Jemez Scenic Byway: Discover Northern New Mexico by Car

The Jemez Scenic Byway is a 132-mile / 212-km road that stretches through parts of northern New Mexico, extending just north of Albuquerque towards the Four Corners region, where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah touch. It is known as New Mexico Route 550.

The road runs next to the Jemez Moutain Range, a largely uninhabited wooded area with lakes, peaks, streams, black bears, deer and hiking trails. The hiking trails go all through the mountains and there are various levels, so everyone from beginners to advanced mountaineers will be able to enjoy the Jemez Mountains. You can find some of the best/most popular trails on websites like AllTrails. One that is especially popular is the Jemez Mountain Trail on the Visit Albuquerque website. This trail goes through several points of interest including waterfalls, a caldera, and Jemez Pueblo.

It also goes through several Native American reservations, including the Santa Ana Pueblo, the Zia Pueblo, the Jemez Pueblo and evenutally through the corner of the Jicarilla Apache Nation Reservation and the Navajo Nation Off-Reservation Trust Land before ending in Bloomfield, New Mexico. While there are many casinos in this area, especially in or near the Pueblos, not many people live in the area.

From here, you can continue north on Route 550 into Colorado or turn east/west on New Mexico Route 64. Going west will bring you onto the Navajo Nation, crossing into Arizona. Things to see in the immediate area include Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon, Marble Canyon, and Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.

All photos for this post were taken from the back of a moving vehicle. Please excuse the quality of the parts that are out of focus. There were very few places to stop except to pull over to the side of the road (which is not recommended as most of the highway does not have much space on the side of the road).