Day Trips Around Santa Fe

Feeling a little wanderlust? New Mexico is full of unique attractions and enchanting sites that are within an hour’s drive of Santa Fe. The Inn on the Alameda is the perfect home base for your exploration.

An exciting day trip will give you a special adventure that takes you off the beaten path into the glory of New Mexico!

The Inspiring Landscape of Georgia O’Keeffe Country

The Jemez Mountains

The road winding to and through the Jemez Mountains northwest of Santa Fe takes you on a route highlighted by a Native American pueblo, prehistoric ruins and cliff dwellings, a vast volcanic crater, and the birthplace of the atom bomb. Just don’t miss these sites:

• San Ildefonso Pueblo: Home of the renowned potter Maria Martinez, whose matte-finish black-on-black pottery revived the ancient craft and took the Pueblo art form to a new level in the 1920s.

• Los Alamos: Once the home of an elite school for boys perched atop an isolated plateau, Los Alamos became the site for the US government’s top-secret nuclear research during WWII and the birthplace of Fat Man and Little Boy, the first and only nuclear arms ever to be deployed.

• The Bradbury Science Museum: The historic Fuller Lodge, once the main building of the aforementioned boarding school for boys, now houses this museum dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history of Los Alamos, from its volcanic origins some 1.4 million years ago through to its status as the home of the Manhattan Project.

• Bandelier National Monument: The Anasazi, ancestors of today’s Pueblo culture, once occupied this complex of cliff dwellings carved into the side of a mountain.

• Tsankawi: An outlying extension of Bandelier National Monument, these unexcavated prehistoric ruins, left in a more natural state than Bandelier, are reached by an ancient two-mile trail that winds through the rock formations, offering a panoramic views.

• Valles Caldera National Preserve: With a diameter of 16 miles, the largest collapsed volcanic caldera in the world is the product of a massive eruption that took place a million years ago.

• Jemez Hot Springs: Natural mineral hot springs are located throughout the Jemez Valley. Some are on public land, while others are on private land and open to the public for a fee.

The Turquoise Trail

The Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway, NM 14, is a leisurely alternative to I-25 when traveling between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. If you are flying either into or out of the Albuquerque International Sunport, this is a different way to see the New Mexico landscape. The route passes to the east of the Sandia Mountains through a handful of old mining towns, where silver, gold, and turquoise, were once carved out of the mineral-rich hillsides.

Cerrillos: This former mining town is such an authentic relic of the Wild West that it frequently serves as a film set for Westerns (“Young Guns,” among others). The frontier spirit lives on in the quirky shops that occupy the petite main drag, where saloons and even an opera house once attracted revelers to the old frontier town. The Cerrillos Hills Historic Park encompasses 1,100 acres of tree-covered hills with miles of trails for hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking. The 1,350-acre Ortiz Mountains Educational Preserve, maintained by the Santa Fe Botanical Garden, offers docent-led hiking tours from April through October with a focus on the plants, animals, geology, and mining history of the mountains.

Golden: In 1825, this tiny place was the site of the first gold rush west of the Mississippi, even before the California and Colorado gold rushes. An old church with a distinctive dome is one of the few remnants of this former mining town, along with a few unique shops selling glass and “antiques.”

Madrid: Pronounced “MAD-rid” by the prospectors and miners who once mined gold and silver and later coal here, the town almost died after the mines closed down. In the 1970s, it was revived by a lively counterculture that cherishes the town’s quirky charm. It has served as a movie set for such films as “Wild Hogs” and “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” The old WPA-era ballpark hosts a blues festival every summer, and the Christmas season is a popular time to visit the boutiques and galleries amid a profusion of holiday lights and decorations. Billed as one of the “last great roadhouses,” the Mine Shaft Tavern and Museum features local bands in a setting that has changed very little since its inception as a tavern catering to workers from the coal mine next door. The mine is now a museum, and the adjacent Engine House Theater presents live performances and seasonal melodramas.

Ghost Ranch

An hour north of Santa Fe near Abiquiu lies 21,000 acres of blue sky, red earth, and sculpted mesas. A land that bridges the gap between past and present, the Ghost Ranch houses the remains of Triassic dinosaurs that populated the land when New Mexico was buffeted by monsoons and covered in water.

The modern history of The Ghost Ranch began in 1766, when Pedro Martin Serrano received the land from Charles III of Spain. Since then, the land has been visited by famous artists including Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams, and it continues to live on in the public eye in movies like “No Country for Old Men.”

While many people visit The Ghost Ranch merely to see the land and light, the Education and Retreat Center offers many activities for visitors:

• Ruth Hall Museum of Paleontology: Visit a museum that preserves and displays the remains of Triassic dinosaurs, including the local discovery, Coelohysis

• Tours: Take a tour of the landscapes that fill the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, and set the stage for popular movies including “The Lone Ranger” and “Cowboys and Aliens”

• Outdoor Activities: Soak in the wonder of the land on one of three hiking trails, or travel down 8 miles of the Rio Chama on a raft

• Workshops: Learn something new in one of over 200 workshops in diverse topics including astronomy, health and wellness, photography, writing, and more