Northern New Mexico

By Charu Suri

March 1st, 2010

This year marks the 400th cultural anniversary of Santa Fe, which is one of New Mexico’s most important historical markers.

Santa Fe

City Different

If you are planning to visit New Mexico, you’ll probably fly into Albuquerque. This city is alive with living history museums, spas, shopping and golf courses. You can take day trips to Santa Fe, which is north of the city (you can travel by rail or by road along Route 85).

However, many visitors find Santa Fe is the real gem and sight to see. This city is awash with historical and cultural diversions, and if you are a true history buff, you’ll take two weeks off work and spend time in this city, among others we will highlight.

This city nestles at the foot of the Rocky Mountains at 7,000 feet and is known as the “City Different.” Santa Fe is well known for its adobe-style houses: cafe mocha color walls are everywhere. Spaniards established the “villa” in 1610. It is the oldest capital city in the United States.

The city is a melting pot of cultures. Native Americans settled in the area well before 1610. Also contributing to the evolution of this rich town are influences from Hispanic, European and African-American peoples.

There are many interesting bits of information pertinent to this region. Did you know that “Ben-Hur” was written here, or that D.H. Lawrence lived here? Albert Einstein, when assisting with the Manhattan Project, visited the famous La Fonda hotel.

One of the main attractions in Santa Fe is La Fonda On the Plaza hotel (www.lafondasantafe.com), which sits on the oldest hotel corner in America. The Spaniards came to Santa Fe in 1607 and among the earliest businesses established was an inn (or “fonda”) at the same location where the modern La

Fonda hotel lies. Currently, it is a repository of richly adorned rooms and historical tales that you’ll never tire of. It is considered a national landmark and treasure.

Another key attraction in Santa Fe is the Palace of the Governors (www.palaceofthegovernors.org), which flanks the buzzing center of town called the plaza. The palace was constructed in the 17th century, and was Spain’s seat of government for the entire region that is the Southwest.

You can’t miss the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, which was reconstructed to replace an older church that was destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1869. This Roman Catholic church has a figure of a Native American saint in front of it and is almost dead center of the plaza. There are masses

held daily.

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum (www.okeeffemuseum.org) boasts an extraordinary amount of work of the painter, who was a Southwestern legend. The museum hosts more than 3,000 of her pieces, including sketches, watercolors, oil paintings and sculpture.

If you have a thirst for art, you must visit Canyon Road, which is a mile-long feast of all sorts of galleries filled with art from local artists for nearly a century. Whatever type of art form you crave, this place – the secondlargest art market in the nation – will offer you what you need. There are more than 100 art galleries and studios, specialty shops and studios. Visit www.canyonroadarts.com for more information.

Los Alamos

The Town That Never Was

Los Alamos may well be a sliver out of the X-files. It can seem aloof (it’s set in the mountains) and it played a serious role at the end of World War II

by being the site of the development of the atom bomb.

If you visit the Bradbury Science Museum, located in the heart of the town, you’ll want to see the 16-minute documentary called “The Town That Never Was,” which tells a fascinating story about the years 1942-1945. The Los Alamos National Laboratory was known as Site Y and its project director was Robert Oppenheimer.

For obvious reasons, the existence of this site was a secret then (all correspondence was addressed to P.O. Box 1663 so no one would know where the recipients were).

Even today, the Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of the largest research and scientific institutions in the country. It is the largest employer in northern New Mexico, with more than 12,000 employees and an annual budget of approximately $2.2 billion.

If you’ve been a scientist, tinkerer and a fan of all things historical, you’ll feel like a pig in mud in Los Alamos. But apart from the scientific richness that lies here, there is so much culture and history to see and take in. Los Alamos is about a 45-minute drive from Santa Fe and steps away from the centuries-old Puebloan ruins of the Bandelier National Monument. The town is more than 7,000 feet above sea level and has four seasons, with an average winter snowfall of about 19 inches.

Bandelier

Home of the Pueblo People

If you are a Native American history buff, then you’ll love Bandelier, which is a national monument that showcases the archaeological footprint of some 3,000 sites inhabited by the Pueblo people.

These hunter-gatherers performed farming, weaving and pottery-making as part of their culture. They hunted for deer, rabbits and birds. In Bandelier, there supposedly were large villages that were built and inhabited by the Pueblo people; some villages exceeded 600 rooms. The Pueblo Committee believes that spiritually, their ancestors still live at Bandelier. Here lie the remnants of their homes, their kivas and their petroglyphs.

If you visit, you’ll get the chance to see multistoried stone homes with hand-carved caves as back rooms. You can also visit the several winding miles of trails and fully immerse yourself in Native American culture and relics.

To schedule a visit or learn more, go to www.nps.gov/band, or call 505-672-3861, ext. 517. There is also a family campground and group campground located within the park, and camping is allowed with a permit obtained at the visitors center.

Red River

The Perfect Inexpensive Family Vacation Spot

A long time ago, Red River was known for its gold, but now it’s a charming 400-person town that is an inexpensive family destination for both winter and summer. In the 1920s and 1930s, Red River was dubbed the “mountain playground” that it still is today.

What can you do at Red River? Plenty. You can horseback ride at the Red River Stables (www.redriverstables.com); go hunting; study the immense amount of flora, fauna and wildflowers surrounding the area; go skiing in the winter; or spend some wild evenings at local bars that stay open well past 10 p.m.

The bed-and-breakfasts here offer inexpensive lodging with spacious rooms and high-quality meals. Everything here has a relaxed, vacation feel about it. Try the River Street and Yellow Rose bed-and breakfasts should you like home-cooked meals in the morning. The Alpine Lodge has a distinct Bavarian feel to it and is very close to Carson National Forest. Red River is located north of Albuquerque. Visit www.redriver.org for more lodging options.

Grand Ranch

The Legend of Georgia O’Keeffe

If you are an art history buff and an O’Keeffe fan, one of the stops on your list in New Mexico has to be Ghost Ranch.

With two locations – one in Abiquiu, where O’Keeffe painted for 50 years, and one in Santa Fe, which she considered an oasis for inspiration – Ghost Ranch is heaven for art lovers and cognoscenti alike.

Ghost Ranch (www.ghostranch.org) was part of a land grant gift to Pedro Martin Serrano from the king of Spain in 1766. The name Ghost Ranch gradually evolved from tales of ghosts and legends in the history of the ranch over the years. It was owned by the Presbyterian Church and for many years the ranch was navigable only by a strip of narrow dirt road from the Chama River.

This is high desert country, and O’Keeffe was attracted by the bones and animal skulls found in this part of the world. The logo of Ghost Ranch is a cow’s skull from a painting that O’Keeffe gave to Arthur Pack, a former owner of Ghost Ranch.

Here, you can see the Chama River flanking the ranch in a quiet trickle. If you take a tour of the ranch, chances are you will ride past O’Keeffe’s house (you won’t be allowed inside) and see the magnificent Sangre de Christo (“Blood of Christ”) mountains in the distance – the same mountains painted by O’Keeffe in vivid and starlit colors.