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You might be going of the rails here. They are staying in the Albuquerque, Santa Fe area. Capulin is a day trip to a prairie with little else around IMHO and again, the caverns would probably best be done as a 2,3, or 4 day stay exploring around that area of the state. Same with the Gila area. There is a 70 in NM but I'm pretty sure that entry was a typo.
I was just agreeing with Double H about Capulin.You are right....there is not much around Capulin.Carlsbad would be out of the way but again I was just agreeing with Double H.Those two places may be too out of the way for the OP.
Given your time limit I would suggest spending a day in and around Albuquerque visiting a museum or two and taking the Tram up the Sandia ridge. Then take Rt 14 to Madrid with a stop at the Mineshaft Tavern for lunch. Follow on to Santa Fe. Take one of the city busses for a low cost but interesting tour. Then I would head north along the Rio Grande valley and all the sights along the High road to Taos and the Enchanted Circle. Then just head in any direction and you will have a wonderful trip.
OH - Get a copy of the Benchmark Map "Road and Recreation Atlas of New Mexico" before you start. Try amazon.
Given your time limit I would suggest spending a day in and around Albuquerque visiting a museum or two and taking the Tram up the Sandia ridge. Then take Rt 14 to Madrid with a stop at the Mineshaft Tavern for lunch. Follow on to Santa Fe. Take one of the city busses for a low cost but interesting tour. Then I would head north along the Rio Grande valley and all the sights along the High road to Taos and the Enchanted Circle. Then just head in any direction and you will have a wonderful trip.
OH - Get a copy of the Benchmark Map "Road and Recreation Atlas of New Mexico" before you start. Try amazon.
The tram is awesome.Good suggestion.I really enjoyed the Sandia Tram.
I am getting later to the conversation however, I would tend to agree with others that saving the Gila for another time would help to preserve the OP's limited time in the state.
If I were to have only one week in New Mexico (which the time will just fly by, believe me), I would base my trip around New Mexico's big city - Albuquerque - make sure to head to Santa Fe (as it is just an easy hour's drive), probably head to Los Alamos (as it is just an easy 1/2 hour's drive from Santa Fe) and that would probably be it. You easily could kill a week spending time predominantly in Albuquerque's region and Santa Fe.
New Mexico is a unique state in that for its relatively low (2+ million) statewide population, you have an incredibly high amount of good daytrip/tourist destinations (including Roswell for the alien stuff, the Carlsbad Caverns, Ruidoso and/or Cloudcroft, Taos, Angel Fire for skiing, Grants for Mt. Taylor, Truth or Consequences for the hot springs, Las Cruces, the Elephant Butte Lake, White Sands, and yes Gila, etc., etc.). However, New Mexico is a vast state geographically and as such, in a limited amount of time for a first visit, you would probably be better off honing in on a particular area (and again, as a virgin week-long NM trip to me doing so in the Albuquerque region which could include East Mountain towns such as Madrid) through Santa Fe would be the best places to start...Albuquerque as the state's big city with the most to see and to do, and Santa Fe as the world-famous capital that is eminently close to Albuquerque.
In Albuquerque, I would be sure to hike the Petroglyph National Monument, I would be sure to take the Sandia Mountains Tram from the base of the mountain to the peak and hike around at Sandia peak, I would be sure to stop at some of the legendarily good New Mexican restaurants such as The Frontier to gain a good 10 pounds, I would spend some time browsing and/or shopping in Old Town, if you are a sports fan I would spend some time if not at a Lobos bball game then at least trying to see the inside of The Pit arena, I would get down for a hike in the bosque alongside the Rio Grande river, I would take a daytrip behind the hill to Madrid and tour around there a bit, I would probably take an early evening jaunt out to Placitas to marvel at the unbelievable natural residential setting and get all jealous at their resident's affluence to allow them to reside there, I would get into Downtown Albuquerque, I would go to the Golden Crown Panadaria to get a loaf of green chile bread, I would spend some good time on Central Ave. up towards the Nob Hill and University of New Mexico area, I would get a cocktail or two at the Tamya resort on its patio overlooking the bosque and the Sandias near sunset...there is so much to see in and near Albuquerque that you could easily consume a week getting the rich New Mexico experience just there alone.
I would recommend a day or two up in Santa Fe getting all around, dining, and seeing all that the area has to offer. Even though it isn't one of my absolute favorite spots in New Mexico, it is a world famous town, the capital of New Mexico, and offers a deep and long unique history.
Me personally, I would take a quick jaunt for a half day up to Los Alamos which would offer someone the "high mountains" experience and vistas while preserving time due to the short drive from Santa Fe, but if something needed to be cut for time, it would be this leg of the trip.
I particularly like Southern New Mexico, however, to me I would save Southern New Mexico for trip two, and make almost all of my trip based around Southern New Mexico. Others would be different and would base a lot of their trip around Northern New Mexico.
The key to New Mexico again though is to realize just how vast the state is and how long it can take to drive from geographic region to geographic region. The drives are often fairly scenic if not desolate, but can be very time consuming. You'd be best served basing the initial week in New Mexico around the central, most populous area of the state and getting the optimal New Mexican flavor there, and then getting hooked and coming back for subsequent Southern or Northern New Mexico jaunts.
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