{"id":1965,"date":"2024-01-04T01:10:07","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T01:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/melsatlas.com\/?p=1965"},"modified":"2024-01-04T01:10:07","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T01:10:07","slug":"new-mexico-review-why-go-what-to-do-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melsatlas.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/04\/new-mexico-review-why-go-what-to-do-see\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW MEXICO REVIEW: WHY GO; WHAT TO DO & SEE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEW MEXICO REVIEW: WHY GO; WHAT TO DO & SEE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 2023 and many times in the past<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of my past memories of New Mexico center on Santa Fe, a place I found abundant in the things I love, coffee, great spicy food, mountains to hike, and a European shoe store with walkable stylish boots.\u00a0 And then there were the silver coin margaritas.\u00a0 I always flew home with a burning stomach but well worth it.\u00a0 This trip felt different \u2013 the energy had changed.\u00a0 Or maybe it was being here alone for the first time. In any event, I still enjoyed my time but it wasn\u2019t the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LOS ALAMOS.\u00a0 In all my past visits to Santa Fe, I had yet to explore Los Alamos.\u00a0 I ended up here by default given I was arriving much later than anticipated and I needed a clean place to rest my head before heading to Bandelier.\u00a0 Turned out Los Alamos is quite nice with parks, a Natural Foods, clean and affordable lodging (well, relative to Santa Fe), proximity to Bandelier, and the very cool Bradbury Science Museum. This is a free museum tracing the history of the WWII Manhattan Project and covers the Los Alamos lab\u2019s research projects.\u00a0 I spent hours here and thank my friend Bill for the recommendation.\u00a0 You can do a virtual tour here: https:\/\/storage.net-fs.com\/hosting\/5224642\/0\/index.htm<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BANDELIER NATIONAL MONUMENT.\u00a0 This park includes 33,000 acres of canyon and mesa country and includes cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, and masonry villages, once occupied by ancestral pueblo people for about 11,000 years through the 1500\u2019s.\u00a0 The area is beautiful but more importantly, so interesting to climb the various ladders into the cliff dwellings and see the exteriors of what look like early nature formed apartment buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bandelier National Monument<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Early Apartment Complexes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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View from a Cliff Dwelling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

SANTA FE.\u00a0 Still a great place even with some not so great changes like Pasqual\u2019s charging $37 for a chicken enchilada and $19 for a basic margarita (I left and went to Tomasita\u2019s which, while maybe not quite as good, allowed me to have the same meal and margarita for way less and included some great conversations at the bar with visitors and locals alike).\u00a0 I still managed to get in a great hike up Atalaya Mountain via Dale Ball Trails which helped me burn off the amazing and big Tup\u2019s burrito I had for breakfast at the Pantry (original location and so yummy I ate the entire thing even though I was full from the night before). \u00a0Lots of things to do like shop in the square and Canyon Row, visit the Georgia O\u2019Keeffe Museum, get a massage and tour the grounds at a Thousand Waves, check out Tesuque Village, and sample loads of Hatch chile sauces \u2013 everyday can be Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View from Atalaya Mountain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Dale Balls or Atalaya Trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Parched Rio Grande in 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

TAOS.\u00a0 Best explored in the winter as a ski destination, however, the drive along the Rio Grande (which when I went years ago was more like the Rio Pequeno with the drought having taken its toll) is quite lovely with beautiful bridges crossing the gorge.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bridge over the Rio Grande on the way to Taos from Santa Fe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CHIMAYO.\u00a0 People flock here not only for the Chimayo chilis, but to make the journey to El Santuario de Chimayo, a Catholic pilgrimage center with a side chapel having a dirt floor reputed to have healing powers.\u00a0 The dirt did not help me nor did it heal my dad\u2019s cancer (I brought back some dirt from the pit just in case given he was a devout Catholic and all) but worth the side trip if you have the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Return to home<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW MEXICO REVIEW: WHY GO; WHAT TO DO & SEE September 2023 and many times in the past Most of my past memories of New Mexico center on Santa Fe, a place I found abundant in the things I love, coffee, great spicy food, mountains to hike, and a European shoe store with walkable stylish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-united-states"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Mel","author_link":"https:\/\/melsatlas.com\/index.php\/author\/melsestogmail-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"NEW MEXICO REVIEW: WHY GO; WHAT TO DO & SEE September 2023 and many times in the past Most of my past memories of New Mexico center on Santa Fe, a place I found abundant in the things I love, coffee, great spicy food, mountains to hike, and a European shoe store with walkable stylish…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/melsatlas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/melsatlas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/melsatlas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melsatlas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melsatlas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1965"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/melsatlas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2077,"href":"https:\/\/melsatlas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965\/revisions\/2077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/melsatlas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melsatlas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melsatlas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}