Planning: RT04 (Fall 2008) - New Mexico and the Albuquerque Balloon Festival

[Kinless]

It's that time again ladies and gentlemen... I've been planning another roadtrip for Fall 2008, which is more or less revolving around the opening weekend of Albuquerque's Balloon Festival in early October.

I will once again subject my folks to another desert/mountain run. This trip looks like it will cover about 2,500 miles. We've already made our hotel reservations for October 3rd-6th in Albuquerque, so that's the only "schedule" we really have to follow. We can be flexible with the days leading up to or away from this timeframe.

I do have a brain teaser for the local Arizonians. The mom has been reading this "Arizona Highways" magazine, and she pretty much wants to go see every darn thing in the book, hahaha. I've read the various Arizona articles on RTA and got some destinations in from that, but my question is: are there any "secret" highway roads we could take for excellent scenery? It doesn't necessarily have to be National Parks or Monuments, since 1) we've seen a lot of those in Arizona already, and 2) I've planned for a few more on this trip.

Before you answer, here's our tentative itinerary. This schedule is my typical "speed run" fashion but this time I have the option of extending 3-4 days in either direction if necessary.

From San Juan Capistrano, CA:

Day 0 - Take I-8/I-10 (through Yuma, AZ) to Tuscon, AZ
Day 1 - Continue via I-10 to White Sands National Monument, NM, then down to El Paso, TX
Day 2 - Take Hwy 62/180 to Guadalupe Mountains NP and Carlsbad Caverns NP, then up to Roswell, NM
Day 3 - (Friday, October 3rd) Tour Roswell, then Hwy 285/I-40 to Albuquerque, NM
Day 4/5 - (October 4th-5th) Balloon Festival stuff, tour the nearby things during the day
Day 6 - (Monday, October 6th) Take I-40 to Petrified Forest NP, then Arizona Meteor Crater, then to Flagstaff, AZ
Day 7 - Using a whole bunch of highways, eventually get back to I-10 for the drive through Joshua Tree NP (entering through south Cottonwood entrance and exiting out through the west) for the return home

There's plenty of time to inject other things into this route and extend it a few days if necessary. We don't have to take I-8/I-10 east and I-40 west if there's some smaller highways on the way that provide better scenery. I'm also going to have to figure out how to get from Flagstaff to Joshua Tree. I'd rather not take I-17/I-10, but maybe something more direct (through Prescott?). I've also never been to Lake Havasu via Hwy 95 so that may be another option. I could easily stick another extra day in here if there's something worth going to see.

What say the Arizona folk? (Or anyone else for that matter?)