I will be travelling to Santa Fe with my boyfriend the second week of September for a few days. Any ideas of what all we can do there as far as site seeing. Are they any parks or walking/jogging trails etc?

Also we will be driving from Dallas/Fort Worth area. What is the best route? What is to see along the way?

Thanks
Diane

Hi Diane--can't help you with driving but my husband and I spent a long weekend in Santa Fe in February and loved it. A highlight was a trip to Bandelier National Monument which is near Los Alamos; it is a wonderful park with incredible caves and a great walking trail. If you go, go early in the day as it gets quite crowded and the parking is limited. We also enjoyed a walking tour of Santa Fe--it was 2 hours--you will see brochures all over town for it (I think it is called Afoot in Santa Fe or something like that)--the guide provided a wonderful history of Santa Fe--which is very colorful.

We also drove up to Taos which is a nice drive and enjoyed walking around the galleries on Canyon Road in Santa Fe.

Have a great time.

Mary

quick request a copy of santa fe visitor's bureau magazine: 800-777-city. they can also answer parks, trails etc. info. my santa fe favorites: 1. go high road to taos, low road back to s.f. one day, go through little town redford's "milagro beanfield war" was filmed, truchas or trampas. gorgeous scenery, good roads. very historical. 2. spend a day in downtown s.f. wonderful silver jewelry for sale in stores and best of all, from the artist on the plaza. o'keefe museum and churches

best museum is museum of international folk art up toward foothills - view is wonderful. santa fe is not large and views wherever you look. i drive from dallas on 287 to amarillo and pick up 40. after amarillo you begin climbing and see buttes popping up all around. used to be a great inland sea. turn north on 84. beautiful scenery west of las vegas. go over glorieta pass where early settlers and traders made their way from the east to santa fe and west.
nearing santa fe, sangre de cristo mts. on east, jemez mts. on west, and sandia mts. on southwest (albuquerque on other side). i drive to s.f. in one day, be careful when getting out of car in s.f. because it is 6,000 ft. i think. beautiful sunsets, nice people, bring money for jewelry.

I'll second the recommendation of the International Folk Art Museum. A delightful experience.
As for dining, try the Santacafe.

If you can take a back road called the "Turquoise Trail"-- it runs between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The visitors bureau and any book on New Mexico should have info on it. There are some old mining towns along the way such as Madrid, Golden, and Cerrillos. Definitely visit Taos Pueblo in Taos. I actually liked Taos a little better than Santa Fe---less commercialized.
Enjoy! Also, There is a huge hot-air balloon festival in, I believe, September (in Albuquerque). It draws tons of people to the area.

A very helpful guidebook which I actually found in Santa Fe but is surely available nationally is The Insiders' Guide to Santa Fe from Insiders' Publishing. Just checked my copy and they have a website at www.insiders.com

Diane, I forgot to mention another very useful guide titled Romantic Days & Nights in Santa Fe by Lynn Cline published just this year. I found it in a bookstore JUST off the Plaza in Santa Fe and as I recall used it more extensively than the one I previously mentioned.

I third the folk art museum, and if you like Georgia O'Keefe, the Georgia O'Keefe museum. Pecos is another wonderful pueblo museum like Bandolier, but further away. Also, if you want to relax there are two excellent spa options: fancy (10,000 waves) and casual (Oho Caliente). I've never been to 10,000 Waves but my sister raved about it, and Oho is great because it's so low-key, basically a bunch of hot spring pools outside under a cliff that turns bright red at sunset. And it's only $20 or so. It's inbetween Santa Fe and Taos, not on the main road, the precise info shouldn't be too hard to find. You can also go horseback riding near there, and tho I haven't it sounds perfect: ride all day, then recover in the spa during sunset. There was a very funny article in GQ a few months ago about spas in S.F. by Tim Sultan.

Diane, for a very quirky and fun exhibit, at the little ramshackle hotel on the square in Taos (not the Taos Inn, but the other one near there), ask the cute, little ole' innkeeper to see the collection of D.H Lawrence's paintings that are kept in a single back room in the hotel. (known for his sometimes controversial, and romantic writings --Lady Chattersly's Lover, Sons and Lovers, etc.) You pay about 1 or 2 dollars, and see the private collection of the hotel owner. It is great and a very special, offbeat type of entertainment.