Great Drives: To the Great Plains and the unexpected country beyond

(1 comments; last comment posted August 1, 2007 11:13 pm)

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Related Links
The car we drove on this route
Great Drives: The High Road to Taos
Great Drives: The Santa Fe Century ride
Relevant Downloads
Download the Great Plains drive

Drive
August 1, 2007

The Great Plains to our east are given short shrift when it comes to examples of scenic driving possibilities. While some might dismiss this vast area between New Mexico and Missouri as nothing more than miles and miles of unrelenting horizon, there are surprises to be found.

The real jumping-off point for this drive begins in Las Vegas, N.M., where the plains begin in earnest; most people hurry north on Interstate 25 toward Denver, looking neither right nor left, certainly not venturing off to visit the small towns and settlements bypassed by the largest public-works project in history.

This is the route of the Santa Fe Trail and the Santa Fe Railroad, where the winds of the Dust Bowl blew the topsoil away and where unexpected river canyons wind through empty but beautiful country. — Bob Hall

Drive great New Mexico roads

So far we’ve printed Great Drives maps of the High Road to Taos, the Santa Fe Century bike ride and across the Great Plains to the Canadian River Canyon. If you missed these route maps in the print edition of Drive, you can download them here in pdf form.

The pdf of this route has been formatted into two pages for easier printing on letter-size paper.

Then tell us about your favorite roads

We want to do more routes like these, but we need your help:
What are some of your favorite trips in Northern New Mexico?
What makes these drives special for you? What should we be sure to see along the way?
What car would be ideal for us to take on your favorites?
We’ll print the best ones to share with everyone and use your name if you like.

E-mail Jay Binneweg at drive@sfnewmexican.com.

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(1 comments; last comment posted August 1, 2007 11:13 pm)