RFI: ~ Tucson to OKC ~ over Thanksgiving. Best, fun, scenic route(s)?

[warbler13]

Hi all!

Tucson to OKC over Thanksgiving.

Looks like we have 6 days on the road to get there, 3 days in OKC for the holiday, and 2 days to get home. Or, we could change the days up, just need 3 days in OKC.

We will motel and car camp, better to go through New Mexico? what's in Northern Texas? We are birders and adventurers. Suggestions thoughts and advice for a cool backroads|off-interstate routes and sights? OK, GO!

Hope you're all having an awesome summer!

Thank you for all your wisdom, this will be our first road trip in awhile.
Lizzie

[AZBuck]

You seem to have quite a bit of time for the eastbound trip, and sufficient, but not excessive, time for the return. So you should be thinking about where you might like to spend some time and explore on the way to OKC. There are a few possibilities, but the one that jumps out at me would be to take the Coronado Trail up through eastern Arizona, across northern New Mexico, through both Texas' and Oklahoma's panhandles and on to Oklahoma City. If you haven't traveled through those areas before, they offer some great scenery, enjoyable 'back' roads, some unique insights into Native American culture, and numerous wildlife viewing opportunities.

Without getting too specific just yet, a few of the locations you could investigate on such a route would include: the Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area (visitor page), El Malpais National Monument, Acoma Pueblo, Petroglyph National Monument, the Turquoise Trail, Taos Pueblo, Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge , Capulin Volcano National Monument, Rita Blanca National Grassland, Optima National Wildlife Refuge, Palo Duro Canyon, and Black Kettle National Grassland for starters.

AZBuck

[howard]

One more place you might want to look into is the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, NM.