Return to Santa Fe (New Mexico)

We closed out our two-week four-corners-states Thanksgiving tour in New Mexico in Santa Fe. We’ve been to Santa Fe many times before and wrote about it here in the early days of our blog. Unlike many of our earlier blog posts, this one wasn’t terrible. So, rather than re-writing what we wrote about before, I’ll just add to our collection of experiences with some additional things to do and see.

I’ll first reiterate that December is a wonderful time to visit Santa Fe. Farolitos line the rooftops and plazas, the Plaza in the center of the old town is lit up for Christmas, piñon wood burns in fireplaces across the city emitting a lovely scent that we always associate with being in Santa Fe in winter. While temperatures dictate that outdoor dining is out, the cozy restaurant interiors welcome you into their warm embrace with the wafting smells of delicious New Mexican cuisine drawing you in further to experience their tastes.

The highest altitude (and oldest) US state capitol requires good hydration and acclimation for those used to sea level. But with your hands properly moisturized and body full of fluids, there is a ton to see and do. This time, we chose to visit some of our old favorite restaurants which we wrote about in the post referenced above, namely: The Shed, The Palacio Restaurant, Cafe Pasquals, the bar at the Inn of the Anasazi and Geronimo.

Ordinarily, in the past, our visits have been mostly focused on the food and taking in the arts scene. We can never resist browsing in the galleries of Canyon Road, so we headed that way before climbing to the top of Canyon to hike on the Atalaya trail near St. John’s College.

Santa Fe’s rich history. This trip, however, we focused more on the history of Santa Fe taking in a walking history tour, offered daily, by Allen from Discovery Tours. The tour leaves daily at 10am from La Fonda Hotel’s lobby and costs $30 per person. All proceeds are donated to charity. Allen is not only a tour guide but the author of two books about Santa Fe’s history, one on the railroad in Santa Fe and another on the hotel which preceded La Fonda on its site. His tour is well worth it.

Lest we spoil the tour for you (and for him), here are but a few of the tidbits we learned:

• Billy the Kid, who moved from New York with his mother in his formative years, washed dishes at La Fonda (where the tour begins) before he turned outlaw and started shooting people.
• La Fonda was the favorite watering hole for the scientists working on the atomic bomb in nearby Los Alamos, New Mexico and FBI agents worked in the bar and arrested scientists who got too drunk and loose-lipped, confiscating their trousers until they sobered up.
• The Plaza on Santa Fe is where the Old Santa Fe Trail (which began in Franklin Missouri), old historic Route 66 and El Camino Real from Mexico (the royal road from when the Spanish controlled both Mexico and what is now the state of New Mexico) intersect.
• The 47th state is 12-14% populated by Native Americans, the most per capita in the USA. Santa Fe is the oldest capitol city in the USA but with the newest capitol building (built in 1968).
• The roadrunner is the state bird and can run up to 30 mph (meep meep).
• The turquoise which is prominently displayed and sold around New Mexico and Santa Fe is now mostly mined in Arizona and Nevada, as the mines in New Mexico are mostly depleted.
• The windows on the cathedral in Santa Fe were made in France and shipped packed in molasses so they wouldn’t break.
• Santa Fe is where the Rocky Mountains begin with the Sangre de Cristos starting here, just outside of town.
• New Mexico is the chili pepper capitol of the world and, as such, the official state question is “red or green”, meaning chili sauce. Both red and green chili sauce is called “Christmas”.

This is just the tip of Allen’s story iceberg. You’ll just have to go to get the rest.

Meow Wolf. For a more 21st century experience, on our way out of town we visited the original Meow Wolf, “the House of Eternal Return”. Santa Fe resident and creator of the Game of Thrones series George R. R. Martin played an instrumental role in its creation. Despite having a Meow Wolf ten minutes from our house in Denver, we went in totally blind. Well, almost totally. We did watch the short video in the “plan for your visit” email included with your pre-purchased tickets.

If you’ve not been, it’s trippy. Closets and hidden panels open into secret rooms, forests or brightly colored displays. You search for bats and hamsters and play sounds on a mastodon’s bones. The escape roomists in us found ourselves frustrated after 90 minutes brought us no closer to a solution to the mystery. But, of course, as Google revealed, there is none. At least not for most of us and certainly not in 90 minutes. But I guess why else would they call it the House of Eternal Return?

The art lovers in us appreciated it for what it was. Our inner germophobes were glad that most of the “clues” were also on the free app which guides you around and helps you stop where there are things to be discovered. And my teenaged, stoned self would have had his mind blown and returned, eternally, as they say, to experience an immersive mystery/sci-fi/art exhibit which would have rivaled his late-night love of Pink Floyd The Wall.

With 20 local museums, scenic mountains and several National Parks nearby, the hot springs of Ojo Caliente, a bustling art scene and a great food scene there’s so much to see and do here and there’s always a reason to come back. So we do.