NM09 Northern New Mexico

With Santa Fe as a gateway, Northern New Mexico is a land of dramatic desert landscapes and forested alpine beauty. Here are some recommended destinations that seem remote, yet are accessible in a day trip.

Take Interstate 25 north out of Santa Fe, traveling southeast. After 65 miles you will be in the city of Las Vegas. The Casteneda Hotel sits by the railroad tracks, as it did in the late 19th century when it was one in the string of jewels that were Harvey houses. Off the plaza is old city hall, erected in 1892 as New Mexico’s first municipal building. Las Vegas (“the meadows”) is home to the Rough Riders’ Museum, which has an extensive collection of photographs, artifacts, and memorabilia recalling the First Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, mustered during the Spanish American War, and led by Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy and his men celebrated a reunion here in 1899 and continued to meet every year afterward into the 1960s. An entire city block, surrounded by Victorian-style houses, has as its centerpiece the Carnegie Library, built in 1904 and modeled after Thomas Jefferson’s house, Monticello. As always, its plaza is a favorite meeting spot, and the historic Plaza Hotel is worthy of a stop and a bite.

On the way to Las Vegas, stop at Pecos National Historical Park. The site preserves the ruins of Pecos Pueblo, inhabited by Native Americans in the 14th century, as well as the mission church built in the early 1600s by the Spanish. The view from the picnic area provides an incomparable perspective of the church, the pueblo, the land, and the austere high-desert beauty.

Directly north of Santa Fe is a land both ancient and futuristic. Take U.S. 285/84 out of Santa Fe, then N.M. 502 west and climb Pajarito Mesa. At the top is Los Alamos, the Atomic City. The U.S. government chose this place to develop the atomic bomb because it was remote and could be protected. Today, Los Alamos National Laboratory still pursues matters of national security and science. Press on a little farther, and you’ll intersect N.M. 4 that traces the rim of the Valles Caldera, an extinct volcanic crater some 15 miles across. The volcano is now a grassy valley and home to herds of elk and deer, bear, trout, eagles, coyotes, and many other species. With reservations, visitors can hike, fish, and explore here. Nearby at Bandelier National Monument, hike cool Frijoles Canyon and explore the ruins left by ancestors of the area’s pueblos 800 years ago. There’s even a cliff ruin involving threeladder climbs — not for the faint of heights. N.M. 4 is a wonderful loop drive by itself, dropping south through the Jemez Mountains and Jemez Pueblo into the village of San Ysidro, from which U.S. 550 takes you 24 miles east to Interstate 25 in Bernalillo north of Albuquerque.

From Santa Fe, drive north to Española and head east on N.M. 76. You’ll find yourself on the High Road to Taos. New Mexico is steeped in tradition and Catholicism. Nowhere is this more obvious than at Santuarió de Chimayó, a humble chapel that every Easter attracts thousands of pilgrims. The curative powers of this shrine surface in an entire room of discarded crutches, canes, photographs, and testaments, earning Chimayó the nickname “Lourdes of the West.” In the back of the shrine is a small room, where you may collect some of Chimayó’s sacred earth. N.M. 76 takes you through dense Carson National Forest, secret glens, and mountain villages such as Truchas and Trampas in the Sangre de Cristos Mountains. N.M. 76 turns into N.M. 518 near Vadito. Two miles past Talpa, the road virtually forces you to drive through a parking lot. Stop! Focus your camera on the most famous architectural image in the Southwest: the church of San Francisco de Asís at Ranchos de Taos. Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, and countless others have taken photographs from this lot, and the church is the subject of at least four paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe. Here you’ll intersect N.M. 68 and head north into Taos.

From Taos, take a day trip that is a near-perfect circle around Wheeler Peak, New Mexico’s tallest mountain at 13,161 feet. The route connecting Taos, Questa, Red River, Eagle Nest, and Agua Fria is called the Enchanted Circle. The entire drive is a visual feast. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Chapel at Angel Fire, just south of Agua Fria, reveals graceful lines of a beautiful structure sweeping from the high country to the heavens. Skiers, snowboarders, mountain bikers, and hikers of all ages will enjoy all Angel Fire Resort has to offer.

The low road from Taos (N.M. 68 through Española) follows the Río Grande upstream as it cascades through the Río Grande Gorge. The sound of the river is your companion, and in the fall the way is lined with roadside stands where farmers sell homemade bread, chiles, apples, squash, peaches, and ristras (strings of red chile). The view of the gorge as you drive out of the canyon south of Taos is unforgettable.

If you take U.S. 84 west in Española, you’ll be traveling into what is called O’Keeffe country, named after the famous artist Georgia O’Keeffe. A few miles past Abiquiú dam, stop at Ghost Ranch Conference Center. This is the land O’Keeffe took for her own, and then gave to the world through her art. She lived in Abiquiú for nearly half a century and painted the rocks, sky, trees, bones, flowers, and, of course, her beloved Pedernal Mesa. Those who have seen only her paintings may think there is some measure of artistic license, some exaggeration in her landscapes or her colors. Once you’ve been to Ghost Ranch, you’ll know she was an attentive realist.

Not to be overlooked is the state’s northwest corner, home of the Navajo Nation. U.S. 64 jags from the Oklahoma border through the heart of the Sangre de Cristos, through the Jicarilla Apache reservation, and into Navajo Country through Farmington and Shiprock. In Shiprock, you’ll see from miles away the iconic formation called Ship Rock. The 1,800-foot, 30-million-year-old volcano core was named by Anglo settlers who thought it resembled a sailing ship. The Diné, as the Navajo refer to themselves, have always called it Tsé Bit’a’í, or “Rock with Wings.” The formation is sacred; climbing it is prohibited. Ancient ruins in Bloomfield (Salmon Ruins, 13 miles east of Farmington on U.S. 64) and Aztec (Aztec Ruins, 20 miles northeast on U.S. 550) are worth a visit, and are part of the Chaco Canyon complex about 100 miles southeast of Bloomfield on U.S. 550. These ruins were the center of the great ancestral pueblo civilization (circa 1000) that eventually gave rise to today’s pueblo communities in New Mexico.

Being part of the fifth largest state, Northern New Mexico is vast, with many worthwhile and hidden places to explore. Grab your camera and explore this land like no other.