Santa Fe Trip Report
 

We enjoyed a wonderful trip to New Mexico and Santa Fe. Thank you for all of the advice! Please let me know if you have any questions.

This was a last-minute trip for us so many of the hotels were booked or quite expensive, especially for an ideal location. We stayed at the Hyatt Place on South Cerrillos, about 15 minutes from the Plaza. We really enjoyed this hotel and it suited our needs well. There is a continental breakfast, free WiFI and free parking included. We enjoyed the indoor pool several evenings. There is a sitting room and a kitchenette in the standard room, so this was nice with a three-year-old. It was new and clean and we had a good experience.

We drove from the Denver area and stopped at both Fort Union and Pecos National Monument on the way down. This was a good way to break up the drive. Both had short hikes and interesting things to see. Pecos in particular had gorgeous surrounding scenery. Your admission fee to one is also good at the other so keep your receipt!

We enjoyed the Farmer's Market and the music in the Plaza. We did a couple of walking tours and saw the St. Francis Assisi, Loretto Chapel, San Miguel Mission, Georgia O'Keefe Museum, Randall Davey Audubon Center, and enjoyed walking around several of the neighborhoods. There are also concerts in the Plaza four nights a week and we went Monday before we left. These are a lot of fun. We loved the sights, but the Audubon was a highlight for us. We couldn't do much as several trails were closed due to the fires, but it was peaceful and beautiful. Well worth a visit.

A definite highlight of the trip was our drive to Bandelier National Monument. We were worried about the closures but there was plenty to do for us and our daughter. We did two hikes, the Tyuonyi Overlook and Tsankawi hikes. Both were wonderful. The canyon was gorgeous and the Tsankawi hike with the obstacles and ladders was great fun, especially for our daughter. She had no problem with the ladders and loved it! We also did the White Rock Overlook on our way back to Santa Fe.

On our last day, we drove to Taos on our way back home. We did not go to the Pueblo as there was a lot of traffic due to a ceremony going on that day. We stopped, had lunch, wandered the Plaza, and went to the Governor Bent Museum.

Meals
We did mostly casual meals with our daughter. We went to Bumble Bees Baja Grill (good), Blue Corn Cafe (good), Shed (would not recommend), Cafe Pasqual's (very good), Cowgirl BBQ (good) and Graham's Grill in Taos (excellent). Graham's Grill and Cafe Pasqual were our two favorite meals of the trip.

We enjoyed our trip and seeing a new city! It was a good mix of family time and sightseeing time. We spent two full days in Santa Fe and did Bandelier on our third full day and it was perfect for us. We don't do a lot of shopping or art galleries, although we window shopped and saw some beautiful things. We enjoyed a lot of the area attractions and just wandering around the Plaza.

Thanks again for all of your help!

Glad you had a great trip. I have to ask what happened at The Shed?
Love Graham's Grill, too.

When you drove from Santa Fe to Taos did you do the "high road"? Was wondering what that was like.

Thanks for your report, I'm going to Santa in August and will make note of your restaurant recs.

Thanks for reading! I meant to say we did the "low road" to Taos. It was a pretty drive for the last half. We probably would have done the high road and Chimayo if we had more time. Originally, we were going to the Pueblo to see the dance but were told it would be between 1-2 or "whenever it felt right" and couldn't wait. In regards to the Shed, I probasbly had too high of expectations as I had heard wonderful things beforehand. We got there around 12:15 and had to wait around 40 minutes. The service was horrible, very abrupt and short with us. Drinks not refilled, etc. My meal came smothered in the chile when I wanted it on the side and I really couldn't taste any of the taco or enchilada. It just wasn't a good experience, unfortunately.

Glad you guys had fun. Bummer about The Shed; we had a great experience there with both food and service. We saw Ali MacGraw at Pasqual's! Those concerts you mentioned sound wonderful.

Thanks for your trip report. It sounds like a lot of fun. We leave tomorrow for a week in Santa Fe and are really looking forward to it. It has been scorching here in the East and the weather forecast for Santa Fe looks perfect.

@mamcalice - We are having some pretty good monsoons [rains] here now, so be sure to bring an umbrella.

Sounds like you had a good trip rockie, always glad to read that in a trip report!

FYI - More and more trails etc keep opening back up due to the rains. That is great news for locals as well as visitors.