Fascinating New Mexico Excursions
Northern New Mexico is filled with fascinating and fun places to explore. Browse the list below for places to visit near Santa Fe, including local wineries, fiber artists' studios, historic mining towns, and a national wildlife reserve.
New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails
Travel the New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails, three fascinating self-guided driving tours along scenic rural roads that reveal New Mexico's rich heritage of fiber arts. Whether you drive the Northwest, North Central, or Southern loops, you'll encounter vibrant communities of traditional and contemporary weavers, quilters, knitters, basket makers and other fiber artists.
Visit a community of Navajo weavers and several trading posts on the Northwest Loop and buy high quality handwoven Navajo rugs. On the North Central loop, learn about embroidered manta cloth and other Pueblo fiber arts at Santa Clara Pueblo and visit the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center, a thriving nonprofit supporting more than 400 artists and entrepreneurs. On the Southern loop, visit museums exhibiting fiber arts and, in Silver, City, The Common Thread, home to the Southwest Women's Fiber Arts Collective.
This is just a small taste of what you'll encounter on New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails, a project of New Mexico Arts. The journeys feature more than 200 fiber artists at more than 70 locations. Click on the link above to download the New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails guide.
Visit a community of Navajo weavers and several trading posts on the Northwest Loop and buy high quality handwoven Navajo rugs. On the North Central loop, learn about embroidered manta cloth and other Pueblo fiber arts at Santa Clara Pueblo and visit the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center, a thriving nonprofit supporting more than 400 artists and entrepreneurs. On the Southern loop, visit museums exhibiting fiber arts and, in Silver, City, The Common Thread, home to the Southwest Women's Fiber Arts Collective.
This is just a small taste of what you'll encounter on New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails, a project of New Mexico Arts. The journeys feature more than 200 fiber artists at more than 70 locations. Click on the link above to download the New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails guide.
New Mexico Wineries
New Mexico is the oldest wine-producing region in the country. Spanish missionaries brought the first grape vines here when they journeyed to an Indian pueblo near Socorro nearly 400 years ago and began making sacrificial wine for religious ceremonies. The tradition continues today, with more than two dozen winemakers across the state producing an impressive variety of wine using grapes that thrive beneath New Mexico's famous turquoise skies. You can sample these award-winning wines in tasting rooms around the state and at annual festivals and other events. Click on the above web link for driving maps, tasting room and winery locations, and more information.
Madrid
Madrid, New Mexico
Madrid, a booming coal town from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, was on the verge of extinction when artists infused new life in the 1970s.
Located 23 miles south of Santa Fe on State Highway 14, known as the Turquoise Trail, Madrid today is a thriving town of galleries, shops, studios and eateries. There's an annual blues festival in May and a traditional Christmas outdoor light display that dates from its mining days. Visit the Old Coal Mine Museum to learn more about Madrid's mining era.
Located 23 miles south of Santa Fe on State Highway 14, known as the Turquoise Trail, Madrid today is a thriving town of galleries, shops, studios and eateries. There's an annual blues festival in May and a traditional Christmas outdoor light display that dates from its mining days. Visit the Old Coal Mine Museum to learn more about Madrid's mining era.
Tesuque
Tesuque, New Mexico
Five miles north of Santa Fe lies the peaceful picturesque town of Tesuque, settled in 1740 as a small Hispanic village and named after the nearby Tesuque Pueblo. The area's orchards, pastures and cottonwood trees contribute to the beautiful scenery, as does the Santa Fe National Forest to the east. There are some great hiking trails in the area as well as two popular restaurants, a celebrated foundry and outdoor sculpture garden, and a glass works gallery and studio. Take Bishop's Lodge Road north out of Santa Fe and you'll wind your way there on the scenic route or follow U.S. Highway 285/84 north to Exit 168.
Village of Cerrillos
Cerrillos, New Mexico
Cerrillos, which originated in the 1870s as a bustling gold and silver mining town, is now a quiet, tree-lined village with a population of 200, located 20 miles south of Santa Fe on State Highway 14, known as the Turquoise Trail. Centuries before gold and silver was extracted from the surrounding hills, Native Americans and Spanish settlers mined the area for turquoise.
Today, historic adobe and western buildings line the dirt streets, including a bar and grocery, old opera house and St. Joseph's Church. Visit the Mining Museum, Cerrillos Cultural Center and Petting Zoo. Enjoy a self-guided walking tour around the village with the aid of signs posted on many of the buildings, revealing the rich history of Cerrillos, which is Spanish for "little hills."
Today, historic adobe and western buildings line the dirt streets, including a bar and grocery, old opera house and St. Joseph's Church. Visit the Mining Museum, Cerrillos Cultural Center and Petting Zoo. Enjoy a self-guided walking tour around the village with the aid of signs posted on many of the buildings, revealing the rich history of Cerrillos, which is Spanish for "little hills."
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Reserve
(505) 835-1828
People passionate about birds and nature flock to the beautiful Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Reserve. "The Bosque," as it's affectionately called, provides a winter home from November through February to thousands of sandhill cranes, Canadian geese, bald eagles and other birds and wildlife. Watching the birds take wing for their morning fly-outs then land during their evening fly-ins is an utterly magical experience.
The annual Festival of the Cranes, held in mid-November, celebrates the return of the cranes with tours, lectures, exhibits and more.
The Bosque is worth visiting anytime of year. During spring, resident birds breed and nest and colorful wildflowers bloom. Summer brings hundreds of hummingbirds as well as pheasant and quail. Keep watch for year-round residents, including mule deer, elk, coyotes, turkey and roadrunners. The Bosque has great hiking trails, too.
This unforgettable day trip is a 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive from Santa Fe. Take I-25 South to exit 139, travel east 1/4 mile and turn right on Highway 1, then drive south nine miles to the Visitor Center.
The annual Festival of the Cranes, held in mid-November, celebrates the return of the cranes with tours, lectures, exhibits and more.
The Bosque is worth visiting anytime of year. During spring, resident birds breed and nest and colorful wildflowers bloom. Summer brings hundreds of hummingbirds as well as pheasant and quail. Keep watch for year-round residents, including mule deer, elk, coyotes, turkey and roadrunners. The Bosque has great hiking trails, too.
This unforgettable day trip is a 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive from Santa Fe. Take I-25 South to exit 139, travel east 1/4 mile and turn right on Highway 1, then drive south nine miles to the Visitor Center.
