A favorite drive in SE NM coming up from Texas is from the high plains of Artesia west 90 miles to Cloudcroft (9,000 ft). From Cloudcroft you can look down on White Sands and the Organ Mts 50 miles out.

Comfortable lodging to be had in town, nice campgrounds with showers in the adjacent Lincoln National Forest.

Beautiful 30 mile drive from there across the Mescalero Reservation to Mescalero : Pine forests, high mountain meadows, elk in the road at night. The Mescalero Rez ain’t like many, at least the parts you need to cross, never had a problem there over forty years of visiting.

The Silver Lake Campground/RV park on the Rez en route is a quiet and pleasant stay, many repeat clientele, mostly from El Paso.

The Mescalero Apache Mission just outside the town of Mescalero is among the nicer churches I’ve seen, 30 years in the making with a real story behind its construction.

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From there the tourist town of Ruidoso is just over the mountain. Lots of comfortable places to stay or, more upscale, Inn of the Mountain Gods resort on the rez.

OTOH if ya wanna camp primitive at 11,000+ feet and get nosebleeds take the Ski Apache road up Sierra Blanca.

Other side of Ruidoso lies the Smokey Bear museum and gravesite (allegedly, local rumor has it Indian firefighters hopped the wall and stole the bones one night). Capitan is a quiet town with a nice old motel and a good restaurant.

A little ways further down the road is Lincoln and the Billy the Kid museum.

"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744