Driving on along the West Texas highways with kids can be daunting as its long and people think there isn’t much to do along the way.
Driving is an easier and cost effective way to travel to White Sands National Park in New Mexico but you think the West Texas drive can be long and boring. Well, I am here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way. There are plenty of things to do along the route that nobody will complain about, this trip being boring. Let me warn you though, there aren’t any big Metropolitan cities along the way until El Paso, Texas but the historic towns you pass through during this road trip are wonderful gems !
How long does it take to drive to White Sands National Park?
There are a few routes that you can choose but I found these two options were the best.
Option 1: Austin –> San Angelo –> Carlsbad –> Alamogordo,NM
Option 2 : Austin –> Fredericksburg –> Junction –> Sonora –> Ozona –> Fort Stockton –> Van Horn–> El Paso –> Alamogordo,NM
While the first option is fine, we choose the second route as it takes you along I-10W and passes through many cities with plenty of things to do. Now, we are a roadtripping family and are quite ambitious about how many days we spend on driving. This is also because my husband has limited vacation days and we want to make the most out of them, while also staying in our budget. With little kids in the tow, we also avoid driving at night.
For this post, I will only be talking about the second option. It takes about 8 hrs for this drive and you can start early in the morning from Austin,TX drive for a few hours to Fredericksburg and then continue along. But we wanted to save few hours for sight seeing along the route and decided to start in the evening and drive for a few hours, stayed for the night at Junction,TX and started our road trip again in the morning. Yes, we skipped Fredericksburg during this road trip and saved it for another day may be a weekend getaway since we live close by.
What are the stops along the way?
Here are a few stops along the way from Austin,TX to Alamogordo,NM . You can stop to do some sight seeing or just stop by to have a bite.
Fredericksburg, TX
This charming little town can be a good pit stop if you are driving from Austin towards New Mexico. With coffee shops and amazing food, Fredericksburg,TX is a great place to explore. We didn’t stop here as we started our journey in the evening and chose to stay overnight at Junction,TX.
Junction, TX
We started from Austin and drove for around 2.5 hours and reached our hotel in Junction,TX. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Junction. This city can be your rest stop as there are travel convenient stores with restrooms or you can stay the night here as it has a few different hotel stay options.
Sonora, TX
We started our journey in the morning towards the west and drove for 2 hrs to reach Sonora,TX. This city has so much to offer you can easily spend a day here. But since we had a long drive ahead of us we decided to stick to just couple of things to see. We strolled around the downtown and wanted to visit the Sonora Heritage Museum. Unfortunately, the museum was closed on the day we were there. Another item on our list is the Sonora caves for which we’ll go back soon.
Ozona, TX
We left Sonora, TX and within an hour we are at the Crockett County Museum in Ozone,TX. This 3 story museum was a great learning experience. We loved looking at the pieces of history and stepping back in time.
Fort Stockton, TX
After an amazing time at the museum we drove another 2 hours to reach the city of Fort Stockton. At first visited the visitor center here which has a train locomotive that the kids enjoyed climbing on. Then across from the visitor center was a huge statue of the road runner name Paisano Pete. If you don’t have time for anything else please stop by this road runner for your kids to run around and click some amazing shots for your memory. If you have some more time definitely visit the Annie Riggs Memorial Museum and the historic Fort Stockton. There are also many restaurants here which makes it a great lunch stop. We had some delicious pizza for lunch.
Van Horn, TX
This was just a rest stop for us. At this point, we did a lot of sightseeing and didn’t want to do anything here. But, you could take a small detour and visit Fort Pickens to see the large chicken statue. We filled up the gas and headed straight to El Paso.
El Paso, TX
El Paso is one of the biggest cities in Texas. Being so close to the southern border the city is intriguing by itself (at least to me) but it’s definitely safe to travel with kids. The city also offers so many attractions that you can do around the city with kids. I highly recommend spending one whole day here in El, Paso, TX before driving to Alamogordo, NM. On this trip, we didn’t do that because of limited time but we will definitely add El Paso to one of our bucket list.
Alamogordo, NM
White Sands National Park in Alamogordo is just 1.5 hours drive from El Paso, TX. So, you should be able to start in the early morning hours and reach White Sands just as the sun rises if you stay the night in El Paso,TX. Like I mentioned earlier, we decided to drive straight to Alamogordo, NM and stay for the night here. When you drive from El Paso, TX to Alamogordo, NM there is an immigration check point. You will be stopped by the border control agent at this check point. If you are not a US Citizen make sure you are having all the necessary immigration documents like passports/I-94s/Visas I-797s or green cards if you are a permanent resident.
Alamogordo has great breakfast and lunch options you would like to have a bite. We went straight to our hotel and relaxed as we were pretty exhausted from the long drive. White Sands National park is only around 15 minutes from the hotel we stayed at. If you would like to know more about what to do in around White Sands National Park check my previous post White Sands National Park with kids.
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