Road trip from Dallas to White Sands, NM (El Paso, Amarillo: appointed, house)

[curidpostn]

We are thinking of a road trip from Dallas to White Sands national monument, NM over next weekend. Plans to start Friday afternoon and be back by Sunday night. The main purpose of the trip is to check out the place for now. We're particularly interested in one more spot en route along with white sands as 9.5 hour trip just to check White Sands seems bit daunting. Any suggestions on what other places could we check out?

[Eric Fred Norris]

I made the drive to El Paso last month for a work thing, took the rest of the week off to explore the surrounding area. If you are making the trip just for White Sands National Monument, prepare to be very disappointed. The area open to tourists is very small compared to the size of the park as a whole and while there are plenty of trails in the sand dunes to hike and it is pretty, the heat is so intense in the summer that the park rangers repeatedly warned me to not go too deep into the trails unless I had several bottles of water and protective clothing on me. I had an ice chest full of bottled water, thankfully. From when I pulled into the front gate to when I left, four hours passed and that was me taking my time on the trails. I was also warned that the park is closed almost every week for several hours during the day due to ongoing testing in the White Sands Missile Range, which includes the park area.

Having said that, I greatly enjoyed my trip to West Texas, New Mexico and the border. On the way back to El Paso from White Sands, I stopped at the missile range's free museum, which I highly recommend if you have boys with you. I also spent an afternoon walking around downtown Las Cruces, which had a free art museum, book store and galleries. I happened to be there when a farmers market was going on, so I was able to buy some dried chiles, adobe plates and had lunch from a few food trucks parked in the nice purpose-built town square.

I then spent two full days exploring El Paso proper, stayed at in Airbnb on the edge of historic downtown where the Franklin Mountains begin. There are two beautiful scenic drives starting at the foot of the mountains. One is up to a rest area where you can get great photos down into downtown. The other leads you into McKelligon Canyon, with great photos to take since its surrounded by mountains.

I spent a full day crossing the border on foot into Juarez. You can park in one of several private parking lots on the south side of downtown and pay a 75 cent or so toll to walk over the Paso del Norte Bridge. Make sure you have 50 cents to pay the toll on the way back and a passport to clear customs back into the US. Tons of little shops and restaurants, a nice history museum and the city's primary indoor market are within walking distance of the bridge, I burned a whole day in no time.

On the way to and from DFW, I made pit stops in Midland. The HEB on Midkiff always has the cheapest gas in town according to GasBuddy. Nearby is Fazoli's, a cheap Italian fast food chain that we don't have in DFW that I miss from my time as a student at A&M. Paid $5 for a plate of spaghetti and lasagna with drink and unlimited breadsticks. My favorite restaurant in El Paso was this little Tex-Mex place called La Tapatia. On the southeast side of town near the border fence, the gorditas and their house pico de gallo were excellent, plus no wait staff so no tip.

[turf3]

Depending on your route, the following are available:

Carlsbad Caverns.
Santa Fe.
El Paso.
Cowboy Breakfast near Amarillo.
Albuquerque Balloon Festival.
Monahans Sand Dunes.
Big Bend.
Dinosaur tracks at Glen Rose.
"Texas" at Palo Duro Canyon.
Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo.


Look up all the Texas state parks.