Road-Trip from Albuquerque to Santa Fe

Do you know the way to Santa Fe? For many New Mexico visitors, it’s the one-hour shot north from the Albuquerque airport on I-25. But the interstate can’t match the up-close look at the boundless high desert and fascinating culture offered by a back-roads loop. And there’s no better time to go slow than winter, when snow dusts the desert and piles up in the mountains, and travelers warm themselves with steaming bowls of stew cooked with the state’s iconic chiles.

Albuquerque to Corrales

Spreading across a valley bisected by the cottonwood-lined Rio Grande River, Albuquerque (population 565,000) quiets down after October’s huge international hot-air balloon festival. Get a feel for the region’s roots at the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Then, grab an elote croissant cup or a maple-blueberry-pecan scone from The Burque Bakehouse, whose owners, Sarah Ciccotello and Chris McQuary, donate a portion of proceeds to local Indigenous organizations.

Leaving the city center on Rio Grande Boulevard, you’ll pass some of the vineyards that comprise the Middle Rio Grande Valley appellation. Franciscan friars planted the region’s first grapes in the 1600s. Today, visitors to Casa Rondeña Winery can drink in views that stretch across trellised rows to distant peaks and sample the estate’s award-winning Meritage, a silky red Bordeaux-style blend.

Nearby, Farm & Table pairs local wines with New American dishes, like a fall-off-the-bone bison short rib. Dine on the heated patio and watch the sunset dance across the surrounding fields. Located along an important flyway, the valley also hosts hundreds of thousands of overwintering birds. Just across the river, via Highway 423, trails at the city’s Open Space Visitor Center afford great views of egrets, snow geese, and sandhill cranes.

It’s a 6-mile hop on highways 45 and 448 to the village of Corrales, where Wagner Farm draws crowds from August to November for its fresh green chiles fire-roasted on the spot.The state’s rich cultural mix is on display at Casa San Ysidro, a history museum and 19th-century adobe home authentically furnished with everything from a tin chandelier to Hispanic and Pueblo weavings.

Corrales to Santa Fe

The meander continues north another 10 miles to Bernalillo. Tour the Coronado Historic Site at Kuaua Pueblo to see some of North America’s finest pre-contact murals, uncovered during a 1935 archeological dig. Just a few minutes from the site, fuel up on hefty plates of huevos rancheros or chile rellenos at Abuelita’s New Mexican Kitchen, a homey eatery, before pushing on 6 miles more to tiny Algodones.

The unique, small-batch spirits crafted by the Algodones Distillery include gin infused with juniper, piñon, and other native botanicals. And don’t miss Stranger Factory gallery and gift shop, which owners Kathie Olivas and Brandt Peters have filled with their own and others’ Pop-Surrealist work, including glittering octopus holiday ornaments and Burtonesque figurines of wide-eyed aliens and pumpkin-headed humans.

With northward back roads ending at Algodones, the route continues briefly on I-25. Sweeping desert vistas accompany the 25-minute drive to La Cienega, a pocket of springs and rare wetlands on Santa Fe’s outskirts. Book a private soak at Ojo Santa Fe Spa Resort, and sink into a 103-degree spring-fed pool next to a crackling kiva fireplace.

Santa Fe to Albuquerque

You could spend days in the 7,000-foot-high capital of Santa Fe (population 90,000), exploring the Museum of International Folk Art, casing boutiques and galleries, and eating soul-satisfying New Mexican dishes, such as the blue corn enchiladas bathed “Christmas style” in red and green sauces at bustling La Choza. Around the holidays, strings of red chiles (ristras) dangle by doorways, and the city glows with over 35,000 lights twinkling in its central plaza and farolitos illuminating the Canyon Road gallery district.

A drive on Highway 475 into the surrounding Sangre de Cristo Mountains makes a great city break. Only 15 minutes from central Santa Fe, Hyde Memorial State Park offers pine-scented hikes by foot or snowshoe, and 15 minutes beyond that, you can ski or snowboard at Ski Santa Fe, with a base elevation of 10,350 feet. Finish off with an outdoor soak at the serene, Japanese-inspired Ten Thousand Waves spa.

The 54-mile drive back to Albuquerque on Highway 14, part of a National Scenic Byway known as the Turquoise Trail, includes stops in a pair of historic mining towns revived by an influx of artists. In sleepy Los Cerrillos, about 30 minutes from Santa Fe, the Casa Grande Trading Post stuffs antique curiosities like an 1899 clothes washer, worn gold pans, and glass medicine bottles into a rambling adobe and sells a rock hound’s treasure chest of minerals and stone objects. A few blocks away, the Black Bird Saloon serves a fine green chile cheeseburger in an 1880s bar warmed by a wood-burning stove.

Another few minutes on 14 brings you to funky Madrid, where houses sport kaleidoscopic paint jobs. Stop in Mostly Madrid, one of dozens of galleries, to peruse ceramics as well as jewelry from Santo Domingo Pueblo, a famed center of turquoise craftsmanship. At the Mine Shaft Tavern, a legendary biker bar, families rub elbows with leather-clad chopper dudes over pub grub.

Highway 14 continues to Albuquerque’s outskirts, winding through foothills dotted with juniper, shrubby cholla cactus, and red-rock formations. And if the end of the road has you feeling blue, remember that most Pueblo languages have no word for “goodbye.” Instead, it’s “until we meet again.”