25 Scenic Side Trips in Arizona and New Mexico
As we live half the year in Arizona, and have driven there and in New Mexico many times, this book by Rick Quinn was one we very much wanted to see.
The book’s main aim is to offer drivers scenic alternative routes to Interstates 10, 17, 25 and 40. While we quite like driving I-25 through that stunning New Mexico landscape, any alternative to I-10, which is always so busy with trucks, would be welcome.
The Author
As well as being a writer, the book’s author Rick Quinn is also a fine photographer, as you can tell from the photos of his that are on this page. He’s an Arizona native so this book is definitely his home patch. He specialises in writing about road trips and estimates that he’s driven almost half a million miles through every corner of North and South America in the last fifty years.
Photos and Maps
The book is filled with lovely colour photos on almost every page. The fact that the states of Arizona and New Mexico are both dramatic and photogenic helps, of course. Alongside the photos are colour maps, one for each drive, and the inside front cover folds out to show you how all 25 drives fit together.
It’s a cleverly-planned book, in which the end of one drive almost always marks the beginning of the next one. If you’ve a little time to spare you can get off the interstate, do one of these scenic side trips, then get back on to continue your journey. It’s a very flexible approach which allows you to pick and choose what you do. The author does point out that you will also need good road maps, to go along with his general directions.
Hatching a Plan
I started by checking out if the author had included one of our own favorite stopping places when we’re in New Mexico: Hatch. We love the Chili Capital of New Mexico and often have lunch there – you can’t beat a green chili burger! It’s a tiny place and though it’s less than a mile off I-25 it would be easy to sail by and miss it. Not with this book, though!
Hatch is included on the Scenic Side Trip from Las Cruces to Lordsburg, and the map shows us how it would be possible to drive parallel to I-25 and take in some more enjoyable places, and move at a slower pace to enjoy that wonderful New Mexico scenery.
A Tucson Circuit
The next thing I checked out was naturally the drive that takes in Tucson, close to where we live. In fact Tucson gets an entire drive to itself, a circuit around the city that includes all the spots that we ourselves usually take visitors to see: the fabulous Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, the Mission San Xavier del Bac, Old Tucson Studios and the Saguaro National Parks East and West. The author has chosen as scenic a way as possible to get you between them, bearing in mind that scenic isn’t always practical.
The Tucson drive has some lovely photos, including saguaro cactus blossoms and barrel cactuses in bloom. Like other chapters, there are one or two boxes listing the highlights of various parts of the drive, and longer feature boxes. In this case it’s a page on the fascinating saguaro cactus, but on other drives you get stories about such topics as the Santa Fe Trail, Sandhill Cranes or Billy the Kid.
The Verdict
Arizona and New Mexico: 25 Scenic Side Trips is an excellent and thoroughly-researched book. It’s good to look at and enjoyable to read, and we’ll certainly be taking it in the car from now on.