Land of Enchantment: New Mexico (2024)

SANTA FE, New Mexico’s lore-laden capital city, dates to 1607 in its current form but has Native roots going back 1,000 years or more. Today, it’s noted as a global arts center and a place of multi-dimensional (and multicultural) charms.

CLASSIC FOODS

CHILE Romero Farms’ fiery, cylindrical pepper roaster emits the city’s unofficial fall scent. Marketgoers take home Ziplocs of freshly roasted green and powdered red.
Santa Fe Farmers’ Market, 1607 Paseo de Peralta

SOPAIPILLA These fried, fluffy squares of dough are a dinner-table staple. Order here with honey butter.
Tomasita’s, 500 S Guadalupe St

BREAKFAST BURRITO The Medina family’s taco truck serves up one of the city’s best breakfast burritos. Douse yours in pastel-green secret sauce.
El Chile Toreado, 807 Early St

ART STOPS

IAIA MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY NATIVE ARTS Run by the Institute of American Indian Arts, the museum features exhibits with works by alumni and students, making it one of the best places to see the present and future of Indigenous art.
108 Cathedral Pl

MEOW WOLF In this immersive art experience, crawl through the refrigerator to another dimension.
1352 Rufina Cir Siler Rufina Nexus

SANTA FE PLAZA This historic, shop-lined hub hosts art markets, craft vendors and more.
100 Old Santa Fe Trail

DAY HIKES

SANTA FE BALDY The tallest peak in Santa Fe, with wind-swept views of the Pecos Wilderness (and marmots!). Ideally, camp at Lake Katherine just below, then scramble up the saddle for a morning summit.
Hyde Park Rd

VALLES CALDERA NATIONAL PRESERVE Imagine mammoths roaming this wide-open preserve shaped by volcanic activity, while spotting elk and prairie dogs. Las Conchas, a climbing and hiking area, is just down the road.
39201 Hwy 4, Jemez Springs

BANDELIER NATIONAL MONUMENT Ancestral Puebloans built multistory cliff dwellings before dispersing to modern-day pueblos. Frey Trail dips into a canyon and through the main ruins; connect with Falls Trail for waterfall views inside a colorfully layered canyon.
15 Entrance Rd, Los Alamos

The sandstone cliffs and colorful hills of the Chama River Valley have been home to the Tewa people for thousands of years; they inspire reverence in all who behold it. The painter Georgia O’Keeffe famously fell in love with the landscape surrounding her GHOST RANCH home near Abiquiú, north of Santa Fe. Its umber, orange and cream hills were her constant subjects, rendered in dozens of her beloved paintings.

A dude ranch when O’Keeffe bought it in 1940, Ghost Ranch is now a retreat center. Saddle up for a trail ride to see areas where O’Keeffe sought inspiration, like Cerro Pedernal and the colorful cliffs of Piedra Lumbre. O’KEEFFE HOUSE AND STUDIO is the modern, light-filled adobe home where she lived from 1949 until 1984; a courtyard wall door, which first drew her to the property, appeared in more than 20 paintings.

At PURPLE ADOBE LAVENDER FARM, the lavender grown at high altitude produces oil with a special sweetness. Walk the fragrant fields and taste lavender-infused treats at the teahouse. Cold, sparkling mountain waters flow into ABIQUIU LAKE, its vivid blue a dramatic contrast to the surrounding mountains and mesas. Picnic, boat, camp and take in the view. PLAZA BLANCA’s stunning white rock formations were among O’Keeffe’s fascinations and painting subjects (on the property of Dar al Islam Education Center, but accessible to the public). Fuel up at BODE’S GENERAL STORE, staunch local cafe and grocery since 1890 (when it was also a post office, stagecoach stop and jail). You might catch a bluegrass band playing out front—enjoy a burrito with Bode’s famous chile while you listen. Lodging and dining options are sparse out this way, but ABIQUIU INN, where folks have stayed since O’Keeffe’s day, does the trick with cozy casitas and classic Southwestern fare.

TAOS takes hold of the senses in a profound way, and the landscape’s allure has inspired artists and thinkers for as long as man has known the powerful reaches of northern New Mexico. From Pop Chalee and Joseph Henry Sharp, to Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams, the great ones have tapped into this realm—but amateurs (and even the unskilled) follow the artist’s way here as well. Travelers channel that spirit with a pottery class at the TAOS CLAY STUDIO. Founded in 2002, the studio offers daily two-hour workshops that offer opportunities to glaze and fire previously-shaped works before jumping on the potter's wheel to throw clay. An unforgettable experience in an extraordinary landscape. Classes from $125, taosclay.com

For a deeper artistic dive into the region, enroll in a week-long Plein Air Painting at TAOS ART SCHOOL class: taosartschool.org

“The SAN JUAN RIVER has a reputation as one of the best trout streams in the world, and it deserves it,” says High Desert Angler’s Norman Maktima, a Santa Fe-based fishing guide of Pueblo descent who has been fishing these waters since he was seven. “You’re looking at 15,000 fish per river mile–that’s off the charts for any stream, not just in the Southwest.”

The river is what fishermen call a tailwater, immediately downstream from a dam, which moderates the temperature and makes for good fishing year-round. But what really draws anglers are trophy-sized brown and rainbow trout. Neither are native to New Mexico—browns were imported from Germany and rainbows first observed in Siberia’s Kamchatka peninsula. But some of the best specimens anywhere live in the San Juan, regularly growing to rod-bending, line-snapping proportions. (Check out FISHEADS SAN JUAN RIVER LODGE for a stay-over and guide services; NAVAJO LAKE STATE PARK for camping.)

Founded by Spanish colonists in 1706, ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico’s biggest city, has had a reputation as a dusty, rough-and-tumble town ever since–and that’s not a bad thing. But ease into things via Albuquerque’s serene, historical side by making your base at LOS POBLANOS, an inn that occupies a complex of adobe ranch buildings on the banks of the Rio Grande. Spend the morning wandering the lavender fields (the inn’s farm produces a line of Vogue-endorsed soaps) or sitting by the pool.

When you’re ready for some action, head to the Avenida Cesar Chavez area, where you’ll find astonishing tacos and much more at EL PAISA. Then, take the SANDIA PEAK TRAMWAY up into the ragged granite spires to the east of town. The tram, the longest in the U.S., ascends for 2.7 miles over 15 minutes to 10,000 feet, where you can see heat waves ripple off the desert all the way to Arizona.

For a mellow hangout, try SIDETRACK BREWING COMPANY down by the train station. Or, return to the rough-and-tumble at the cavernous DIRTY BOURBON DANCE HALL & SALOON and see ifl you’re brave enough to give two-stepping a try.

In San Juan County, NM, about 40 miles from Farmington, SHIPROCK, the colossal Four Corners monadnock, rises nearly 1,600 feet out of the desert. In traditional Navajo belief, Tsé Bit’ a’í, or “Rock With Wings,” plays a key role as a key catalyst for the Diné people’s presence in the Southwest. Refer to Navajo Nation regulations when visit; book cultural-immersion experiences through navajotoursusa.com.