Getting serious now

Today was a busy day, a full tour of Central New Mexico with multiple stops ranging from a huge national park to just a sign on the side of the road. I was also back to my usual early start routine, back on the road by 7:30am. I started out backtracking a bit heading to Artesia from Carlsbad. From there I turned west on Hwy82 to Alamogordo. This was a fantastic road, starts out a bit dull but gets more interesting with curves in all the right places as it heads to over 8500 ft at the city of Cloudcroft. The descent back down the otherside drops about 4k ft and gives a few peeks at White Sands in the distance.
From Alamogordo I turned south for White Sands and the TT hit a major milestone. The drive through the park is kind of like the Badlands but different, and blinding. 15 minutes out of the car and I think I was sunburnt. I wasn't really sure what to do to make the pics interesting since it's all just bright white sand so I did what I usually do and put the TT in the middle of the frame, I think it worked out well :)
After a quick loop and a few pics I headed back out of the park and continued north on 54 past Tularosa on my way to Hwy380. 380 incidentally is the road I came into Roswell on, all the way from Decatur the day before.
380 had my second scenic waypoint of the day, the Trinity historic marker. I didn't know where on 380 it was and thought I had missed it and then finally spotted it about 15 miles east of the I25 junction.
I turned back north at Socorro on I25 after crossing a little more than halfway across New Mexico. Did I mention that I really like New Mexico? Except for the bad gas and boring scenery east of Roswell it's a beautiful state, good drivers, roads and real speed limits :) Anyway, I-25 brought me all the way up to Albuquerque, keeping me out of storms that were building to the east and west the whole afternoon. Albuquerque had my third spot for the day, the Petroglyph National Monument on the west side of town. Albuquerque looks to be a really nice town too. I'd like to spend some more time there and maybe sample Santa Fe at some point. The Petroglyphs were a bit meh, I guess I was expecting too much. Still managed a few interesting pics before continuing west on I40.
A short drive on I40 got me to Hwy117 and my final stop for the day, El Malpais National Monument where La Ventana, a natural arch rock formation, is located. Clouds were rolling in and it was starting to get a bit dark but it's still an impressive sight. I'm not sure I'll be able to make it to Arches so I figured I try to see as many of the other arch formations as possible :)
I had hoped to make it to the Arizona border today for a short hop to the Grand Canyon but that was over an hour away so I stopped off in Grants at a Holiday Inn Express. Tomorrow the plan is to see Meteor Crater on the way to the Grand Canyon. Of course since it's Memorial Day weekend everything is booked so I'm spending tomorrow night all the way in Flagstaff. I should still get half a day tomorrow and Monday morning at the Canyon before heading back east for a bit :)

Full gallery from today

Trip Stats:

525 miles

8.5hrs of driving

61mph average speed

30mpg

17k ft climbed

two gas stops