Driving in New Mexico

March 18, 2024 10:56 AM

We'll be in New Mexico later this week for a packed few days of seeing stuff. Are any of the roads we'll be on twisty turny side of mountain with a sheer drop off type roads? Route in the more inside.

We'll be doing ABQ > Los Alamos > Santa Fe > Alamogordo > White Sands > ABQ.

The twisty turny doesn't bother me so much, but the twisty turny side of a mountain thing does. I learned this driving around Phoenix/Williams/Flagstaff/Sedona last year. Super stressful for me. I'm from Michigan and the most we have is a big hill.

posted by misanthropicsarah to Travel & Transportation around New Mexico (6 answers total)

Most of the twisty side of a mountain roads are in the northern part of the state closer to Colorado.

However, the road up to Santa Fe is over the mountains with one gorgeous but steep section. It’s a straight shot though, no twisting.
posted by forkisbetter at 11:01 AM on March 18

Which way are you going to Los Alamos? Via 501 is typically fine. The loop via White Rock (4 then 502) can be pretty sketch.

501 has many turns but no drop offs. I would keep an eye on the weather conditions however if you're not a fan of driving in snow, this is classic late storm time.

The rest is fine but just keep an eye for late season snow/ice, and the spring wind is higher the further south you go.
posted by Ardnamurchan at 11:16 AM on March 18

Best answer: All the roads in to/out of Los Alamos have curves and cliff drop offs at some point.

If coming from Albuquerque via Santa Fe, you can avoid being on the drop off side if you drive into Los Alamos via 502 but don’t drive 502 all the way directly into Los Alamos — follow the signs for White Rock/Bandelier via NM 4 then turn right at the light on Jemez Road. This will take you up into Los Alamos and you won’t be on the drop off side. You can leave Los Alamos via 502 (aka East Road, aka the Main Hill road, aka passing the airport) directly and then you’ll avoid being on the drop off side again. Do take it slowly because there’s a blind curve at Anderson Overlook and there have been bad accidents there.

That being said, I absolutely recommend driving from ABQ to Los Alamos via the Jemez Mountains instead of via Santa Fe. It’s about 25 minutes longer but 1000% worth it and it’s how I drive guests coming to visit us for the first time. Take 25 North from the airport, turn left onto 550 just past Bernalillo, turn right onto NM 4 at San Ysidro Pueblo. Follow NM4 through the mountains. Grab lunch in Jemez Springs. Stop in at the Valles Calder. Turn left onto 501 after the hairpiniest hairpin turn ever, and follow it into Los Alamos (you’ll have to show ID at the gate as you drive through the lab briefly, or there are alternatives that don’t require ID). You can also stay on NM 4 and go to Bandelier and then White Rock, but you will be on the drop off side of some cliffs in that case.

Message me for more info if you’d like!

My qualifications: former Michigander living in Los Alamos
posted by ellenaim at 12:38 PM on March 18 [1 favorite]

I just want to say that I have the same twisty-turny-dropoff concern and once, while my husband was driving us on the Road to Hana in Maui, I opened the passenger car door (on the mountain-side, not the cliffside) while we were driving. This was a wildly unhelpful lizard-brain attempt to escape. Brains are wild. Good job prepping yourself! The road to Sedona also caught me by surprise in 2021 and I had to ride in the backseat holding my toddler daughter’s hand for MY comfort ugh
posted by samthemander at 12:44 PM on March 18

You don’t have it listed in your itinerary, but if you decide to go to Cloudcroft while in Alamogordo, that road is probably going to make you unhappy.
posted by MexicanYenta at 1:16 PM on March 18

I did a big loop there a few weeks ago, from Truth or Consequences north on I 25 then east to Carrizozo, south to Alamogordo, then White Sands, then Las Cruces, and back to Truth or Consequences. I did not encounter any of those scary twisty roads. I'm on my phone or I would give you links, check out Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge; Valley of Fires near Carrizozo; and stop and check out Three Rivers Petroglyphs- it's a short lovely trail.
posted by mareli at 3:48 AM on March 19