Mesalands Scenic Byway
Mesalands Scenic Byway is a State Scenic Byway in New Mexico. Within New Mexico it covers roughly 380 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Mesalands Scenic Byway with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
New Mexico's Mesalands Scenic Byway is a complex, 320-mile figure-eight route around Interstate 40, looping through Tucumcari, Santa Rosa, and Logan to Glenrio. The region was a Mesozoic-era wonderland of dinosaurs and tropical forest along an inland sea, a history told today at Tucumcari's Mesalands Dinosaur Museum. The byway crosses the 300,000-acre Bell Ranch, a working cattle spread used as filming location for numerous Westerns including the TV series 'Rawhide,' and passes through Puerto de Luna, or 'Door of the Moon,' where Billy the Kid was a regular visitor and reportedly ate his last Christmas dinner. Ute Lake, Santa Rosa Lake, and Conchas Dam state parks line the route with fishing and camping, and nearby, the Blue Hole, an 80-foot-deep, bell-shaped spring fixed at a constant 64 degrees, draws scuba divers from across the Southwest. Few New Mexico byways pack this much geology, ranching history, and outlaw legend into one looping route.
- Bell Ranch
- Blue Hole
- 320 miles
- Mesalands Dinosaur Museum
- Puerto de Luna
- Billy the Kid
- Tucumcari
Plan a drive on Mesalands Scenic Byway →
What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.