New Mexico Roads - NM 9



All photos are WB.


Actually, NM 9 doesn't extend all the way to meet another state highway in the east. The road from NM 136 starts out as Doña Ana CR A-003, and magically turns into NM 9 partway into the county. The road quality doesn't appreciably suffer either way; you can do 95 in relative comfort - and peace, since the police have given way to the Border Patrol down this far, and they're not in the business of speed enforcement.


One of only three signed 4-digit routes in the state, leading to Playas. It started out as CR 113, numbered as an extension of NM 113 (which was already there to the right), but when the state took it over, for some reason instead of extending 113 southward, perhaps so that all of the mileage logs wouldn't have to be rewritten, they decided it was easier to give it a new number. Now, why something like 413 or 613 wouldn't have worked just fine is beyond me. The only other signed 4-digit routes are numbers of convenience: 2001 for the International Space Center (think Odyssey) and 6563 for the Solar Observatory (Balmer hydrogen transition in Ångströms, which I wouldn't expect you to come up with). 5001 is unsigned, and may just be an internal designation.

NM 9 turns at NM 338 in Animas.

NM 9 Chihuahuan Desert scenery
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