Planning a road trip to Albuquerque, NM for Balloon Festival

[txjeeptx]

The title says it all.(Edit: Ok, the title left out travel dates - we want to be in Abq on Sat, Oct 3 for the mass ascension, so leaving TX around Wed Sept 30 and arriving home whenever we miss the cat too much)

My girlfriend and I are planning on making a weeklong-ish road trip in my parent's 'o1 WJ Grand. We're looking for tips from anyone in the Albuquerque area (or NM in general) during the craziness that surrounds the Balloon Festival. I could go for meeting and seeing some Eagles/owners.

I know everything hotel-wise is booked solid for years to come in the area. We plan on tent camping for most of the trip, and have stops planned for Carlsbad and Roswell (where some of my people may or may not have crashed years ago), and a dozen or so other sites in NM and TX.  The KOAs in the area(Abq) want a minimum of 3 days stay, so we might not be able to find a place other than the local walmart paring lot!

The Jeep we will be driving has the 4.7L V8 and 4wd, and I might get some swaybar disconnects and sneak them on before the trip so we can head out to some BLM trails. Its not my YJ, or the Eagle, but it has its roots in the right place.

So, anyone with any suggestions, chime in. (someone in the distance yells, "Yeah, DONT GO THEN" )

PS, we miss you, Carl (Abqcarl). I hope his Eagle found a good home.

[vangremlin]

I'm not real familiar with the Albuquerque area, but here are some of my favorite spots in New Mexico in case they happen to be on your route.

Capulin Volcano National Monument, straight east of Raton

http://www.nps.gov/cavo/index.htm

The Bandelier National Monument outside of Santa Fe

http://www.nps.gov/band/index.htm

And the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument north of Silver City.

http://www.nps.gov/gicl/index.htm

None of these may be on your planned route but if they do happen to be they are well worth the visit.  Or check them out at some point in the future!  Sounds like a fun trip

[txjeeptx]

Bandelier and Gila are two stops/destinations we are making sure are on our route.

Kari likes to camp out, but also likes having a shower and real restroom facility, whereas I could go until i can't stand my own stink. Good ol' Google makes it so much easier to find good information about amenities than trip planning used to go.

We will probably stay in the Santa Fe area and drive to Albuquerque very early in the morning for the day of the balloon festival mass ascensions (Oct 3 or Oct 4), and do some day wheeling out west of town (Rio Puerco), or head up to the backroads to Jemez Springs in search of some dirt. Or stay in the Abq area and try to guess where the wind is carring the balloons and head for their likely descent locations.

We are interested in finding the best reasonable place to view the events without being typical touristas.