Santa Fe, New Mexico

After staying in Austin, Texas for a month (mostly driving around the hill country), next I lived a month in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I told myself I wasn’t going to write a blog post about it because I didn’t really do anything. I didn’t go to museums, the spas and hot springs were closed (or awfully expensive), and I can’t afford gallery art. Mostly, I stayed “home” and enjoyed this view:

And for about a week out of my month, there was pretty heavy snow on the ground. The roads were plowed, I could have easily gotten out, I just didn’t want to. I had a fantastic routine of doing an online class in the mornings, working on this blog all afternoon, and reading all evening. It was wonderful.

BUT, as a result, I don’t have much to report. What follows are general sights seen with pictures – so, enjoy. I will say that Santa Fe has been my favorite destination so far, maybe because it is so different from home? Something about all the adobe houses and the way the light is always a bit golden. New Mexico definitely earns its “land of enchantment” appellation in Santa Fe.

Downtown Santa Fe

Downtown Santa Fe is centered around a historic plaza and the Catholic Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. This is the place for tons of fun shopping, dining, shopping, historic hotels, and more shopping. Did I mention there are tons of shops? Everything from high-end couture to tacky tourist shops, mostly housed in quaint lanes and courts.

Museums & Galleries

There are about 20 museums in Santa Fe, including the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, and the electrifying Meow Wolf. If you want to take some art home with you, Santa Fe will oblige with 250 art galleries around town.

Loretto Chapel is a neat stop – the “legend” of its spiral staircase is a fun piece of American lore. There’s also a theater downtown (the outside is beautiful – see above.) Parking is on the street with a few garages. And some streets are one-way or pedestrian-only. (I never had a problem parking on the street.)

Hotels

There are tons of hotels within walking distance of the downtown square, and not all of them are prohibitively expensive. I can’t recommend any per se, but I will say the luminaria game is really strong on hotels and other buildings. Walking around downtown Santa Fe in the cool of the evening is magical with these lanterns lining the adobe walls.

Also of note, there are lots of fun old-school motor-court hotels on the strip south of downtown Santa Fe that looked awfully cute. They aren’t high-end, but loads of them look super cute!

Sunset View

For a special view of the sunset over Santa Fe, point your GPS to Prince Park or the Cross of the Martyrs. At the cross is a platform perfect for overlooking the city, especially at sunset. You can walk up from street level (make sure you are acclimated to the altitude first!) or park at the top at Prince Park. (Google Maps will take you to the bottom of you plug in “Cross of the Martyrs” or to the top if you plug in “Prince Park.” There’s definitely more parking at the top.)

Food

La Choza and The Shed are said to be the best places to eat. The Shed is downtown proper, La Choza is a little south, both are owned by the same folks and serve mostly the same food. Did I eat at either in almost 5 weeks there? Nope. But I did make several stops at Whoo’s Donuts. (FYI, the donuts on the top shelf here are always the best.)

Green chiles are the name of the game in New Mexico. Even my mac & cheese from Trader Joe’s had green chilies in it. I gotta say, I got tired of them after a while.

Canyon Road

For a nice art walk, head to Canyon Road just east of downtown. This pretty row of galleries is perfect for sunny-day strolling (and shopping, natch.) Lots of art outside, too. In fact, I didn’t go inside a single gallery when I was there. I knew I couldn’t afford it and was wily about being indoors during Covid anyway. But I still saw a LOT of art. You could spend a whole day on this street alone. More, if you are really buying.

During my visit, I parked at the “bottom” nearest downtown in a lot near the Manitou Galleries. Then I walked up the hill to the big horse’s head at Kurt Schmidt Art Studio and back down, a little over a mile total. Beyond that stretch seems more residential but there’s a parking lot at that end too.

Old Santa Fe

This is really part of the same area (Santa Fe really isn’t that big) but nearer the courthouse that was blocked off during my visit, so harder to get to. There’s a Santa Fe Visitor’s Center here and San Miguel, a 17th-century chapel. Lots of restaurants are tucked in here too and it was much less crowded than the rest of downtown.

My favorite find in here is the Oldest House Museum, a small two-room building officially the oldest in Santa Fe (with pictures to prove it!) But better than that is the store it’s connected to. This was the best shop I went into during my whole trip. Lots of truly authentic crafts and jewelry, and I had a fantastic chat with the shop owner. I highly recommend stopping here.

Hyde Park Road

If you want to take a pretty drive out of town, but not too far away, try Hyde Park Road. When I want to get out and explore, I tend to do it by car. (I did start a road trip blog, after all.) In Santa Fe, I kept wanting to get out of the city and into those snow-capped mountains that are *right there* but it took me a while to find the route.

Heading out of town on Paseo De Peralta or Washington Ave, find the beautiful Scottish Rite Center and head up Bishop’s Lodge Road to Artist Road. (Follow signs to Ski Santa Fe.) Artist Road quickly becomes Hyde Park and it winds up through the mountains, past parks, picnic areas, campgrounds, and pull-offs. It’s a stunning drive. (You also pass Ten Thousand Waves Spa – too rich for me now but is on my bucket list for sure!)

At the very top is Ski Santa Fe and a big loop to turn around and come back down. (Or stay to ski, if that’s your thing.) There’s a ski/tubing area lower down, but that’s not it. Keep going to the top!

El Camino Real Trail/Santa Fe River Trail

There are miles and miles of paved trails along the Santa Fe River. There is also a spot called the El Camino Real Interpretive Trailhead a bit closer to the airport which seems to head off in a different direction. I’m pretty sure it’s part of a larger historic trail system, though I only walked on sections of it. The El Camino part seems like a fantastic spot for cyclists.

Albuquerque

Unlike Santa Fe, Albuquerque is a large, sprawling city. I drove down for a day to take a look at Old Town Albuquerque, a shopping and dining area in the historic city center. There’s a central plaza, 18th-century church, museums nearby, and a big park adjacent. And of course, lots and lots of shopping. Very cute little shops are tucked away down alleys and in courtyards. It’s a great place to walk around.

I actually had a hard time driving to it because several key streets were blocked off the day I visited. Eventually, I found my way around to a large parking lot for the museum and parked there with no problem. (And for what it’s worth – I didn’t pay. No one else was, so I didn’t either and didn’t get a ticket or towed. Park at your own risk!)

There is a LOT more to do in Albuquerque, obviously. I just didn’t quite make it this time. I will say, that if you head back to Santa Fe on route 14, it’s a beautiful drive and you can see the tiny turquoise town of Madrid.

Taos

Much smaller in scale is Taos. While Albuquerque is about an hour south of Santa Fe, Taos is about an hour and a half north of it. The drive, once you get into the mountains and next to the Rio Grande River, is really spectacular.

The touristy part of Taos is a main strip through town, intersected by a historic plaza and Kit Carson Road. You can visit Kit’s home and see a museum about the famous frontiersman. There are other museums about art and history but mostly, it’s shopping. Mucho, mucho shopping. Like Santa Fe, there’s everything from tourist traps to high art.

What I like best about Taos is how many bookstores there are! Every other block seems to have another cool bookstore on it. And lots for free and cheap too.

My best meal of the trip was in Taos, at La Cueva Cafe. I thought they might only serve takeout but they were able to seat me in a little room across a courtyard where I ate a delicious chicken mole. On another trip, I ate at Michael’s Kitchen, and while it was good (I was craving breakfast) it wasn’t near as good as La Cueva. I highly recommend it!

Closed during my visit is the Taos Pueblo community. It’s one of the oldest continually habited dwellings in the US at over 1000 years. When there’s less Covid in the air, they welcome visitors and even give tours every 20 minutes!

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

About 20 minutes north of Taos is the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. While it’s not the most spectacular sight you have ever seen, it’s really cool to see the gorge and walk across the bridge. There’s even a rest center nearby with bathrooms, picnic areas, and trails. Sometimes food trucks and other artists show up to sell their creations. I even saw some big-horn sheep!

518 to Las Vegas

I still really wanted to get up into the mountains above Santa Fe (this was before I discovered Hyde Park Road), so when leaving Taos, I drove to Las Vegas on 518. This ended up being a really fun, winding drive! Lots of deep snow and cabins and mountains. It was like being in a totally different state! It’s a bit of a long haul, however. From Santa Fe to Taos to Las Vegas and back to Santa Fe is over 4 hours. (Did I say I really love driving?)

Las Vegas is very different from Santa Fe. In Santa Fe, almost all the buildings are adobe and there’s hardly anything else. In Las Vegas, the houses look more standard American, with a cute town square complete with a big hotel.

There is one more spot I’d like to talk about but I’ll save it for another blog post. This one is getting long enough!