Santa Fe, New Mexico

It was time again to pack up and move on up the road after a very nice 12 day stay at Alamogordo in southern New Mexico. Our next destination is Santa Fe, New Mexico that is 259 miles Up North. Way more than I like to drive in one day. So, we planned a stopover in Albuquerque at the 200 mile point and then an easy drive of 59 miles the next day to Santa Fe.

We are definitely slow-mo travel types, which basically means we prefer shorter drives combined with longer stays, rather than speeding from place to place. It means we see less (overall), but we get to explore each place in a ton more depth than we would otherwise.

From Alamogordo, we took US-54 north to Carrizozo, a very small village, then picked up US-380 west. This was a two-lane road over and around some mountain passes with the normal amount of continuous twisty turns. That was about 100 miles of no towns or fuel stations, but some awesome views including the volcanic rock fields called the Valley of Fires.

Valley of Fires

The Valley of Fires is 125 square miles and 160 feet thick of lava rock created by molten rock from a lava flow 44 miles away. It was large chunks of black, jagged rock all jumbled up. Very interesting. We just stopped in a pullout to take a few photos.

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Albuquerque

Highway 380 finally found its way to the small town of San Antonio, New Mexico where we picked up Interstate 25 heading back north. Easy enough drive to Albuquerque except for the traffic picked up and the city drivers are doing 80 mph+ as they fly by us. Boy oh boy…

We stayed at the Albuquerque KOA that was fine for a couple of nights, but the sites were quite small and the interior roads were narrow. The RV park was fenced, gated, and had security as it is in a higher crime city.

Santa Fe

The continued northbound drive on I-25 was just fine as the interstate makes the grades much more gradual. The last ten miles or so to Santa Fe was a long uphill grade. I did have to downshift to 5th gear and keep the pressure on the 6.7L diesel, but it held right at my highway speed. I’m still impressed with this Ford’s power.

We arrived at our RV park, Santa Fe Skies RV Resort, just after noon and were all set up by about 1:30. This park is on a ridge overlooking the city of Santa Fe and is between two large mountain ranges. The views are just awesome. Each site has a concrete patio, picnic table, and a wrought iron side table with chairs. Very nice.

The downside is the interior park roads have some tight turns up the terraced hillside, although it is manageable by paying close attention. The 41 foot Bighorn can be a little tricky coupled with the long wheelbase truck.

Another very different thing about this RV resort is they have an outdoor museum of sorts. Many different vehicles and machinery aligned in a row at the edge of the park. They all have a label placard that describes the item. It is very interesting, but when I first pulled into the park my first thought was it was a junkyard. But, it kinda grows on you.

We rarely see Virginia tags out this far west, but our neighbors at this park were from the eastern coast of Virginia. They were Wes and Theresa and were on a 26 stop tour of the western US along with friends from Florida. Then back to their place along the east coast.

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Santa Fe’s Plaza

The next step was to get in the little Honda CRV and go exploring after we were all set up at the site. We drove down to the hub of the city: the Plaza area. Parking was tough to find, but we found a $10 pay lot and quickly walked to the Plaza.

This area is loaded with shops, galleries, restaurants and a place for street vendors. We walked around and looked into many shops.

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New Mexico State Capitol Building

We have now toured another capital building! How many have we seen? Well, maybe 4-5 now on our travels. This one has a pretty basic round building without a dome. The one key features is a few million dollars worth of artwork inside.

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Madrid, New Mexico

The next up was the quaint little rustic village Madrid, after spending a couple of days getting caught up with items such as laundry and grocery shopping. We drove the 30 minutes or so south along a very scenic Hwy 14. The town itself is very rustic. It actually became a ghost town after the mining operation left town. Then, at some point, reinvented itself as a quaint tourist attraction.

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It is also somewhat known for having a small diner that was featured in the movie Wild Hogs, starring Tim Allen and John Travolta. Maggie’s Diner. Bikers appear to like to stop here for a photo op.

That’s all for now. We are looking forward to visitors arriving on Thursday, 5/16. Pat’s brother Mike and his wife Lorna commute from Dallas for a few days to help us explore in Santa Fe and in Taos. Thanks for following along!