New Mexico: Santa Fe, Taos and White Sands

Arrive in Albuquerque, Old Town at sunset

Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) to your hotel, then Old Town

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Albuquerque
• Environ 18 min de route

Après-midi

Plan to land by about 2 pm so you can join the late-afternoon walk; the latest workable arrival is confirmed with your final itinerary. Albuquerque sits at about 1,600 m on the Rio Grande, with the Sandia Mountains to the east, and the air is thin and dry, so drink water from the first hour. Around 4 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week, then walks you through Old Town, the plaza laid out when the town was founded in 1706, with the adobe church of San Felipe de Neri on its north side.

Soir

Towards sunset the Sandias often glow pink, which is how they got a name that means watermelon. Dinner is a welcome meal together and a first answer to the state question: red or green chile?

Compris

• Pick-up at Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Old Town walk with your guide, with the San Felipe de Neri church
• Welcome dinner

The Pueblo Cultural Center and the High Road to Taos

Albuquerque to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, then north by Santa Fe, Chimayó and Truchas to Taos

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Taos
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Chimayó, close to the Santuario de Chimayó, the small adobe chapel built in the early 1800s that draws thousands of pilgrims on foot every Holy Week. Above it, Truchas sits on a ridge facing the Sangre de Cristo peaks. We reach Taos by mid-afternoon and drive straight out to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, where the river runs roughly 200 m below the deck, for the late light on the gorge walls.

Soir

The evening is free around the Taos Plaza.

Compris

• Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque at opening
• The High Road to Taos with your guide, through Chimayó and Truchas
• Santuario de Chimayó
• Sit-down lunch in Chimayó
• Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in the late afternoon

Taos Pueblo, then O'Keeffe country

Taos to Taos Pueblo, then Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch, then Santa Fe

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Santa Fe
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

After lunch we tour her Home and Studio (tours run Tuesday to Saturday, which is why departures start Sunday to Thursday), then drive on to Ghost Ranch and walk below the red and yellow cliffs she painted for decades. It is about an hour and a half to Santa Fe, home for two nights.

Compris

• Taos Pueblo at opening (or the Millicent Rogers Museum and the San Francisco de Asís church if the Pueblo is closed)
• Sit-down lunch in Abiquiu
• Georgia O'Keeffe Home and Studio tour in Abiquiu
• Ghost Ranch with your guide

Bandelier in the morning, Canyon Road in the afternoon

Santa Fe to Bandelier National Monument and back, then Canyon Road

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Santa Fe
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Après-midi

We are back in Santa Fe for a sit-down lunch and a free early afternoon. At about 3 pm your guide walks you up Canyon Road, a lane of old adobe houses with more than a hundred galleries and studios in under a kilometre; browsing is welcome and nobody expects you to buy.

Soir

The evening is yours, around the Plaza and the Palace of the Governors.

Compris

• Bandelier National Monument with your guide: the Main Loop Trail, the cavates and Tyuonyi
• Sit-down lunch in Santa Fe
• Canyon Road gallery walk with your guide

South down the Rio Grande to Las Cruces

Santa Fe to Socorro and Bosque del Apache, then Las Cruces and Mesilla

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Las Cruces
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Soir

It is over our usual four-hour cap because the route runs one way and the two-night bases are fixed in Santa Fe and Las Cruces; a stop overnight halfway would mean a one-night hotel change for little gain, so we break the day into three parts. We leave at about 8:30 am, stop for coffee on the way past Albuquerque, and sit down to lunch in Socorro, an old mission town. After lunch we drive into Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, where tens of thousands of sandhill cranes and snow geese spend the winter from about November; on spring and September departures it is quieter wetland with herons, ducks and the odd roadrunner. Then the valley opens into the chile and pecan country around Hatch, and we reach Las Cruces in the late afternoon for two nights. Dinner is together in Mesilla, whose plaza became part of the United States with the Gadsden Purchase in 1854.

Compris

• Sit-down lunch in Socorro
• Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, about an hour on the refuge loop
• Dinner in Mesilla

Activités en option

• The Very Large Array radio telescope, west of Socorro: on private departures, or if the whole group agrees, this detour replaces the refuge and adds about 160 km and two hours of driving.

White Sands at sunset

Las Cruces over San Agustin Pass to White Sands National Park and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Las Cruces
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

A free morning in Las Cruces: sleep in, walk the Mesilla plaza and its shops, or visit the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.

Après-midi

After lunch on your own we cross the Organ Mountains by San Agustin Pass, about an hour to White Sands National Park. The highway crosses the White Sands Missile Range and sometimes closes for an hour or so during tests, which is why we leave margin. White Sands is the largest gypsum dunefield in the world, about 710 square kilometres, and the sand stays cooler underfoot than ordinary sand. We drive Dunes Drive deep into the dunes, walk the raised Interdune Boardwalk, then climb the dunes and slide down on waxed saucer sleds.

Soir

Two hours before sunset the light goes low and the ripples throw long shadows; as the sun drops behind the San Andres Mountains the white turns pink, then blue. Supper is a picnic at the dune picnic area around sunset, and we drive out before the park gate closes, about half an hour after sunset (an hour in summer), back to Las Cruces in the dark.

Compris

• White Sands National Park entry with your guide
• Dunes Drive and the Interdune Boardwalk
• Sledding on the dunes, sleds provided
• Sunset in the dunefield
• Picnic supper at White Sands around sunset, out before the gate closes

Mesilla, then out from El Paso

Las Cruces to Mesilla, then El Paso International Airport (ELP)

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

A last breakfast, then a slow morning on foot in Mesilla with your guide. The plaza is lined with adobe buildings from the 1800s, the Basilica of San Albino faces it from the north, and on one corner stands the building where Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced in 1881. There is time for coffee, a bag of local pecans or dried chile to take home, and the shops around the square. Late in the morning we drive about 80 km and an hour south along the Rio Grande, crossing into Texas, to El Paso International Airport (ELP), arriving by about 1 pm. Book a flight leaving after about 3 pm. El Paso shares its time zone with New Mexico, so there is no clock change.

Soir

If you want more time in the desert, Carlsbad Caverns National Park is about three hours east of El Paso, and we can add a night and arrange the visit. Your guide sees you to the terminal before saying goodbye.

Compris

• Mesilla plaza walk with your guide, with the Basilica of San Albino
• Drop-off at El Paso International Airport (ELP)

Activités en option

• Carlsbad Caverns National Park as an extension from El Paso, with an extra night (timed-entry tickets needed, arranged on request)