Array, a number of radio telescopes spread over wide area. There is a small visitor center to explain what you are looking at. Parts of the movie "Contact" were filmed here. Near Alamogordo is White Sands National Monument. North of there off US70 near town of Three Rivers is an area on BLM land which has nearly 2000 petroglyphs carved into the boulders.

Do a search under Utahtea's name. She's written about Canyon de Chelly several tmes. Based travel and visiting time, I'm guessing that it would take around one full day and night to do the detour.

As an alternative to going to Canyon de Chelly, you might consider Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. I think it's fit in well with your plans of doing both New Mexico and SW Colorado. Might save some drive time. Plus, Chaco is simply awesome.

Any hotel recommendations for the night we arrive in Alburquerque? We'd like to be close to Old Town and Rt. 40West as that's the direction we'll be headed. The reviews for the Sheraton Old Town don't sound very favorable.

I can't give you any specific guidance on lodging. We stay at the Sleep Inn, near the airport, when we're flying in and out of ABQ, but I can't really recommend it to anyone who wants to get a nice feel for the town.

You might want to check out B&Bs near Old Town. ( I stayed in on once 14 years ago. ) There are a lot of the standard chain hotels on I-25, just north of I-40. 3 years ago, I stayed at a suite type motel at I-25 and Montano that was fairly nice.

I just asked a couple of friends this question, and everyone can describe an okay place, but can't remember the name, if that gives you an idea of your choices.

Are you really taking I-40 west out of town? Most of the places you'd be looking at would be reached via I-25 north (except maybe Canyon de Chelly).

If we skip Canyon de Chelly, our first stop will be Four Corners. We'll either do 40 and 666 or 25 and 44 to get there. We'll probably spend that night in Cortez going to Mesa Verde next day. From there we'll probably go to Durango for a couple of nights and then start heading back into New Mexico.

How about the Million Dollar Highway, around Telluride, Durango, Ouray. I think that would be a highlight.

We spent one night at the Best Western Rio Grande in Alburquerque last April. Nothing fancy, but very clean and handy location right off 40 and just a few blocks from the Plaza. The restaurant served a surprisingly good breakfast. We spent several days exploring the Jemez Mountain area and stayed at one of the nicest B&B's ever - the Desert Willow in Jemez Springs - very much enjoyed a visit to Bandelier.

We plan on doing the Million Dollar Highway while in Durango. The Best Western Rio Grande sounds OK for our first night in NM. Anyone else with Alburquerque hotel input?

we have always found the La Quinta Inns to be a great choice. They are all over the place (several in ABQ, I think), are bright, clean and cheery, have a great breakfast spread (included in price), often have a pool, and usually cost about $50 to $60 per night, for two guests.

There is also one in Farmington, which is in the Four Corners area, the direction you're heading.