Scenic Drive - New Mexico/Utah Trip - January 12, 2026

We had about 440 miles to drive from Socorro, New Mexico to our next destination, Moab, Utah, assuming we took the direct route.  So we started fairly early with breakfast in the hotel before checking out and getting on the road.  As we loaded up the car, I took one last look at the beautiful view just across the street as the sun was starting to rise.

As we headed north through New Mexico, Ship Rock came up in discussions about what we might see and so I found us a more scenic route to get a bit closer.  North of Gallup at Yah-Ta-Hey, we took Highway 264 west to Window Rock, just across the border into Arizona.

Curious on how Window Rock got its name, I discovered the town had a beautiful arch (named Window Rock) that was very accessible.

We then headed north on IR-12.  This highway meandered back and forth across the Arizona/New Mexico border a few times before going deeper back into Arizona.  At Lukachukai, we turned onto Highway 13.  This is the point where the scenery went from beautiful to jaw dropping as we made our way through hilly areas with dark red rock formations where the road switched back and forth.  

At some point, a ways down Highway 13, there was a sign for rough road ahead.  In this case, rough road appeared to mean unplowed with snow that was fairly fresh.  There were a lot of tracks to indicate it was fairly well traveled (and we ultimately did run into some plows so it eventually got better) so we continued on.  

Eventually, we wound our way back down to flatter ground as we started to get glimpses of Ship Rock in the distance.  In hindsight, we could have avoided the a bit treacherous road and still gotten close to Ship Rock by just back tracking on Highway 13 from 491 but we would have missed some amazing scenery.  

We continued on towards Moab and not too far south of Moab drove by this beautiful rock formation with the La Sal Mountains in the background.

We checked into our hotel which is the Homewood Suites in Moab and then walked over to have dinner at El Tapatio which I really enjoyed.  I had an excellent margarita and their enchiladas with mole.  On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in a shop with items made by local artists where I found a few little souvenirs to bring home.  And then I was ready to crash for the night. 

The downtown is surrounded by hills and rock formations.