WE APPROACH WHITE SANDS NATIONAL PARK from Las Cruces on I-70, climbing up and over the jagged Organ Mountains. The desert is stark out here, beautiful but ominous. After passing military installation…
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FROM THE SKY at last year’s Red Rock Balloon Rally, the contours of Gallup make a stunning kind of sense. When it’s rising over the city’s eastern side just past dawn, a hot-air balloon turns out to…
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NO SIGN HANGS OUTSIDE Milk of the Poppy, but that’s part of the fun in finding the medieval apothecary-themed bar. Instead, an illuminated carved poppy on the adobe wall by the entrance seems to…
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ON THE HIGH ROAD to Taos, the landscape keeps changing. Back in Santa Fe, the earth felt hot and dry. But as I approach Nambé on NM 76, the scenic byway’s unofficial starting point, sandy ground…
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AS THE JEEP TIRES scrape near the edge of the gravel road, driver Gary Swinford prompts, “See how steep it is?” You can’t miss it. The gravel slope drops so precipitously that the ridgeline on the far…
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IT’S A FRIDAY NIGHT in June, and dozens of businesses along Santa Fe’s Canyon Road have flung open their doors to host early summer crowds. Galleries buzz with happy activity, their snug, homey…
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I’M MESMERIZED BY A SWIRL of colors in the lobby of the Inn of the Five Graces. Luxurious tapestries, antique carpets, sumptuous fabric-covered sofas and pillows, and geometric-patterned tiles fill…
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FOR TWO DECEMBER EVENINGS, farolitos light the stacked sandstone walls of the mission church at the Jemez Historic Site. Even more of the paper lanterns follow the surrounding half-standing walls that…
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THE AUGUST SUN BEATS DOWN ON the lively patio of Refinery 14, where NM 14 ambles through the center of Madrid. Hemmed by a rough coyote fence under a gnarled salt cedar, the former outdoor space of…
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