New Mexico with a broken foot!
 

I had been eagerly planning our ten day trip to northern New Mexico from April 11 - 20 - and then I stepped in a pothole on a dark street and broke my foot (& sprained my ankle). I am really bummed, I'd been so looking forward to this!

We already have our plane tickets and hotel reservations, so we're going to have to make the best of what I am able to do. Obviously I'm going to have to change a lot of our plans (no hiking, for instance), and visit more museums than we'd planned. I hope some of you can give me advice on how accessible various places are, what you think I should avoid, and suggestions on places to go and things to do with limited mobility. I'll have crutches, and I hope to take a knee walker (scooter you kneel on). I'll be about five weeks post-break by then, so I'm hoping I'll be allowed to put some weight on the foot (with crutches) (no weight bearing right now), but they said I'd be in the air cast for at least six weeks.

My husband and I will drive to Abiquiu after landing in Albuquerque and spend two nights there. We already have tickets for the tour of Georgia O'Keefe's house and the "Landscapes of Georgie O'Keefe" tour at Ghost Ranch, I hope that they will be doable for me - does anyone know how accessible they are? We'll then spend several nights each in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. One day we'll drive up to Taos as a day trip, I figure that will be pretty manageable, as much of that will be looking at scenery from the car on the High and Low Roads to and from Taos, and on pavement in the town (Taos Pueblo will be closed in April, so we can't visit that).

We had planned to visit some pueblos, can anyone tell me if they are fairly accessible, and if some are better than others? What about Bandelier NM, and Tent Rocks? Are they worth visiting if I have limited mobility? Since photographing natural beauty is one of our main interests, I was really hoping to go to both. We're also interested in history and art.

Thanks for any help suggesting the best alternative things to do and see in place of things that I won't be able to.

Bummer. I’m sorry! Hopefully you are more coordinated than me on crutches. I can maneuver, I just am no good at juggling camera and crutches. So the trip I did on crutches I have no photographs from. It was sad.

The good news is that there’s tons of history, so I don’t think you’ll run out of stuff to do.

I don’t know about tent rocks. But Bandelier, yes. My parents have been and they don’t generally leave the accessible trails, because they are not hikers.

https://www.nps.gov/band/planyourvis...essibility.htm

I have no idea about Ghost Ranch but the O'Keefe house is totally accessible and when I took my mom there they even had loaner wheelchairs,

Thanks, that's helpful. Does anyone know how accessible most of the pueblos are? I'm especially interested in Acoma Pueblo.

You could take the Turquoise Trail from Albuquerque to Santa Fe for scenic photos and old west history. Taos Pueblo is an option for authentic Native American village. Take a day trip on the Cumbres & Toltec historic railroad out of Chama NM. Chimayo has a museum and architecture that might be of interest. None of these should have accessibility issues.

I suggest calling the visitor’s center at Acoma Pueblo, and for that matter, any other places you would like to visit.

Thanks, good suggestions, but unfortunately Taos Pueblo is closed to visitors for the month of April. I had also looked into the train trip earlier before I broke my foot, as I love trains, but they won't be open for the season yet when we're there. We are planning on driving the turquoise trail when traveling between Santa fe and Albuquerque.

At Acoma Pueblo, you stop at the VC and take a bus up the mesa. Once there the road was not paved as I recall, but it was fairly flat. If you had a wheelchair or a walker with a seat, or a knee scooter, you might be able to get around. They might let you just take the bus to the top and not walk around much, but you would want to visit the church.

One April it was so windy at the top, we had to have a very brief tour because of the blowing sand. They offered us a tour the next day, but that wasn't possible for us.