The first time I saw New Mexico was on a road trip with a school buddy many years ago. We drove down I-25 from Boulder, where I was attending graduate school at the University of Colorado. It was nighttime when we crossed Raton Pass into northern New Mexico. I had never seen so much empty space, and the expanse made me nervous.
“Why are there no people or lights out there? What’s wrong?” I asked my friend as I experienced a mild panic attack.
A native of this place, she laughed. “You mean where are all the crowds and traffic? The pollution and sirens?”
A few years ago, I was showing my well-traveled East Coast cousin around northern New Mexico. We drove from Albuquerque to Ojo Caliente Hot Springs.
She was visiting from New Jersey, the most densely populous state in the US. As we turned out of Española onto the road north, she looked at me and asked, “Where are you taking me?,” with a catch in her voice. “This is the middle of nowhere!”
Now it was my turn to laugh. “No,” I replied. “The middle of nowhere is the gas station in Vaughn where the wind always blows.” As an interesting footnote, this cousin subsequently moved west, as soon as she retired.
To paraphrase Governor Lew Wallace, who presided over the state during the tumultuous Lincoln County War era of the 1860s, “Calculations based on experience elsewhere do not work in New Mexico.” Governor Wallace, who hailed from Indiana, made that observation from his vantage point in the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, while writing his classic novel Ben Hur and attempting to bring Billy the Kid to justice.
Governor Wallace may have been moved to make his observation because New Mexico operates in its own time zone. While not exactly the land of mañana, it remains the land of poco tiempe, or “pretty soon,” just as originally characterized by writer Charles L. Lummis in 1893.
New Mexico remains one place, perhaps the only place, in the United States where its oldest cultures are truly alive. They have cohabited and adapted to the impacts of outsiders—including twenty-first-century urbanization—for centuries, and they continue to practice their languages, religions, and lifeways. The nineteen Indian pueblos, each a sovereign nation with distinct language, customs, and ceremonies, Navajo and Apache nations, Hispanic villages, and ranching towns with homesteader legacies persist. Indian ruins and mission churches, the graveyards and the wealth of vernacular architecture, are no more than a drive just down the road from virtually anyplace in the state.
Speaking of roads, despite the fact that New Mexico was, and is, crisscrossed by many of the great trails across the continent—the 1800-mile north–south Camino Real de Tierra Adentro span from Mexico City to the farthest reach of New Spain, Santa Fe; the east–west Santa Fe Trail trade route from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe; Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles; and the first paved intercontinental highway, the Ocean to Ocean Highway, US 60 (each bringing goods, ideas, visitors, colonizers, and eventual residents)—somehow the state remains remote. Today, even if you’re traveling on the north–south I-25 corridor, or the east–west I-40, or any of the state roads that meander through the quadrants between, traces of the old roads remain. Many of the sites named in this book will assist that process of assembling the fragments of history.
New Mexico’s cuisine, festivals, arts, ancient customs, and history remain accessible, constant, and exciting. Consequently, the exotic, what one hungers for in planning a trip to a foreign land, may be experienced here by the explorer without so much as a visa.
New Mexico remains in its own time frame, with one foot planted in yesterday and the other in no hurry to get to tomorrow. Roads may not be marked as clearly as you would like. You may receive such instructions as, “Turn left at the dip, then right at the big cottonwood,” so detailed maps are necessary. Your GPS may mislead you. Anyone can get lost, so bring water and don’t let your gas tank go below half-full. The altitude really can cause discomfort, so be sure to adjust before hiking Wheeler Peak or the Aspen Vista Trail, stay hydrated, and remember that in addition to ibuprofen, chocolate is said to help with altitude adjustment. Naturally, dark chocolate works best. Alcohol packs a bigger punch while acclimating.
WEATHERED ADVERTISEMENTS SPEAK OF BYGONE DAYS ALONG ROUTE 66
Outsiders may not find efficiency, public transportation, speed of service, and promptly returned messages they are accustomed to. Hours posted do not always align with hours kept. New Mexico was the forty-seventh state admitted to the Union, in 1912. Awareness that everything takes longer than expected is probably a good idea to adopt to avoid elevated blood pressure. In Santa Fe, rapid employee turnover means a likelihood of encountering inexperienced service people. If you are prone to frustration in these matters, it is probably best to book a lodging that provides experienced concierge services.
Therefore, it is smart to call a destination ahead of time. Do not assume it will be open or that it even still exists. Every effort has been made to ensure the reliability of establishments, but there is no guarantee that it has not gone out of business or moved
If you love the outdoors, it is all here: Hiking, fishing, skiing, snowboarding, (when there is sufficient snow), river rafting, golfing, birding, and zip lining. The beauty of the night skies and many superb dark sky locations, the fun of discovery in ghost towns; the power inherent in the great ruins of Chaco Canyon or the Gila Cliff Dwellings; the back road adventure of a finding a café that takes pride in serving real home cooking, with homemade pie and real mashed potatoes; the freedom of driving down an open two-lane road without billboards under a wide-open sky make this journey memorable and worthwhile.
When to Come
There really is no bad time to come to New Mexico, no real “off-season.” It is up to you to plan your visit to coincide with your interests, which may be skiing Taos in winter, attending Santa Fe Indian Market in summer, or soaring with the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in fall. You can be sure that if you are planning to come during a highly popular event, however, that lodging rates will be pricier, and advance reservation times will be longer. The advantage to a perceived “off-season” time, say, October–November in northern New Mexico, or January–February in southern New Mexico, is, of course, less competition for rooms and tables. You will have the place more to yourself. The beauty of the place is always present in any season, though, and there are always plenty of sights to see and events to attend.
A Few Interesting Facts
New Mexico remains the fifth-largest state in land area, boasting a population of 2,059,179. Most of that populace is centered in the biggest cities: Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, and Las Cruces.
The State Plant is the yucca; the State Tree is the piñon; the State Gem is the turquoise; the State Tie is the bolo; the State Motto is “Crescit eundo” (It grows as it goes); the State Fish is the Rio Grande cutthroat trout; the State Bird is the roadrunner; and the State Animal is the black bear. The State Song, “Oh Fair New Mexico,” was written by Sheriff Pat Garrett’s daughter, Elizabeth.
HORSE AND BUGGY RIDES AT EL RANCHO DE LAS GOLONDRINAS, A PRESERVED HISTORIC HACIENDA
The State Cookie is the biscochito, an anise-flavored shortbread. The State Pastry ought to be the sopaipilla, an adaptation of Indian fry bread—a crispy, chewy, and light doughnut-like pillow eaten with honey that doubles as both dessert and bread to accompany the main course. To a New Mexican, nothing beats the sweetness of a sopaipilla eaten along with some good hot green chile.
The chile-centric State Question is: “Red or Green?” But the visitor’s most frequently asked question is probably: “Which is hotter, red or green?” Really, there is no universal answer for that. Different establishments can take the same basic ingredients—chile, garlic, salt—and vary their flavors. When in doubt, ask for a small taste before you order, or ask for your chile on the side.
New Mexican food is quite different from Mexican food, but you may find some culinary terms used interchangeably as names of foods and in conversation. However, in this book, unless specified otherwise, eating establishments are serving distinct chile-based New Mexican cuisine.
The holiday season brings displays of lights that are actually candles in paper bags full of sand. In the northern part of the state they are called farolitos, and in Albuquerque and south, they are called luminarias.
Price Codes
Dining costs are estimated per single entrée, tax, and gratuity.
Inexpensive Up to $20
Moderate $20–50
Expensive $50–75
Very Expensive Over $75