I’m a big fan of vacations on the cheap, which is good, since I’ve seldom been able to afford anything first-class. Besides, top-dollar travel often overlooks the best stuff to see. Several years ago, when my family was younger and we were fairly new to the Land of Enchantment, we decided to take a New Mexico-centric vacation. My wife and I, along with our two daughters, got into our four-door sedan early one summer morning and left our northern New Mexico home in search of wonderment, which we found at just about every stop.

Our first stop was in Tucumcari, where we visited Mesalands Community College and its dinosaur museum. One of our daughters had developed an encyclopedic knowledge of the dinosaurs that once roamed the earth, so this stop was mainly for her — and she wasn’t disappointed.

Everyday, we were told, they would pull fossils out of a nearby mesa, and we got to see not only their discoveries but also their process of cleaning them up and putting them together into impressive exhibits.

Then we scooted down to Fort Sumner and boned up on Billy The Kid’s life and times. That one was for me. I’ve had a fascination with The Kid and his story ever since.

That night we made it into Roswell, where we stayed overnight and visited the UFO museum the next morning. Again, it was an educational experience, since the exhibits takes you through the 1947 incident that started it all.

Then it was on to Carlsbad, arriving at the Caverns in time for the Bat Flight, a twilight-tinged exodus of thousands of bats from the Caverns. It was quite a sight to behold — as were the Caverns, the next day, when we descended into the depths of the earth and ate at the subterranean restaurant they’ve built down there.

After a brief foray into El Paso and Ciudad Juárez for a day, we reentered New Mexico and visited White Sands National Park. We hit the dunes just before dark and watched as a thunderstorm, miles away over the Organ Mountains, joined forces with a beautifully setting sun to create the most spectacular 360-degree view of a sunset I’ve ever seen. The pictures we took didn’t do it justice; you had to have been there.

We stayed one night in Silver City, as our launching point into the Gilas, where we hiked to the ruins of an ancient civilization, the Cliff Dwellers, a great sample of the wonders hidden inside that incredible mountain range.

By then we were worn out, so as much as I wanted to show the girls the Very Large Array, we got on Interstate 25 North instead, and didn’t stop until we had made it back to home sweet home.

There’s just too much to see in New Mexico. Altogether, it cost us less than a week and around a thousand bucks. We tent camped and stayed in modestly priced motels, picnicked out of our ice chest and splurged on some good restaurant eating, and went through several tanks of gas. All told, we had a wonderful adventure being, well, a family.

But we only covered a sliver of what you can find in this state, and through the years we’ve made our way into other parts of this vast and enchanting country. Seems there’s something around every corner — especially if you’re willing to get off the beaten path.

Or, just go around the corner from where you live, where there’s bound to be something worth exploring.

In every corner of New Mexico, there’s something to see that’s worth the drive. I’ll leave it to you to discover it for yourself.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Tom McDonald owns and operates the New Mexico Community News Exchange and the Guadalupe County Communicator in Santa Rosa. Contact him at tmcdonald.srnm@gmail.com.)