In a piece for Fathom, one of my most favorite travel websites, writer Kate Donnelly wrote, "The new Mexico sky never has a bad day." So true! Montana is known as Big Sky Country (also true), but there is something different about the New Mexican sky, in whatever part of the state you're in. Both my husband and I have been to New Mexico previously, though not together, and it had been a long while; so in May, we went to Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos. Here are some brief notes and highlights:
Las Cruces, 41 miles from the U.S./Mexico border (nearest airport is El Paso, 53 miles away) has 320 days of sunshine a year. Founded in 1849, it has a population of 113,888 (it's New Mexico's second largest city) and is at 3,9000 feet elevation. It's not charming like Santa Fe or Taos, but it is not without things of interest, notably Mesilla, the historic community that is part of the Las Cruces metropolitan area. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 attracted early settlers to Mesilla - the Treaty effectively ended the Mexican-American War, and Mexico ceded 55% of its territory (including the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming). Mesilla was established as a colony by the early 1850s, around the time that the U.S. and Mexico settled the boundary dispute that arose from the Treaty. The settlement, known as the Gadsden Purchase, was agreed upon in November 1854, when the Mexican flag was taken down and the U.S. flag raised. In July 1861, 300 Texas troops led by Confederate Colonel John Baylor captured Fort Fillmore, just outside of Mesilla. After defeating the Union troops, Baylor named Mesilla as the capital of the new Confederate Territory of Arizona. The Civil War ended in Mesilla in 1862 after Baylor and his troops retreated to Texas. By the 1870s, Mesilla was in its prime, and it attracted lots of businessmen as well as men like Billy the Kid, who was tried and sentenced to death by hanging in 1881. At one time, Mesilla was actually the largest U.S. town between San Antonio and San Diego, but when it was decided that the new railway would be built in Las Cruces, the town was no longer thriving. Many Mesilla residents today are direct descendants of its early settlers, and they are a true representation of the community's Native-American, Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo-American heritage.
Due to its historical significance in the state and the nation, Old Mesilla Plaza was declared a New Mexico state monument in 1957. It was also listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and in 1985, all of Mesilla's historic district was added to the Registry. The basilica of San Albino was built on the plaza in 1855, and the original church was adobe and had only one steeple. The church there today was built in the early 1900s around the adobe church, so when it was finished, the old church was dismantled inside the new church and carried out the front door. The Mesilla Official Visitors Guide, copies of which are available just about everywhere, includes a One Mile Historic Mesilla Walk About and it features nine stops around the plaza. Other properties around the historic town may be found on the MyMesilla app and at the Town of Mesilla site.
There are chain hotels aplenty in Las Cruces and not any distinctive lodgings that I found, so I think the only thing to do is stay at Casita Azul, less than a minute's walk from the plaza in Mesilla. It's a VRBO property that is charming, authentic, historic, and perfectly located. The host is wonderful and she's a descendant of the noteworthy Taylor family of Mesilla.
Las Cruces is an official food desert, so the only smart thing to do is eat New Mexican or Mexican food (the differences between the two are subtle). Perhaps the major difference is the chile (a plural word, like sheep in English), which is the state's official vegetable as New Mexico is the chile capital of the world. New Mexico is also the only state with a state question, which is, red, green, or Christmas? (it refers to the diner's choice of sauce.) It's hard to overestimate the importance of chile as it's as indistinguishable from the day to day life of New Mexico as water, air, or sunshine. Hatch is synonymous with green chile while Chimayó is known for its red chile. In Mesilla and Las Cruces we enjoyed drinks and meals at Andele's Dog House, Dry Point Distillers, El Chanate, La Posta, and The Bean at Josefina's Old Gate Cafe. Dry Point Distillers is especially fun because the folks here use New Mexican products in their spirit blends, which include vodka, gin, whiskey, bourbon, tequila, and mezcal, as well as local beers.
The Mesilla Book Center is a great bookstore, and Heart of the Desert Pistachios in Las Cruces is the place to buy a variety of nuts (and other culinary specialties) because both pistachios and pecans are major crops in New Mexico - the top three pecan-producing states are Georgia, New Mexico, and Texas. Unfortunately, both pistachios and pecans require a lot of water, more water than New Mexico can likely provide on a regular basis, so time will tell if all the nut growers will survive.
The Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park is well worth a visit. It opened only in 2008 as New Mexico's 34th state park, and provides an oasis for many species of plants and animals as well as for people with its garden and nature trails. The Spanish word for forest is bosque but in New Mexico it refers to the plants and trees that grow along a river. Scientists who study river ecosystems estaimte that more than 95 percent of these native areas along the Rio Grande River are gone, making it a priority to preserve the ecosystems that remain. Here in the Mesilla Valley the bosque and the Chihauhaun Desert come together within the park to form an ecotone, an area rich in its variety of plant and animal life from both ecological communities. As a result, a diversity of the flora and fauna abound. The park also lies on one of the main north-south flyways, so birding is one of the prime activities. New Mexico has approximately 500 species of birds and 60% live along the Rio Grande. The park's walking trails are considered easy - they are basically flat - and the park is open 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. year round.
Albuquerque was our next stop where we stayed with friends in Placitas, just outside of the city. Much has been said about crime in Albuquerque and apparently there are areas where it isn't particularly safe to wander; but certainly the historic section around Plaza Vieja (Old Town Plaza) is fine, attractive, and interesting - Albuquerque was the main commercial center for the Rio Grande valley until the 1880 arrival of the railroad, one and a half miles east of the plaza. The area around the plaza is representative of a traditional Hispanic city, and most of the buildings date from 1870 to 1900.
San Felipe de Neri Church and Rectory (1793), on the plaza
From Albuquerque we visited Santa Fe only for an afternoon and evening - had a fun time at the bar and a very good dinner at The Compound on Canyon Road - and the following day, when we had a great lunch at Cafe Pasqual's. Strolling around the famous landmark hotel La Fonda is fun even if you're not staying there, and I love these painted windows (below) at its La Plazuela restaurant. La Fonda, open since 1922, was recreated in the Pueblo Revival style on the site of previous hotels and has hosted movie stars, monarchs, and plenty of regular guests, too.
The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum is a must-see, and among my favorite canvases there are 'Red Maple' (1922) and 'My Front Yard, Summer, 1941.' At the New Mexico Museum of Art, I really liked her 'Chama River, Ghost Ranch' (1937) as well as 'Santa Fe Hills' (1917) by Leon Kroll.
The Palace of the Governors is the longest continually occupied public building in the U.S., and inside is the New Mexico History Museum which is fantastic. I recommend setting aside several hours for this as all the sections are incredibly well presented.
We drove on the high road from Santa Fe to Taos, which is so pretty. When I had previously driven it, my friend and I stopped at Rancho de Chimayó for lunch at its restaurant, definitely a highlight.
In Taos we stayed at Palacio de Marquesa which is a short distance from the historic center. I think having a drink at the bar in the Taos Inn is de rigueur and there is a happy hour. We had a great dinner at La Cueva and a good lunch at Orlando's. The Social Club in Taos is an outpost of Dry Point Distillers and is a great place to while away an evening. The Harwood Museum of Art is excellent and I especially like its permanent collection, with works by The Taos Society of Artists; but the story of two paintings that were stolen from the museum in 1985 captivated my attention, and it turns out that only a few weeks after our visit the two works were returned to the museum by the FBI. The full story appeared in Smithsonian (and in ArtNews, among others). I visited the Millicent Rogers Museum on my first visit as well as Taos Pueblo, both of which are excellent. The surprise of this trip is that I discovered the Rio Grande Gorge, which I somehow did not know about the first time I was here. This seems impossible to me now, but there you have it. The Gorge was the highlight of the entire trip (some photos below)...
Yes, this sheep really was that close!
The bridge is often referred to as steel arch bridge but it's more properly a continuous steel deck truss. It's 565 feet high and is 1,272 feet long, and was fabricated by the American Bridge Company and erected by J. H. Ryan and Son in 1965. In 1997, the bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Gorge at this location is approximately 1,200 feet wide and 600 feet deep and it's just an incredible site to see. The Rio Grande followed the lowest and least resistant path in making its way over 1,885 miles from the San Juan Mountains in Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. The river flows south down the Rio Grande Rift through a series of long narrow valleys from Alamosa in Colorado to El Paso in Texas. For 82 miles, from Lobatos Bridge, Colorado to Velarde, New Mexico, the river cuts into the rift to form the Rio Grande Gorge. There were not many people here when we visited, and when we set off on one of the paths along the rim we passed only about six people. After we saw the sheep, I told two women who were approaching that the sheep was just ahead. I didn't know they were locals who are fortunate to be able to walk here whenever they want, and they told us that there used to be a lot more sheep "until all these people started showing up." !! When we left, we noticed that were about twenty sheep hanging out in an area next to the parking lot.
We ended our trip at Los Poblanos, a wonderful inn about six miles from Albuquerque. It's a 25-acre, family-owned business dedicated to preservation and sustainability, and it's one of the most historically significant properties in the Southwest - its buildings were designed in 1932 by the region's foremost architect, John Gaw Meem, the "Father of Santa Fe Style." Los Poblanos, ranked by Bon Appétit as a 'Top 10 Hotel for Food Lovers in America,' is best known for its Campo restaurant and for its lavender. Campo's menu features many items grown on the hotel's farm as well as provisions sourced from longstanding local farmers and herdsmen. Bar Campo features the largest selection of spirits in New Mexico, and its mixology team includes a full-time botanical distiller who creates infusions, bitters, liqueurs, syrups, aperitivi, and small-batch barrel-aged spirits. Campo's wine list was voted Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence since 2021. The lavender fields at Los Poblanos bloom from late June to early August, depending on the year, and among the products made from the plants are body lotion, soap, essential oil, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, hair serum, lip balm, and salve, the number one selling product to this day - it was created as an intensive treatment for hard-working hands around the farm, and it contains only five ingredients. The on site farm store is fantastic, a destination in itself, with an excellent curated selection of items (some great for gifts) as well as baked goods, sandwiches, biscochitos (the cookie of New Mexico), packages of pecans, condiments, cocktail rimming salts, etc. Los Poblanos is a special place that I highly recommend. It's quite popular so if you're thinking about going, don't wait until the last minute to reserve.
Side note: we didn't have time to visit the Georgia O'Keeffe Home and Studio, in Abiquiu. This is her adobe house is exactly as she left it when she died in 1986, and I hear it's incredible and very much worth the $65 admission fee. I read Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O'Keeffe by Laurie Lisle (Atria, 1997) many years ago and loved it and I don't believe another work has surpassed this one. Another great read is 'Georgia O'Keeffe's Vision' by Calvin Tomkins (The New Yorker, 25 February, 1974). At the time Tomkins visited O'Keeffe in Abiquiu, she was 86 (she was born in 1887 and died in 1986), and among the many revealing quotes in the piece is one where Terrie Newsom, the woman who looked after O'Keeffe, said that when people ask whether Miss O'Keeffe has only one dress, she explains that "Miss O'Keeffe has a hundred dresses, but they're all alike, except that some are black instead of white."
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