I've only been once for a few days when our friends lived in Santa Fe. Please share your itinerary when you post pics. Glad you had such a great trip!

I’m so glad that your trip turned out so wonderfully and, like everyone else here, look forward to hearing all about it and seeing your pics. I’ve just now gotten back from dropping my sis off at the airport. We spent a fun week showing her parts of our New Mexico, too. The weather, as pretty much always, was perfect. And, as we were driving to the airport this morning, we could already see several hot air balloons up over the West Mesa of Albuquerque, as the Albuquerque International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta starts in just 2 days.

Yes I'm always impressed with the collected wisdom of this site. I've told daughter about many of the places you all go as she and her DH travel to the states very frequently. Her DH works in the big machine field. :-)

This post has made my day! I'm so happy that you had such a wonderful time, thanks in part, to the folks here at the KT. Can't wait to see photos.

We spent a week in NM back in April and enjoyed every moment of our time there. You are right about the geography and topography; our eyes were constantly engaged as new sights showed themselves during our drive.

View from Walt Longmire's cabin (where they film the tv show) Valles Caldera (sorry can't correct typo in OP!)

I’m so happy for you that everything turned out as you expected and then some! Can not wait to hear and see more of beautiful NM!

At this point in time, I love "traveling" through other peoples pictures. :-)))

I'm so glad your trip went well! I've been in NM now almost five years and I'm always finding something new and wonderful. Or old and wonderful. Or just wonderful. And I love when others get to learn how magical this place really is. Waiting for more pics!

I'm not sure how I'll share all the pics I have...I will be posting them on KT every day for awhile. But I did want to share a couple of these.

This was our first experience of a slot canyon...at tent rocks. It was so incredible!

Lovely! so glad you had a nice vacation.

Tent Rocks is truly one amazing place! We love hiking there.

"Oh yes pictures please! I will live vicariously through them lol."

me too, I don't travel anymore. I've been there, but only in the Elephant Butte area. drove over with my sister to visit a friend of hers, but we were only there about 3 days. she went to pick up 2 sister lab puppies and I went to keep her company on the long drive there and back.

Glad it was so wonderful. Anxiously awaiting itinerary information. (and any more collective advice about times to visit/weather etc as this is definitely on our list)

Stunning--you've convinced me to move NM up on my list! Thanks for sharing.

This was our itinerary and we stuck to it pretty well. It all worked in that it kept us busy and going the whole time without a lot of driving in between. I think our longest straight drive was 2 hrs.

Day 3, we lucked out and just caught up with a walking tour by a docent from the Museum of NM History which lasted 2 hours and he pointed out a nice place to have lunch inside an old hacienda.

Day 4, after the horseback ride, we didn't feel a need to go back to chimney rock as we'd seen it on the horseback ride which was *fabulous*. But we did spend time hiking Plaza Blanca which was also incredible.

Day 8, we hit Bandolier really early, before 8am so we had time to then hit Valles Caldera, which one of the wranglers at ghost ranch recommended. So glad we did and so glad we had a 4 wd vehicle which handled the 14 miles of dirt road just fine.

And Day 8/9, Jemez springs, we didn't really "see" but drove through the canyon to stay at this little luscious place by the creek with a view, did a lot of relaxing and meditating, and got a couples massage (thank you mtnrd) before heading off to the airport to return home.

Re time of year, I can't imagine a better time. (Thank you all for recommending we go then.) It was sunny and in the 70s or low 80s every day. The nights were chilly, but as soon as the sun came up, it warmed up quickly. We ran into one day that was showery in the p.m. but we were driving at the time and it would rain for 5-10 min and then dry up...and it led to some dramatic skies and lightning in the distance...quite beautiful. Up in Chama, the aspens were turning and we saw some nice foliage too.

View from our room in Jemez Springs.

Thank you for this! We are about to start planning a trip to Santa Fe for next Sept., so I am taking notes!

For those interested in more pics, I'm posting one a day at the "I'll Show You Mine/You Show Me Yours" thread at the Kitchen Table.

Did want to share some here though too:

Plaza Blanca

Chimney Rock at Ghost Ranch

Curly's Cabin from City Slickers

Cumbres and Toltec narrow-gauge steam engine train through the mountains, aspens already turning gold...

Millicent Rogers Museum

Canyon at Jemez Springs