Photos

• Santa Fe, Bandelier National Monument and Los Alamos
• Carlsbad and Guadalupe Mountains NP
• White Sands NP, Alamogordo and Albuquerque

Trip Report

I had been to New Mexico three times before, primarily for work but I added extra days twice to tour around as well, and loved it. Suzanne has also been interested in Native American culture for a long time and New Mexico is, at least to my mind, one of the states with the strongest influence of Native culture. Also, a very good friend of ours, Paul Murphy, who we hadn’t seen in quite some time lives in southern NM but may be moving back to Michigan next year. This seemed like the perfect year to go.

We decided not to go during my traditional R&R week in mid-August as we weren’t tied down to school vacation times anymore. Southern NM, especially, is hot in summer. Instead, we picked a week in May that worked (reasonably – more on that later) well for all of us. We definitely wanted to visit Santa Fe and nearby as well as hitting up Carlsbad Caverns as it’s close to Paul’s place.

Itinerary

• Sat 3-May – fly to Albuquerque in the morning and drive up to Santa Fe (~1 hour), visit Santa Fe
• Sun 4-May – visit Bandelier National Monument and Los Alamos
• Mon 5-May – visit Santa Fe
• Tue 6-May – drive to Carlsbad (~4 hours)
• Wed 7-May – visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park
• Thu 8-May – visit Guadalupe Mountains National Park (~1 hour from Carlsbad)
• Fri 9-May – drive to White Sands National Park (~3 hours) and stay the night in Alamogordo (just outside White Sands)
• Sat 10-May – drive to Albuquerque (~3.5 hours)
• Sun 11-May – fly home

Sat 3-May – Traveling to NM

This was just at the time Newark airport was having issues with runway construction and air traffic control causing severely delayed and canceled flights. We were a bit worried as we didn’t have a ton of time for our connection in Houston. (There are no direct flights from Newark to Albuquerque.) We had a bit of shock when I work up, luckily a bit early, to find out our flight to Houston had been canceled and we were rebooked for a flight 50 minutes earlier (7:00 AM instead of 7:50 AM). We had already booked our Uber and figured it wouldn’t save much time if we canceled and tried for an earlier one. Luckily I’m the type of person to plan on getting to the airport early and our driver was here a bit early. It was quick to get through security and we even have 10-15 minutes to grab breakfast in the United lounge. The other issue with this change is that our connection, now in Chicago, was down to 55 minutes, from 1 hour and 5 minutes, and we had to change multiple terminals. I was able to move our seats close to the front of the plane and we speed walked to our new gate, getting there just before boarding started. This flight was also on time in Albuquerque. In the end, we got in almost two hours before we had originally been scheduled for but I don’t think it was worth the stress.

Once in Albuquerque, we grabbed our rental car and a quick lunch at Wendy’s before heading up to Santa Fe. We parked at our hotel, the wonderful Piñon Court. I had stayed here on a couple of my earlier trips when it was known as the Old Santa Fe Inn and really enjoyed it. We headed out for Suzanne to visit a fabric shop while Kyle and I got ice cream nearby. We then walked around town a bit before heading back to the hotel to check in. Suzanne and I then headed down to the Railyard to poke around, stopping at Nuckolls Brewing before having our first New Mexican food of the trip at the famous Tomasita’s. As it had been a long day, Suzanne headed back to the hotel while I wandered town a bit more, hit up the Tumbleroot Pottery Pub for a flight and then headed back to the hotel myself.

Sun 4-May – Bandelier NM and Los Alamos

I was up early, not surprising given the time change, and had a nice run around town and up to the Cross of the Martyrs monument. I always enjoy seeing places early in the morning and got to see a very nice sunrise. After a good breakfast at the hotel, we hopped in the car for the hour or so drive up to Bandelier National Monument. I had visited here with Paul Murphy back in 2018 and it was just a nice to see it again. This time, I even got to climb up to the Alcove House, set high up in the canyon walls and requires climbing multiple ladders to get to, which was closed before. (Kyle and Suzanne waited at the bottom.)

After spending 90 minutes or so at Bandelier, we made the 30 minute drive up into Los Alamos. We started at the Manhattan Project National Historic Site visitor center. This site has the interesting aspect of being in three separate states as it includes Los Alamos, Hanaford, Washington, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. We walked around town a bit, following their self-guided tour but I would have liked there to be more. We did get to see both Hans Bethe’s and Robert Oppenheimer’s houses which was cool. For lunch, we grabbed pizza while I had a flight a Bathtub Row Brewing. Next up in town we hit the Bradbury Science Museum which is run the Los Alamos National Lab (and is free). The museum talks about the history of the atomic weapons program but also the ongoing work at the lab. As we were ready to leave, a storm came through with a torrential downpour. We decided to hang around and watch the movie as we were parked about a 15 walk away. It was still pouring when that was done so I took the hit and full on ran, literally, back to the car through the downpour and even hail. (Luckily I happened on a couple of spot that were covered where I could take a breather.) I picked up Suzanne and Kyle at the museum and we headed back down to Santa Fe.

Back in Santa Fe, the weather was still iffy. (It was the first time it hadn’t been nice in all my trips there.) Suzanne and I headed out, armed with umbrellas and rain coats, hitting up the New Mexico Hard Cider taproom, where they were out of most ciders, before heading the wonderful, English pub-like atmosphere, of Santa Fe Brewing’s The Brakeroom. The weather was holding out for a bit so we headed back to the Railyard for more pizza, and some beer, at Bosque Brothers Brewing/Restoration Pizza. We got a bit lucky as the skies opened once again during dinner but it was fine when we walked the 15 minutes back to the hotel.

Mon 5-May – Around Santa Fe

One thing I definitely wanted to do was to get a breakfast burrito at Tia Sophia’s, a famous local spot. This was the morning for that which worked out wonderfully as it was their 50th anniversary so breakfast was only $5/person. It was a great atmosphere and they were even doing an interview with the owners a few tables over. After breakfast, we headed to the famous Loretto Chapel, did a bit of shopping, grabbed a coffee at 35° North Coffee and then headed to the NM History Museum. This was a great museum, covering the history of NM from prehistoric to modern times. Part of the museum is housed in the old Palace of the Governors which was cool to wander through.

After the museum, we headed over to visit the San Miguel Chapel which is reputed to be the oldest church in the US, dating from 1610. Growing up in New England, I think we kind of forget the history that is present in the southwest due to the focus on English colonial history. Next up was a visit to the NM State Capitol. (Santa Fe is the oldest city that is a US capitol, having been founded in 1610 so predating Boston by 20 years.) This was quite interesting as there is a lot of artwork by NM artists and we got to walk through both legislative chambers. I never really think to visit capitols but it was worth the quick wander. After it was over to the much touted Kakawa Chocolate House for their hot chocolate flight and a very good brownie (at least to me – I didn’t realize it had chile in it when I ordered it). This was good but I don’t think it lived up to the hype.

We walked back to the hotel for a short break. For dinner, we headed back to the rail yard once again, this time to Second Street Brewery. While it’s a short walk, we ended up driving as the weather was still iffy and we had some storms pass through which included hail. We got lucky with a parking spot right next to the restaurant. We headed back to the hotel to pack up for the drive to Carlsbad in the morning.

Tue 6-May – Driving to Carlsbad

After packing up and having breakfast, we hopped in the car for the four hour drive to Carlsbad. The morning was quite foggy and they ended up getting a fair amount of snow up in Taos, about 90 minutes northeast of Santa Fe. We even saw some snow on the grass next to the road in a few spots in the early part of the drive down. On our way down, we made a brief stop in Roswell. We saw the famous UFO McDonald’s before Suzanne hit up a fabric store and we grabbed lunch, burgers, at Black Cock brewery. (It was okay but they didn’t have any of their own ciders. I did have a cool UFO burger. Also, the place felt a little dodgy.)

Once in Carlsbad, we stopped by Paul’s office, getting to meet many of his colleagues which was cool. After checking in to our hotel, the perfectly fine Hampton Inn & Suites Carlsbad, we headed to his place and just hung out for a while. We all went out to dinner at Yellow Brix before making plans to meet up in the morning

Wed 7-May – Carlsbad Caverns NP

After breakfast at the hotel, Paul picked us up for the 45 minute drive down to the national park. While I had made reservations for 9:00 entry, it seemed they weren’t really needed as there were still openings at the park. I still feel it was worth the $1 per person though. I was very much looking forward to seeing the caverns again, I was here in 2015, and for Suzanne and Kyle to see them. After a short briefing about the rules, we made the trek down through the Natural Entrance. You can also take the elevator but you miss out on some cool stuff and feeling a bit more of an explorer doing that. The trek down is 1.25 miles and drops around 750 feet. Once at the bottom, we did the full Big Room walk, another 1.25 miles but basically level. Carlsbad Caverns is an incredible place to visit and, as everyone always says, the pictures can’t do it justice. The scale is immense and the quiet is almost eerie. If you ever get a chance to visit, I can’t recommend it strongly enough. Unlike in 2015 when the elevators weren’t working, this time we were able to take a ride back to the surface and visitors’ center instead of trekking back up the 750+ feet. By the way, I had very good luck using the Night mode on my Android phone for photos. I didn’t use my SLR at all past the entrance and got some great images (and some not great of course – those I don’t show). For lunch, we grabbed something at the visitors’ center which was all decent enough.

After lunch, we drove around the area a bit. We stopped by Rattlesnake Springs and Black River Recreation Area before heading out to the Slaughter Canyon trailhead, though we didn’t do the hike. (This leads to another cave but it’s closed most of the time.) We also drove around the oil and gas fields to see them (Paul works with them) and even ducked into Texas (accidentally). Dinner was decent BBQ at Red Chimney.

Thu 8-May – Guadalupe Mountains NP

Paul once again picked us up at our hotel after breakfast before we popped over the Walmart/Subway for sandwiches for lunches for the day. We made the 90 minute or so drive down into Texas to Guadalupe Mountains NP. This is cool as the park is the same mountain formation, an ancient coral reef, as Carlsbad Caverns. In fact, you can see Guadalupe Mountains from the Carlsbad Caverns visitors’ center. I’m not sure if there’s another case where you can see one national park from another. After stopping at some viewpoints and the visitors’ center, we headed back north to the McKittrick Canyon trailhead for the hike up to Pratt Cabin. This was a great hike, not too strenuous but still around 5 miles round trip. (There isn’t a lot of shade though.) We ended up at the cabin right at lunch time. It was amazing to sit in the chairs outside having a sandwich and a beer with a magnificent view of the surrounding mountains. After the hike, we wandered around Frijole Ranch before heading back to Carlsbad.

For dinner, we met up with Paul at Milton’s Brewing. (It was cool as they had some of their won stuff plus stuff from other NM breweries.) We grabbed some sandwiches from a nearby deli (we were hoping for pizza but they had stopped that for the night). It worked out well as a whole group from Paul’s work was there so we hung with them most of the night. Kyle even enjoyed talking with some of them. Back at the hotel, it was time to pack to move on once again.

Fri 9-May – White Sands NP

Paul decided to tag along for our trip over to White Sands NP, where we’d stay the night and he’d head back home. We had planned to stop a place where he loved breakfast in Cloudcroft but they were closed. We did find another spot that was pretty good. After a brief stop at an overlook of White Sands, we headed down into Alamogordo and over to the national park. We poked around the visitors’ center before heading into the park. We did the 1 mile Dune Life Nature Trail before heading up to Alkali Flats. While I would have liked to do the whole 5 mile Alkali Flats hike, no one else would have enjoyed that and we weren’t really prepared. We did walk out about half a mile though. The scale of the sand dunes is immense and almost impossible to take in. It’s also hard to see as the sand (gypsum crystals) is blindingly white. White Sands is a small park but it was definitely worth the trip over to see it.

After spending a couple of hours in the park, we headed up the road to Pistachioland (for some shopping, some excellent pistachio ice cream and to see, of course, the world’s largest pistachio. (We skipped the farm tour though.) We said goodbye to Paul and then headed off to our hotel, another Hampton Inn. After grabbing some Wendy’s for Kyle, Suzanne and I headed to 575 Brewing for a flight before grabbing some good burgers at the Hi-D-Ho Drive In. This was super old school and really cool. (I noticed later it was called out as, with only one other diner, as a classic spot in an exhibit at the NM History Museum in Santa Fe.)

Sat 10-May – Albuquerque

This was our last day in NM. After breakfast, we hopped back in the car for the 3.5 hour drive to Albuquerque. (I had considered driving up there Fri night and spending two nights but didn’t want to do the second long drive in the day. I think either the drive or staying in Alamogordo, as we did, would have been fine.) On the way up, we stopped briefly at Valley of Fires Recreation Area which is the site of an old lava flow. This was quite cool to see. Also on the way up, I got to test out the semi-automated driving in our rental Explorer. It worked very well but it was very hard to trust it. After a stop at a fabric store for Suzanne, we headed to our hotel, Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town. This worked out well as it was just a short walk to Old Town Albuquerque and was a perfectly nice hotel.

Suzanne and I headed out to Old Town, grabbing sandwiches at the Old Town Kokopelli Cafe. We wandered around for a while, stopping in some shops. I bought some tea which I really enjoyed. They were having a festival in the main plaza where there were many groups selling lemonade and kids performing traditional songs. It was nice to see. After our wander, we stopped by Paxton’s at the Sawmill Market food hall for a couple of beers and then headed to Ponderosa Brewing, a 10 or so minute walk, for a flight. For dinner, we headed back to Sawmill Market for Mexican and Pizza. Finally back at the hotel, it was time to pack for real for our trip home on Sunday.

Sun 11-May – Back home (eventually)

Our flight was on the early side, so we all got up early, loaded the car and headed to the airport. After dropping the car off (quick) and taking the shuttle to the airport, we grabbed breakfast. Our flight back to Chicago, our planned stopover this direction, was fine. This is where things got not great though. As I said above, this was the time Newark airport was having all kinds of issues. Our connection was scheduled to leave at 3:40 and get back to Newark at 7:00, likely getting us home around 8:00. Instead, our flight was delayed several times to the point where we left more like 8:00 and got back to Newark around 11:00. We didn’t end up getting home to just past midnight. This wouldn’t have been great but it was made worse by the fact I had an 8:45 AM flight the next morning (well … I guess that same morning) to Boston for a conference. I had prestaged stuff to pack but it still took time and I didn’t really get to bed until 1:00 AM. With the alarm set for 5:45, it was a very short night. (I’ll admit, I took a nap at my hotel in Boston the next day.)

Summary

We really did have a great trip. The time of year worked out well, though the weather in Santa Fe was surprisingly poor for a couple of days. (I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much hail as we had some multiple times over two days.) I really do like Santa Fe and the area and would have loved to see more. Our itinerary worked well and I wouldn’t have changed much. While I was kind of disappointed in Los Alamos and probably wouldn’t push to go back, I’m glad we went. I’ve also heard a lot of comments on how Albuquerque isn’t safe, etc. We found it perfectly fine but did stay right around the Old Town area. I’m sure other areas aren’t great. (I will admit where we had lunch the first day seemed a little rough.) New Mexico itself is very cool with the its Native American, Hispanic and Old West influences.

The real highlight was getting to see Paul Murphy again after several years. Being able to spend three full days with him was wonderful. Suzanne especially enjoyed it as it had been even longer since she had seen him. Hopefully it’s not another 5+ years.