Day Trips

Day trips filled with natural beauty, history and culture

Sponsored by the popular local Chevron and store in La Chuachia north of Espanola located at the intersection of Hwy 84 and Hwy 285 on the way to Ojo Caliente.

If you have more than few days in town, then a day trip – even a half-day trip - beyond the city is highly recommended.  Northern New Mexico offers some of the most diverse, beautiful terrain and varied landscapes to be found find anywhere in the world. For example, within an hour’s drive north of Santa Fe you can find yourself in the high desert, dense forest, sandstone canyons, or even close to above tree line.  An added bonus to the breathtaking natural beauty waiting just a short drive outside Santa Fe is the wealth of cultural and historical attractions.  Mercantile stores, gas stations, cafes, diners, hotels, main streets all from another era. Small galleries and art studios, hot springs, fruit and vegetable stands, old adobe churches and pueblos are all easily seen in a day’s drive of Santa Fe.

DAY TRIPS

(The numbered trips are courtesy of Dr. Ted Montgomery, and correspond to the map at the bottom of this page)

#1: West on the Jemez Mountain Trail

This scenic loop celebrates the diversity northern New Mexico is famous for.  You’ll see ruins of an ancient civilization, a high-tech research center, traditional American Indian pueblos, and the collapsed crater of a long-dormant super-volcano.

Follow US 84/285 north to Pojoaque, then NM 502 west toward Los Alamos.  Stop first at San Ildefonso Pueblo, spread among cottonwoods between the rushing Rio Grande and towering Black Mesa.  The village is known for its fine pottery, and you can meet artists who create it.  Across the river on NM 30 is Santa Clara Pueblo, where there are many more potters whose studios you can visit.

Continue on NM 4 to Bandelier National Monument for a self-guided tour of extensive ancestral pueblo ruins at two main locations—Tsankawi Mesa and Frijoles Canyon.  En route is the White Rock Overlook, with its sweeping view of the Rio Grande far below.

Follow NM 4 into the space-age city of Los Alamos, where World War II’s secret Manhattan Project created the first atomic bombs.  Closed to the public until 1957, Los Alamos now welcomes visitors eager to learn about its state-of-the-art research at the Bradbury Science Museum.

Follow sinuous NM 4 into the verdant Jemez, emerging into a wonderland of gentle meadows known as the Valle Grande.  This is one of the world’s largest calderas, the collapsed crater of a three-million-year-old volcano.  The crater is 12-15 miles (19-24 kilometers) in diameter.  Exit along the Jemez River Canyon, noted for its waterfalls and sheer rock faces.

There are restaurants and services in the town of Jemez Springs and public soaking tubs at a Victorian-era bathhouse.  The ancient Towa people called this area Giuseqa—“Place of the Boiling Waters”—and the ruins of their village are displayed at Jemez State Monument.  Nearby, the Jemez Pueblo’s Walatowa Visitor Center has nature trails, a history exhibit, and an arts-and-crafts emporium.  Leave NM 4 when it dead-ends into NM 44 at San Ysidro; then head south to Bernalillo.  Consider stopping at Coronado State Monument, where an early Spanish expedition once wintered.  From here, it’s a quick return to Santa Fe on I-25.  This is about a 160-mile round trip.

Another option is a trip to the dramatic rock monoliths at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, where you can hike and picnic.  Take I-25 south from Santa Fe and get off heading west on NM 16 at the Cochiti exit.  Travel eight miles to a T intersection and turn right on NM 22.  Just past the spillway for the dam, take a left on 22 in the direction of the Cochiti Pueblo.  In 1.8 miles, you will see a thin water tower painted like an Indian drum.  Just after that, turn right on Forest Road 266, a dirt road that will take you to the parking lot.  This is about a 44-mile round trip.

#2: Northwest to Georgia O’Keeffe Country

See the tall sandstone cliffs, water-carved arroyos, and juniper-studded hills that Georgia O’Keeffe fell in love with.  Take US 84/285 north of town, then branch onto 84 near Española.  Pedernal, a flat-trop thumb of rock that the late Abiquiú-based artist painted again and again, towers above the road.  You may recognize other landmarks, too, as you follow the Chama River toward Ghost Ranch, a remote area where O’Keeffe spent her summers.  You can get permission to hike through magnificent red-rock country at the retreat center here.  Tours of O’Keeffe’s restored adobe hacienda in Abiquiú are arranged by appointment, but book as far in advance as possible.

Nearby attractions include man-made Abiquiú Lake, with seasonal boating, fishing, and swimming.  Echo Amphitheater is a natural sandstone echo chamber.  Farther up US 84 in Los Ojos, visit the showroom of Tierra Wools, as weaving co-op producing tapestries and other traditional Rio Grande-style woolens.  Nearby Heron Lake and the Brazos River provide excellent trout fishing—local outfitters supply guides and great.  Chama is the southern terminus of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, which runs steam trains along narrow-gauge tracks through alpine backcountry into Colorado.

The most scenic route back to Santa Fe is east from Tierra Amarilla to Taos on US 64, winding through the San Juan Range before descending to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge for a dramatic crossing.  (US 64 is devoid of services and sometimes is closed in winter.)  If there’s time, you can see the sights of Taos before following US 68 south along the Rio Grande to Española, where you take US 84/285 into Santa Fe.  This is about a 250-mile round trip.

#3: North to Taos

New Mexico’s rich Hispanic heritage and Pueblo Indian traditions are revealed as you head north through valley towns and mountain villages.  Take the High Road to Taos, but watch carefully for signs, since it’s easy to make a wrong turn on this route.  Start on US 84/285.  Turn right on NM 503 to NM 76.  This takes you to the village of Chimayó, famous for its weaving tradition and the Santuario de Chimayó, located off of a well-marked side road.  This “Lourdes of the Southwest” is visited by thousands of pilgrims drawn by the alleged healing powers of the “miraculous dirt” found in a corner of the 19th-century chapel.

Your route then ascends past nearby forests and through several Hispanic villages that have changed little over the centuries.  Worthy stops along this route include any of the galleries in Cordova, Truchas, and Ojo Sarco, and the Spanish Colonial church at Las Trampas.  Area specialties include pottery, quilts, rugs and wood carvings.  Side roads lead to campgrounds and hiking trails.  At Peñasco, take NM 518 as it winds through the Carson National Forest.  NM 518 intersects US 68 at Ranchos de Taos, known for adobe-buttressed San Francisco de Asis Church, as favorite subject of Georgia O’Keeffe and other artists.

Next stop: Taos, historic meeting ground for Pueblo Indians, Spanish settlers, mountain men, and frontier scouts.  Today there are scores of galleries, restaurants, and shops to choose from, along with several fine museums.  Like Santa Fe, Taos is built around a plaza, from which you can walk to many attractions.  On the outskirts of town is Taos Pueblo, with multistoried adobe houses built more than a thousand years ago.  Other side trips take you to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge on US 64, a stunning overlook that sometimes affords a glimpse of soaring eagles, and north via NM 522 to the San Cristobal grave of D. H. Lawrence, one of many famous writers who’ve found inspiration here.

Return via NM 68.  You’ll cross a wide mesa where there’s brief but spectacular view of the Rio Grande Gorge, a knife-thin slice in the earth cut by the river as it meanders all the way from Colorado.  As the road drops, it follows the Rio Grande through a narrow canyon.  Embudo is a historic railroad stop where you can enjoy a riverside meal beneath tall trees.  For several miles along here, the river’s boiling waters attract rafters and kayakers from around the world.

The area between Embudo and San Juan Pueblo is renowned for its farms.  You’ll see roadside stands selling fresh fruit, corn, juice, and chiles during growing season.  A short detour takes you to the pueblo, which welcomed the first Spanish colonists to the area in 1598.  A tribe-owned shop and several artists’ studios sell handmade craft items.

Turn south at Española on US 84/285 for your return to Santa Fe.  If it’s still afternoon, take a short side trip (which includes an easy hike) by turning on NM 503 to Nambe Falls, one of the area’s true natural wonders.  This is about a 165-mile round trip.

#4: East to Las Vegas

See the “other” Las Vegas, a historic stop on the Santa Fe Trail—and the railroad that replaced it—that now boasts one of the largest collections of Victorian-era buildings in the West.  Self-guided walking tours reveal classic examples of elegant Queen Anne and Eastlake architecture.

Start your trip by going northeast on I-25 through Glorieta Pass, exiting at Pecos National Historical Park to see the ruins of the long-deserted Pecos Pueblo and a Spanish mission church.  The Pecos Wilderness, north of here, beckons fly-fishermen with some of the best trout streams in the Rockies.

Leave I-25 again at Las Vegas, which became a boomtown after the U. S. annexed New Mexico in 1846.  Besides its well-preserved period architecture, Las Vegas has a wide range of restaurants, antique stores, and other services.  Its chamber of commerce provides tourist maps and answers questions about such attractions as the Rough Rider Museum, honoring the many local residents who followed Teddy Roosevelt into battle during the Spanish-American War.

Take NM 518 north to Storrie Lake, a reservoir that offers boating, fishing, swimming, picnicking, and windsurfing.  Continue to La Cueva, site of an old mill and a French Gothic-style church.  At the Salman Ranch here, you can pick your own raspberries in August and September.  Farther north, past Mora, is the Cleveland Roller Mill Museum, a restored water-powered flour mill dating from the era in which this region was the breadbasket of New Mexico.  A century later, the wheat is gone and some farmers now raise llamas and alpacas, selling clothes woven from their soft wool.  NM 518 winds into tall mountains, which you cross before descending on NM 75 to Peñasco, where you join NM 76 (part of the High Road to Taos) for a scenic ride back, via US 84/285, to Santa Fe.  This is about a 186-mile round trip.

#5: South on the Turquoise Trail

Turquoise has been mined along the route of NM 14 for centuries, first by Indians and later by Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans.  Today you can follow the Turquoise Trail, a National Scenic Byway, through the remnants of 19th-century mining districts where this gemstone—along with gold, coal, and lead—was once extracted.

Head south from Santa Fe on NM 14 to Cerrillos, a sleepy village where many Westerns have been filmed.  Next is Madrid, a coal-producing boomtown that would have died out in the 1970s if artists hadn’t come to the rescue.  Check out the galleries, studios, shops, and summer entertainment, which includes outdoor concerts and a weekend melodrama.  The Old Coal Mine Museum documents a lost era, although one Madrid tradition lingers on:  During Christmas season, thousands of outdoor lights are hung throughout the community.

Golden, the next mining town on the trail, is now its tiniest.  It was founded in 1825 amid the first gold rush west of the Mississippi.  At San Antonito, follow NM 536 through the Sandia Mountains to 10,678-foot-high Sandia Crest for an awesome view of Albuquerque and the Rio Grande Valley.  Retracing your route, stop at the Tinkertown Museum, which displays a private collector’s amazing assortment of wedding-cake ornaments, miniature toys, bottles, and other oddities.

Next take NM 14 south to I-40 and head east to NM 41, where you’ll go north through wide-open rangeland to the emerging art colony of Galisteo.  Join US 285 near Lamy for the short trip back to town, following I-25 the last several miles.  This is about a 150-mile round trip.