Exploring Local - 48 hours in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Exploring Local - 48 hours in Santa Fe, New Mexico
The Santa Fe Draw: Adobe huts, delicious New Mexican cuisine, Santa Fe vineyards, rustic American Road Trip photos and most importantly Meow Wolf.
Recently we picked out a free weekend and decided to head south out of our home state of Colorado and explore New Mexico. We heard about this venture through a local hair stylist who told us it was only about 5 hours south - so we said what the heck! Let's give Santa Fe a try for the weekend. We made arrangements to leave mid day Friday after completing a half-day of work we were ready to beat the traffic before Denver got finished working for the week. Below I've sketched out our itinerary below - including our extended road trip return where we went north through the state to check out ski town Taos, New Mexico. You'll find necessary links embed on all the activities (if I was able to find a link) if not, I will include some general Santa Fe tourism links at the bottom of this post.
FRIDAY: Depart from Denver around 11am and head directly south out of the state for Santa Fe, New Mexico (approx. 5 hours 45 mins drive time call it 6 hours after gas/food stops). Arrive at our VRBO property (different than using Air Bnb this time) Emily found us an amazing property at a guest house locate on a Santa Fe vineyard. While the property was out of this world beautiful, our hostess was a little bit quirky and particular about her vineyard (needless to say it took us 1.5 hours to check in) but after our check-in we made a quick exit to town. Santa Fe was about 15mins from our guest house (not like the ad described) which we weren't thrilled about after having drove 6 or hours in the car getting to New Mexico. Small hiccup but as world travelers we understand that not everything is going to go perfectly, and sometimes you have to roll with it. We put a smile on our faces as we were excited to explore a new place. We strolled around the town of Santa Fe and got our bearings - working up an appetite we were looking forward to some Mexican style cuisine. The first night we kept it simple; dinner and back to the VRBO - the spot we picked for our meal was the rooftop section of the: Coyote Cafe and Cantina
BENT STREET CAFE & DELI, TAOS, NEW MEXICO
SATURDAY: We learned of a farmers market and art market so decided to fill the day Saturday with strolling Santa Fe's different summer markets (a trend across the Meet You There blog). We start our morning over at the rail road tracks where the Santa Fe Farmer's Market was set to take place. A great collection of food, flowers and other locally sourced goods from nearby farms and ranches - we couldn't resist purchasing some goodies to take back to Denver with us. Emily purchased a couple of succulents from an extensive collection at the Santa Fe farmers market. After spending some time and money at the market it was time to move on to another activity: art gallery visits. We purchased a pair of tickets and entered the Georgia O'Keefe gallery - Santa Fe is known for their enormous array of artists, galleries and art markets. We had big plans Saturday evening and we were really excited to check out Meow Wolf. After working up an appetite and a thirst for beer from walking around the markets we wandered up to the brew spot: The Draft Station.
ANDIAMO! SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
We split up for a brief moment after our Santa Fe craft beers: I wandered into the city square for a New Mexican Fajita from a food cart and Em continued to window shop different market areas sprinkled around town. We made a reservation at a high-rated Italian restaurant called: Andiamo which was a phenomenal pick, highly recommend checking this spot out if your burnt out on all the new-Mex cuisine. Keep reading to learn more about visiting Meow Wolf!
What is Meow Wolf? One might ask curiously before considering visiting this incredible, interactive art warehouse. Meow wolf is trippy, overwhleming, stimulating, exciting and just down right awesome to experience. I've never experienced any type of art space or art museum that is interactive, with puzzles built in, secret passage ways (seen above), hidden clues and a story behind each piece of magical psychedelic art hiding inside the different caverns in the Meow Wolf! Santa Fe space. I can tell you we certainly strolled by a few people who went deep into the worm hole before coming into the Meow Wolf exhibit, definitely a place to consider a micro dose. When I say 'micro dose' what I mean is that Meow Wolf is trippy in itself, without any external stimuli so however you enter the artistic house be sure your mind will be changed when you come out. They encourage you to touch things, explore rooms and try to figure out the 'clues' sprinkled around the mystery that is 'House of Eternal Return' to get started here's a couple MYT secret tips: enter the fireplace and open the fridge (see image below). We explored this magical, mind expanded place for a few hours and even considering staying for their DJ themed party that went into the night. We had a great time experiencing Meow Wolf!
**coming soon - Meow Wolf photo album!** More photos from this adventure coming soon.
EMILY EXPLORING MEOW WOLF, SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
SUNDAY: Outlined itinerary ...
- Drive north to Town of Taos
- Explore Town of Taos
- Breakfast @ Bent Street Cafe
- Visit Chocolate Shop in Taos
- Take short detour to photograph and check out: Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, stretch legs
- Continue drive back north and return to Denver, Colorado
