Cool places near Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Recently I spent a month in Santa Fe, New Mexico and although I ended sick with pneumonia for a good part of my time there I did manage a few days out and about. I did an earlier post about Santa Fe here;

https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/sueswanderings.com/1726

Now I want to show you a few places I went just outside of Santa Fe. First was the little artistic town of Madrid. Madrid is a small town that is about 30 miles out of Santa Fe on the Turquoise trail . Nestled on the northeast side of the Sandia Mountains is Madrid, New Mexico. Sitting midway along The Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway, Madrid is categorized as a ghost towneven though this small village of about 400 residents is bustling during the summer months with shops, restaurants, and galleries catering to the many visitors along this ancient path.h

I found Madrid to be a quirky little town with some quirky and interesting people , little colorful art shops, a few restaurants and bars. I happened to go on a Sunday which was a great pick as the main Saloon in town had live music. Met some very friendly people here at the Mine shaft tavern which happened to have a great little blues band playing.

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I definitely enjoyed Madrid. The rest of the Turquoise trail was not quite as exciting . The drive into Madrid was beautiful though from Santa Fe.

Another day trip from Santa Fe that I would highly recommend for the beauty of the area is Georgia O’Keefe’s ghost ranch. You can learn more about that here. https://www.ghostranch.org/

I and the doggies did a 3 mile hike at the property and Wow !! What beautiful scenery there. Of course it was the inspiration for a lot of O’Keefe’s art work. Here are some photos of Ghost ranch and of our hike.

Beautiful area with cabins to stay over in and a campground that looked pretty nice. I would love to go back and camp for a couple nights in the lovely campground. To watch the sunset over those colorful rocks would be truly amazing.

And last but not least. One of my favorite day trips was to Ojo Caliente hot springs which is about an hour drive from Santa Fe but well worth it and a great place to relax for the day. https://www.ojospa.com/ 

I love a good Hot springs and Ojo Caliente did not let me down. Many pools to choose from with varying temperatures, beautiful background, sauna, hiking trails, complete with a wine bar and a restaurant for after. Really a great place to spend the day.

Had I not gotten sick with pneumonia I would have done a lot more exploring of Santa Fe and surrounding towns. I guess I will just have to go back one day !!