Santa Fe – Sues Wanderings

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.

Fun blues band at the Mine shaft tavern

And this duo was playing across the street at the Hollar restaurant.

Lots of colorful little art shops in Madrid.

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.

Chispa and Bean enjoying a hike at Ghost ranch

Quite a few movies were filmed here at this location .

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 !!

Santa Fe is known as the City Different and within one visit, you will know why. Santa Fe embodies a rich history, melding Hispanic, Anglo and Native American cultures whose influences are apparent in everything from the architecture, the food, the art and on. Remember, we’re seated at an elevation of 7,000 feet, so come and partake of 320 sunny days per year.

Santa Fe is definitely one of the most unique cities in the U.S. It kind of feels like you are in Mexico. Adobe houses are the standard and Coyote fences. Turquoise Jewelry, Chiles , spicy southwest food, Very old historic building abound. Beautiful area as well, surrounded by mountains.

So, I was very excited to get a month long house sit in Santa Fe for the month of January. Started out good , however I was surprised to see so much snow and such cold temperatures. Apparently it is unusual for Santa Fe to get this much snow. Of course I am only talking 5 inches in each storm that has passed thru since I have been here , however Santa fe is not prepared for snow. I don’t think they have but a couple of snowplows and most people do not have snow tires on their vehicles.

I am taking care of two lovely dogs named Chispa and Bean in a cute , colorful house very near to downtown Santa Fe.

When I arrived the whole downtown was lit up with Beautiful and colorful Christmas lights !!!

I did get to town to wander around and look at all the lovely Indian Jewelry and lots of great shops in Santa Fe and do a little hiking with the dogs before I got sick. I also made it twice to 10000 waves. A very nice spa . https://tenthousandwaves.com

Then I got sick. What I thought was the flu turned out to be Pneumonia so I have now been stuck in the house , feeling totally crappy for about 12 days. Actually , starting to feel somewhat better and my time is ticking out. I hope to d0 some more sightseeing in the next 2 weeks that I have left here. There are some small towns nearby that I really wanted to explore. So, hopefully will make another post soon about the small, eclectic, artist town of Madrid. Meanwhile , here are a few more photos of beautiful Santa Fe.