A First-Timer's Weekend on the Santa Fe Plaza
Four hundred years of adobe, a portal lined with silversmiths, and the best green-chile stop within a two-block walk of the bandstand.
Section
Travel & Adventure
Road trips, high-desert towns, and the routes worth the detour.
The High Road to Taos: A Scenic Drive Worth the Detour
Instead of the quick highway, take the winding mountain road through weaving villages, mountain chapels, and aspen groves that blaze gold each fall.
Airstream Nights on the Taos Mesa
Off-grid trailers, a horizon that goes on forever, and a sky so dark the Milky Way casts a shadow. The rise of stargazing stays west of Taos.
Taos Pueblo: A Thousand Years, Still Home
The multi-storied adobe of Taos Pueblo has been continuously inhabited for a millennium. Here's how to visit with the respect it deserves.
A Slow Morning in Old Town Albuquerque
Three centuries of adobe around a shaded plaza, a landmark church, and the best breakfast burrito in the Duke City are all within a few blocks.
How to Do White Sands in a Single Perfect Day
Gypsum dunes the color of bone, a sled rented from the gift shop, and a sunset that turns the whole basin pink. Your one-day plan for White Sands.
Into the Dark: A Descent Through Carlsbad Caverns
Eight hundred feet below the Chihuahuan Desert lies one of Earth's great underground rooms. Here's how to walk into it — and back out again.
The Cathedral That Doesn't Quite Fit — and That's the Point
Romanesque stone in a city of adobe, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis is Santa Fe's grandest architectural outlier and its most-photographed façade.
Reading the Adobe: A Field Guide to Taos Architecture
Wooden ladders, rounded parapets, and viga beams poking through mud walls. How to actually see the architecture that gives northern New Mexico its face.
Chasing Neon on Route 66 Through Tucumcari
Motels with rocket-age signs, a restored mural district, and the last great stretch of the Mother Road across eastern New Mexico.
Standing on Air at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge
Six hundred and fifty feet above the river, the second-highest bridge on the U.S. highway system offers the most vertiginous view in New Mexico.
Ruins and Rivers at Pecos National Historical Park
A Puebloan trading hub, a Spanish mission's roofless walls, and an easy loop trail an hour from Santa Fe. The Southwest's layered history in one afternoon.
Founding Stones: The Story Behind San Felipe de Neri
The adobe church at the center of Old Town Albuquerque has watched the city grow around it for more than two centuries. A closer look at a survivor.
First Tracks at Taos Ski Valley
Steep chutes, high-alpine air, and a village where the après starts with green chile. A powder-day primer for one of the Rockies' most characterful mountains.
A Winter Road Trip Through the Snowy Sangre de Cristos
Empty mountain roads, frozen aspens, and hot springs at the end of the day. Why northern New Mexico is at its most magical under snow.
Canyon Road: A Half-Mile, a Hundred Galleries
The most concentrated art walk in the American Southwest climbs gently from downtown Santa Fe. How to stroll it without missing the good stuff.
The Long Walk to El Santuario de Chimayó
Each Holy Week, tens of thousands walk for miles to a small adobe chapel famous for its holy dirt. A quiet look at New Mexico's most beloved pilgrimage.
The Railyard: Santa Fe's Contemporary Heartbeat
Where the old rail depot meets new galleries, a Saturday farmers market, and the city's most forward-looking art. A guide to Santa Fe's other downtown.