I've been in Santa Fe and Eagle Nest areas twice since May. I got stuck in road construction / one lane pilot car both times. II40 and Ft Sumner route. Heading back up ther in three weeks. How are the roads from Dalhart to Clayton to Springer? I live in Lubbock area and this time will have a small travel trailer.

Good, but lonely. Long way between towns, few services.

Road from LBB to Clayton is very good. Google Maps suggests back roads through San Jon and Logan. Looks like a shorter route, but those roads may not be as good. Even more isolated

Thank you, that's kind of what I was thinking.

Update, we had a quick AMA-ABQ road trip last week, driving I-40 late on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.

It could be because we were passing through the I-40 construction after working hours, but both times were smooth, with minimal slowdowns.

Hamburger Dan said:

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I've been in Santa Fe and Eagle Nest areas twice since May. I got stuck in road construction / one lane pilot car both times. II40 and Ft Sumner route. Heading back up ther in three weeks. How are the roads from Dalhart to Clayton to Springer? I live in Lubbock area and this time will have a small travel trailer.

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Know what you mean. We got stuck on I-40 a few weeks ago on our way to Santa Fe, between Santa Rosa and Clines Corners. We back tracked about 5 miles and hit Hwy 84 that heads up to Las Vegas. It wasn't bad.

We have been through that I-40 construction about 6 times in the last few months. We got stuck once, and sat for a long time.

It shuts down traffic from two lanes each direction, to one lane each way. As long as traffic is not heavy, and no one has a wreck, it doesn't slow you down as much as alternate routes do.

Our usual procedure is to watch Google Maps as we approach Santa Rosa from the east, or Clines Corners from the west. If it's short areas of "orange" in the construction zone, we stay on I-40. If there's a lot of red, we consider going around.

If you are at Santa Rosa and plan to go to Santa Fe, I'd take 84 toward Las Vegas, anyway. A bit further, but prettier drive. And if you've never been to Fort Union, Las Vegas, NM, Glorieta Pass battlefield, Pecos Monument, or Pecos Wilderness, those are off of I-25 as well.

Was in Red River June 23-26 and Eagle Nest July 7-10. Drove different routes each time and the least disrupted was Lubbock to Amarillo to Dumas to Dalhart to Clayton to Springer. I much prefer that route with a camper because the road isn't quite as rough.

It's summertime, though, and road construction schedules change sporadically.

Todd 02 said:

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It's summertime, though, and road construction schedules change sporadically.

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https://nmroads.com/mapIndex.html?

CanyonAg77 said:

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We have been through that I-40 construction about 6 times in the last few months. We got stuck once, and sat for a long time.

It shuts down traffic from two lanes each direction, to one lane each way. As long as traffic is not heavy, and no one has a wreck, it doesn't slow you down as much as alternate routes do.

Our usual procedure is to watch Google Maps as we approach Santa Rosa from the east, or Clines Corners from the west. If it's short areas of "orange" in the construction zone, we stay on I-40. If there's a lot of red, we consider going around.

If you are at Santa Rosa and plan to go to Santa Fe, I'd take 84 toward Las Vegas, anyway. A bit further, but prettier drive. And if you've never been to Fort Union, Las Vegas, NM, Glorieta Pass battlefield, Pecos Monument, or Pecos Wilderness, those are off of I-25 as well.

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Agreed on the prettier drive!

I-40 Update:

Went through there on a quick trip this weekend.

Thursday evening about 7pm, went westbound with almost no slowdown

Saturday about noon, went eastbound, sat a good 20-30 minutes in completely stopped traffic. There was no wreck or construction, just that much of a pile-up.