Land of Enchantment, part two

While we love hanging out in Santa Fe our location allows us the chance to explore and enjoy other locales in the area. An hour and a half to the north is Los Alamos, home of the Manhattan Project. The drive takes you through a striking high desert landscape.

The land that the city of Los Alamos currently occupies was taken by the US government as the site of the Manhattan Project. In 1943, when the government exercised its right of eminent domain, the property was the site of the Los Alamos Ranch School. The school was a private preparatory school for boys that not only focused on academics but also outdoor survival skills.

Los Alamos was originally built as a closed city. Those who came to work on developing the atomic bomb stayed in this small community.

There are around 13,000 people who currently make Los Alamos home. The legacy of the Manhattan Project can be seen throughout the city.

The Mesa Public Library provides a welcoming community space that has an affordable used bookstore, art gallery and book collection for the residents.

The art gallery was presenting a provocative photo exhibit by Jeff Corwin, “Guns In America”.

North of Santa Fe on the way to Taos are the hot springs of Ojo Caliente. The springs are located outdoors and provide a relaxing environment.

One of the culinary delights of New Mexico is the Green Chili Cheeseburger. It seems like every restaurant that serves one is serving the best in the state. This week we visited the quirky town of Madrid located twenty minutes south of our camp. This is where we found, in our humble opinion, the best Green Chili Cheeseburger at the Mineshaft Tavern. No photo of the burgers, we gobbled them down too fast.

We’ve camped at Santa Fe Skies RV Park several times and thought we knew the area well. This visit we discovered a cool BLM tract not 15 minutes away. At the Cieneguilla Recreation Area you can hike to petroglyphs or go to the top of the mesa for a nice 3 mile hike.

Pat’s sister Carolyn had a bucket list idea to ride the Cumbres- Toltec steam train out of Chama ~we joined her for a fun day on the rails.

The line is the longest and highest narrow gauge railroad in the US. The line starts in Chama, NM and ends in Antonito, CO, a 64 mile trip. We opted to ride a 25.7 section from Chama, NM to Osier, CO. The trip took us through Cumbres Pass, the highest point on the line at 10,015 feet above sea level.

Our train took us through some spectacular mountain scenery.

The ride back to Santa Fe takes you by Ghost Ranch and the Village of Abiquiu. This is Georgia O’Keeffe Country, the landscape that inspired many of her paintings.

Albuquerque is about a 1 hour drive south from where we are set up. We had tickets to two performances at the Outpost that were part of the New Mexico Jazz Festival.

The Outpost is a nonprofit organization that hosts an intimate performance space. We saw Joel Harrison’s Anthem of Unity project and the Aaron Goldberg Trio.

We arrived in Albuquerque early in the day to visit the The National Hispanic Cultural Center. The Center’s mission is to promote the work of Hispanic artists from around the world. The work was varied and very good.

We had fun wandering the Center’s extensive campus.

Before our show we wandered over to Central Avenue (Historic Route 66) to take in the sites and grab a bite to eat.

For dinner we settled on Oni, a ramen shop near the Kimo Building.

Santa Fe RV Park has a .75 mile walking path around the park. It’s a perfect route to see the always amazing Santa Fe sunsets.