Front Plate Required: No
Area Codes: 505, 575, 957
License Plates:
Windshield Stickers:
Road and Highway Signs:
County Roads:
Highways:
Highway Adoption:
Historical:
None
Most of New Mexico is a dry, flat scrub desert that gets hillier toward the west. The two exceptions are the White Mountains near Alamagordo and the southern Rocky Mountains that stretch down to Santa Fe. These higher altitude regions are very green, with pine forests similar to those of Idaho and Montana, except that the dirt is very red.
Flat, dry plains with sparse shrubs
Desert mesas in the west
Gila National Forest
Green high altitude regions
Physical map of New Mexico
New Mexico license plates come in several distinct colors, especially when compared to other southwestern license plates. Several states have blackout plates and Delaware also uses a black/yellow combination, but the geography and landscape are completely different.
Green license plate
Yellow license plate
Black license plate
Stop signs across the state have large white stickers on the back, but it becomes unreliable in and around larger cities. It is the only true southwest state that uses circle bollards, but Oklahoma and Colorado also use circles. New Mexico makes plentiful use of red and white striped warning signs, and the distinct state symbol occasionally appears on various structures and signs.
Large white square stickers behind signs
Sticker close-up
Circle bollard
Red & white striped warning
Symbol of New Mexico
The Rio Grande flows south through the center of the state, eventually following I-25. It flows through are Albuquerque and Las Cruces, but not through Santa Fe or Taos. Though it is referenced in both cities, the river is generally dryer and thinner in Albuquerque than it is in Las Cruces.
Rio Grande near Albuquerque
Rio Grande in Las Cruces
In urban areas, look for horizontal traffic signals, adobo architecture, and dirt or gravel yards. New Mexico uses two area codes: 505 for the central and northwest region, including both Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and 575 for everywhere else.
Horizontal traffic signals
Adobe style architecture
Gravel and dirt yards
505 area code
575 Area Code
Albuquerque sits in the center of the state as a long, thin strip that follows the Rio Grande. Larger intersections with state roads have a circle symbol on the street sign. Stacked street signs where the top one is thinner is fairly common in Albuquerque. Closer to the city center, the road type is nearly the same font size as the name and slightly elevated.
Rio Grande reference
Circle symbol on street sign
Thinner street sign on top
City center street sign layout
"Route 66" theming
Santa Fe is the state capital, located just northeast of Albuquerque. Street signs in Santa Fe often have weird and inconsistent capitalization and letter-spacing. A few streets in Tucson and Albuquerque have the "Camino" extension, but it is most often found in Santa Fe. There is snow in the December 2023 coverage, and it's the only major New Mexico city that the Spanish Trail goes through.
Weird/inconsistent font and spacing
"Camino" street type
Snow coverage
Old Spanish Trail
Las Cruces is near the bottom center of the state, just north of El Paso, Texas.
Las Cruces sign sticker
US and state highways use bollards with circles that are white on one side and yellow on the other. Drainage is marked by three yellow circles. Interstates will either use rectangle bollards or bollards with two circles.
Highway circle bollard
Three yellow circles marking drainage
Interstate yellow circle bollard
Interstate white circle bollard
Interstate rectangle bollard
Oklahoma also uses three yellow circles to mark drainage.
New Mexico
Texas also has large white sticker behind state-owned signs. Note the "T-" or "U-" shaped signposts in Texas vs. the vertical posts in New Mexico.
New Mexico
