Santa Fe

 

There are several fine day-trips you can take out of Santa Fe - here are a selection...

               
Taos - about three hours drive, through your choice of countryside: the main road, once it passes through Espanola, tracks the beautiful Rio Grande most of the way. This river begs you to stop, enjoy its vitality and fish or wade in it. The other route is through dramatic Northern New Mexican ruggedness - the legendary High Road to Taos: it takes a little longer, but you'll never forget it.  

Los Alamos, Valle Caldera, Tsankawe - talk about contrast! Los Alamos, home of The Big One, is a boring all-American town in the middle of a scenic wonderland. En route to Los Alamos, stop for a one/two hour hike at the ruins of Tsankawe.

Past Los Alamos is the recently purchased pristine Valle Caldera, the hollowed out center of an ancient volcano. A ranch for many years, it is now accessible with strict limits.

  
   
 
   
Turquoise Trail - You probably arrived in New Mexico via Albuquerque Airport, and rushed up I-25 to get here. That's good, but there's another way to do that, via the Turquoise Trail, a designated scenic byway that takes you through the old mining towns of Golden and Madrid. Madrid bustles now, with artistic endeavor, but still has some of the raw edges of a mining town.  
         
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