I had visited Santa Fe once before on my 2015 road trip, albeit not for very long, but I remember the unique flavor of architecture, and its positions nestled up in the foothills of some of New Mexico's highest mountains. On this visit, we planned out a full day-trip to the area, featuring the Saturday morning farmer's market, two museums (NM International Folk Museum, and NM History Museum), with a little time to walk around the downtown area, and then I wanted to drive up to the Santa Fe ski area lookout before we left town since I had tent-camped up there on my last trip in a late-season snowstorm.
We left Albuquerque late morning, wanting to get a little more rest after our confusion finding the AirBnB the previous night. The trip up I-25 in daylight gave us a better picture of things, and we noticed that the city did a nice job of blending into the surrounding landscape colors by using dusty pink signposts that looked a bit like huge cactus arms. We were hoping to encounter some tumbleweed flocks crossing the road, but I guess it was the wrong area or wrong season? We did see a few tumbleweeds stuck on fences nearby the road, so maybe those are doing the job of keeping them off the road itself. I recall encountering them before while driving at night, and that's so scary because they look just like a herd of animals.
Driving from Albuquerque to Sante Fe, we would climb 2000' up to over 7000, though the slope is very gradual, since it's still within the valley technically speaking. We got into town just before lunchtime, and got a parking spot below the farmer's market, which is located a few blocks southwest of downtown along the railroad for the Railrunner Commuter Line serving central NM. We saw it pass during our visit and it was well decorated with a funny roadrunner painted on the side.
Rail Runner Train
Santa Fe Farmers Market
The market was as you might expect, with tents set up on each side of the main walking area, with an assortment of foods, produce, baked goods, artisan shops, and so forth. We walked down first to see what they had to offer, turning the corner toward a warehouse that was home to a dance class that presumably meets each weekend. They were led by a very energetic woman and a drumming group offering up some groovy beats for everyone circled around the instructor! No pictures or videos allowed here, so you'll have to imagine.
Another warehouse door led us into an indoor part of the market with native-style rugs, small trinkets, leather goods, and clothes. We browsed one clothing rack that had very unique button shirts, with fun, creative patterns and designs. Most of them were one of a kind, so the sizing was hit or miss, but we each found one we liked - you'll see Yilin's pink leopard with sunglasses in the photo below, and I chose an aquarium themed one, which was often stolen by Yilin throughout the remainder of the trip...
Brunch at the market - green chili sausage and garlic flatbread
Feeling hungry, we circled back to a food stand selling enormous green chili sausages that smelled delicious, we had to get a couple. We were assured they weren't spicy, and surprisingly he was right, I was even able to eat it safely. We also got a heart shaped focaccia-style garlic and herb flatbread from an adjacent vendor, and headed into another warehouse building just behind that had a seating area. This was our late brunch, and Yilin was certainly in need of coffee, and conveniently next to our spot was a coffee and ice cream place. I was feeling better after some food in my stomach, and we decided to see what ice cream flavors they offered. Having sadly missed the world's largest pistachio gift shop, Yilin wanted to try some of this flavor, along with the raspberry. The ice cream dude was asking which flavor we wanted on top, and was judging us hard when Yilin said she didn't care either way. He told us there's no way you can have pistachio on top of raspberry, so he made it with pistachio on the bottom, and it turns out he's right, that is the best way.
We found a nice bench in the shade outside to relax and enjoy the ice cream (they gave us very deluxe spoons to eat with, very sturdy and reusable!) We browsed some artisan tents on the other side of the road, passing ornate jewelry, various paintings, wooden carvings, to name a few. My favorite art however was a sticker placed on a trashcan featuring a sombrero-wielding chicken.
We were planning to leave the car by the market and walk what we thought was about 15 minutes to the first museum, but in our haste, we entered the wrong destination into our phone, and the correct location would have had us walking for at least an hour. Back to the car it was, and we took a more reasonable 10 minute car ride over to the Museum of International Folk Art.
Now I have to admit this is not the usual type of destination I visit, or write about for that matter, so sometimes I don't know how to capture or convey the experience of the museum. There were many things to see in all the different rooms, but I will pick out a few of my favorite things that caught my eye and/or made me laugh.
South African telephone wire art
After visiting Fossil Rim, the giraffes stood out to us
A large town scene with an assortment of disproportionately-sized creatures
Band featuring a frog playing... a fish?
I see no problem with 3 accordions and a cello played perched on one leg
Show me a better-looking cat, I challenge you
Oh, maybe these ones?
More animal musicians
I was starting to feel a bit nauseous after walking around the museum, and my first thought was the elevation, since I know Santa Fe is pretty high, but it seemed too severe of a reaction for 7000 feet, since I had to sit and rest so frequently. After feeling fine once outside again, we determined it was probably just such poor air quality inside the building. While it was very pleasant outside, it was as hot as a pizza oven when we got to the car, and we nearly boiled upon entering, even with my sun shield in the window.
Our second museum stop was right in the heart of Santa Fe, only a block from the city plaza, and as it turns out, very nearby to the spot I stopped for dinner on my 2015 trip, but that place no longer exists, since there was a new business in its place. The New Mexico History Museum was fairly hidden, camouflaged with the tan stucco to look like nearly every other building downtown, but we had about an hour left to tour through before their 5pm closing time.
The main themes of New Mexico history featured here were the railroad construction and industry, battles between native and Spanish/Mexican populations over this region, as well as nuclear science development. New Mexico is notable for the Trinity test in July 1945, the world's first nuclear explosion that was part of the Manhattan Project. We had actually passed fairly nearby to the monument of this testing site, which is a ways north of White Sands NP, in the White Sands Missile Range. (Presumably one would need special permission to visit.)
I had to convince Yilin that we weren't supposed to go sit inside this wagon display
An extremely thin rabbit server
A rectangle piano?
Look at the shadows of each colored square
We found a room dedicated to the enormous Zozobra, a traditional growling marionette half-ghost half-monster that is meant to represent our darkest, most resentful thoughts, and is then burned each year to free people from those negative feelings. Since 1924, there has been an annual Zozobra burning, the first one being 6 feet tall, with the modern iteration growing to 50 feet, made of wood, wire, cotton cloth, and stuffed with tons of shredded paper, which, according to the website consists traditionally of obsolete police reports, paid-off mortgages, and sometimes divorce papers. Now the burning occurs around Labor Day each year, and is quite the spectacle for all to experience. If you're in Santa Fe on August 29th this year, you can experience the burning ceremony yourself! (You won't be burned, that's not what I'm saying...)
The infamous Zozobra
After our tour of the museum, we walked to the city plaza and saw someone's RC car driving along the road in between people and actual cars alike, but this car was cool since it could bounce off the ground!
Some beautiful cats for sale in the back of a hidden shop
A short walk further brought us to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Fransis of Assisi (above). As it was approaching dinnertime, we debated whether to eat somewhere in Santa Fe or to wait until we were back at the AirBnB and eat some of the food we had with us. We went with the latter choice since we still hadn't gotten up to the mountain lookout by the ski area north of town, and headed out on NM-475 up to 10,000'. The air was noticeably thinner (for us as well as Apollo) but the view was great, considering I had never seen it in daylight before.
The view from 10k, looking over the valley
Our last venture for the day was a stop at a local Goodwill store to look for a couple items I needed: firstly, a medium sized water bottle that can fit into the car door pocket...the plastic cap on my old one had broken and no longer sealed closed, and also another cooler for our cold storage in the car, the one I brought wasn't quite large enough. The surprise find here was a bright turquoise drawing lap tray with side pockets that would work perfectly as a mobile watercolor station for Yilin to do any artwork in the car or tent. It even had a round pocket for holding a water cup to dip brushes in. So we rearranged the car to fit our new purchases and headed back to Albuquerque to fry up some burgers with ground beef from my own hometown Blackbrook Farm (thanks mom and dad, can you believe we brought it this far?) I also prepared some tortellini with pesto for a picnic lunch to eat the next day while we visited Valles Caldera National Monument!
Day 10 Route map: 171 miles Total mileage: 3300 miles
so happy to catch up. Every place is so interesting.
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