New Mexico is one of those destinations consistently underrated, and this is especially baffling when one considers how much the state has to offer: thriving, international cities with world-class museums and architecture as well as unique national parks, rich historic sites, and unparalleled natural splendor. Northern New Mexico, easily accessible from Albuquerque and even Denver, Colorado, makes for a perfect long weekend getaway – simply use the charming capital city, Santa Fe, as your base and you’ll find countless museums, scenic drives, and national parks within reach.
I spent Independence Day weekend of 2016 exploring northern New Mexico, and probably snapped about nine hundred photographs. If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you know I can get a little shutter-happy, I was particularly excited since this excursion marked my first visit to a desert locale since my pre-teen years, when my parents took my sister and I to Arizona and all we wanted to do was swim in our hotel’s pool. Since I was a kid, I knew I didn’t fully appreciate the bold desert hues and adobe architecture, and I’ve since longed to return to the region.
This jaunt into the American Southwest was completely different, and not just because the pool at our hotel was quite terrible. Santa Fe itself feels off-the-beaten-path, and even on a holiday weekend, the city and surrounding parks didn’t have large crowds and traffic jams. I found it to be the perfect, low-stress place to unwind, especially given that two weeks before our adventure, Kevin and I moved to Denver from Washington, D.C. and we epitomized burnt out.
For the record, I do not recommend visitors to Santa Fe stay at America’s Best Value Inn – Lamplighter. The hotel room was dirty, the door didn’t reliably work, and the breakfast was horribly cooked with few places to sit. Seriously, one of the tables had, like, crusted jelly stuck to it that somehow evaded the cleaning staff. Ew!
Anyways, I figure, what better way to convince you to visit northern New Mexico than with a photo gallery, a compilation of shots I took over 4th of July weekend featuring Santa Fe and it’s lovely surrounding areas? Personally, I can’t wait to one day go back – there’s still some highlighted sights in my pocket guide book I wanted to check out but we didn’t have time for.
