Santa Fe Part 3

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

We only have four more full days in the Santa Fe area and more than that many things that we hoped to see and do before heading out. Early on in our stay, we had contemplated going to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in town, but with the visits to some of the other museums, we weren’t really looking for yet another museum even if it was filled with artwork from a relatively famous New Mexico artist. But while talking with a docent at another museum a few days ago, she agreed that skipping the O’Keeffe Museum was understandable but that we should really consider visiting the artist’s former studio at a place called Ghost Ranch. We looked into it and decided that besides having some museums on the grounds, there were also some hiking trails that sounded good. Of course it is located 74 miles from camp and would have been closer to visit when we were staying in Los Alamos but we didn’t know about Ghost Ranch back then.

We realized that between the 90 minute drive each way, the planned hike and touring the museums at Ghost Ranch, we were going to have a full day. So we got an early start and  paced it to arrive to the gravel road leading into Ghost Ranch by about 8:30. On the drive in was an old cabin with an information sign. It turns out that this was a location used for the filming of the movie City Slickers starring Billy Crystal back in 1991. We’ve seen the movie but way back when it was released so we found it online and streamed it a few days after our visit to see how much of the footage looked familiar.

Old Ford Pickup at Ghost Ranch

Main Entrance Sign

Cabin from "City Slickers" Movie

Today Ghost Ranch is primarily used for educational workshops and retreats. There are guest accommodations on the grounds and many artists come and spend months working on their craft at the site. But it is also open to the general public for a $10 per person fee. This will give us access to all the hiking trails as well as the several museums. We head to the main office to pay and get our wristbands. Even though we are clean right now and the museums are just a few buildings away, we know it makes more sense to tackle our intended hike while the temperature is a bit cooler.

Mountains at Ghost Ranch

Main Visitor Center

The trailhead is just north of much of the studio and residential areas but only those staying on the grounds can drive the road through there so we need to take the long bumpy road around the eastern side of a field to get to the trailhead parking. The Kitchen Mesa Trail is listed in AllTrails as a 4.6 mile out and back hike with 810 feet of elevation gain and is rated “hard”. The specs for the trail didn’t seem to warrant the hard rating and Chris had even watched a couple of YouTube videos about this hike to make sure it was one she could handle given her fear of heights. The trail starts out easy enough generally following a wash. After a tenth of a mile, it splits with Box Canyon Trail to the left and our trail to the right but signage is reasonable so we don’t get confused.

At Trailhead

One Mesa

A Different Mesa

There are several mesas visible from the trail and at first it wasn’t clear which one was the one we would be climbing but the trail turns towards the east, we are heading up into a closed valley with cliffs on the left, right and straight ahead so it was clear we would be heading up somewhere and somehow.

Heading Up Valley

Cactus Bloom

At the 3/4 mile mark is another trail split. The sign guides us to the right although they will join back together in 1/3 of a mile so it’s not clear why it matters. But by now we are deep into the valley with cliffs on three sides and no discernible route up from below.

Surrounded By Cliff Walls

Looking Back Down the Valley

Is There A Trail to the Top?

The trail is quite obvious as we are hiking. It isn’t like we are winging it through the scrub, it’s just that we have only climbed 140 feet in elevation in the first 1.25 miles but we still have another 460 feet of climbing and we seem to be running out of valley floor and only have cliffs around us. We do find a wooden sign labeled  “Kitchen Mesa Ascent” so we know we are on the right track regardless of how improbable it looks.

Sign Points the Way

Look Down the Valley

Things get steep fast and the “trail” is quite rocky. They do have an interesting trail markers to help lead the way. This is too rugged to just use normal rock cairns. Instead they have old coffee cans painted green with a white stripe. Some are sitting on the ground filled with small rocks so they don’t blow away or fall over. Other cans are placed upside down on the limb of a small tree. The goal is to simply follow the coffee can trail.

Obvious Trail

Follow the Coffee Cans

Extremely Rock Ascent

It was slow going. I was in the lead and Chris was trying to follow me up the same path. At times it wasn’t as much of a path as a choose your own rock scramble. I’ll admit the the view of the valley below was outstanding and we had lots of times to take in the beauty as we tried to figure our next climb. Most of the climb, I kept thinking that Chris is going to realize this was way more than we could handle and say we need to turn around. But surprisingly she never chickened out even though we both knew we would eventually need to figure out how we would be able to get back down.

Valley View Improves

We were enticingly close to the top but the last section of the climb was the most challenging. Along the upper edge of the cliff was a bit of a crevice that was nearly vertical with about 15 more feet to climb. The saving grace of this section is that you have rock on either side of you so you can’t see how high up you are or how far down you might fall if you slip. Some of the “steps” were at the limit of my long legs so I knew Chris would have a hard time. I’m not sure how long it took us to go these 15 feet but it was at least 10 minutes. As we made it to the top of the mesa, I hear Chris state that “we’re too old for this shit”.

The Last 15 Feet Up

Here Comes Chris

It was much easier going now that we had reached the top of the mesa. There was still some elevation over the next portion of the hike, but nothing too serious and the views were quite amazing from up here.

Path on Top of Mesa

Nice View from Up Here

The trail eventually leads us to the portion of the mesa that overlooks the main Ghost Ranch facilities. We took advantage of the views and found a bit of shade under a small tree to have a snack before we turn around and head back. Neither of us were looking forward to the descent but knew there was no other way down.

Overlooking the Buildings at Ghost Ranch

Chimney Rock Above Ghost Ranch

When we got to the crevice, we took it slowly and carefully and made it down without much trouble. It turned out that some of the sections with lots of small loose rocks was even more problematic. I wasn’t getting much traction with my boots and needed to get creative to not slide down the edge.

Chris Recomposes Herself After the Tough Descent

Easy Terrain Now

 Once we made it to the relatively flat terrain, we were feeling pretty good with the hike. It was just about noon  it we weren’t hungry yet so we decided to check out some of the Box Canyon Trail. One of the cliffs along this canyon has a spire at the edge which we thought looked like a statue of some sort of guardian.

Another Mesa Along Box Canyon Trail

Guardian of the Mesa

The trail follows a bit of a creek but not much water is in it. In fact it looks like there is some piping in place to try to direct this water possibly to provide water to Ghost Ranch. We made it half a mile before we realized it wasn’t that interesting of a hike and we were starting to get hungry.

View Up Box Canyon

Plumbing Needs Some Work

We made it to the car, grabbed our lunch and found a large covered shelter to eat. There were no tables but there were some chairs. As we were eating, we heard the sound of distant thunder. As we drove back to the main area to check out the museums, we realized we had managed to finish our hike just in time to avoid some rain coming our way. Kitchen Mesa Trail would not be a fun one in the rain!

There are 2 museums at Ghost Ranch. The anthropology museum has lots of displays of ancestral Pueblo artifacts. There were also some videos that highlight some of the artists that come to Ghost Ranch and their creative process. There is a wide range of disciplines that are invited to work here. Given O’Keeffe was famous for her painting, I may have thought only painters would be invited.

Model of a Pit House

Textile Art

Pottery

The paleontology museum was fairly small but had some interesting displays from some of the local archeological finds in the area.

Example Fossil Dig

Phytosaur Fossil

Our timing was pretty good, the rain showers happened while we were inside the museums and had pretty much stopped when we headed out. Since we had gotten such an early start, we were finished with all we had planned before 3 PM. We saw that about 5 miles further north was something called Echo Amphitheater. It is out of the way but  not by much so we headed there to check it out.

Heading Back Into Amphitheater

There is a walkway from the parking lot that leads about a quarter mile back into the amphitheater. There was only one other car in the parking lot when we arrived and that person was heading out as we walked in. It’s a pretty impressive sandstone cliff that is a few hundred feet tall. Its shape is conducive to producing echoes and since we have the place to ourselves, we take the chance to make some noise.

Clearly Visible

Inside Amphitheater

We have seen places like this at other times in our travels, but typically getting to them requires a lengthy hike. This one is even ADA accessible. Since we know we have at least a 90 minute drive back to camp so we make this our last stop of an eventful day.

Rock Layers on Side Cliffs

The following day we head out for another hike. This time to a trail north of Santa Fe that starts down in the foothills but heads up towards one of the hikes we did a few days ago. This one is called the Winsor Trail #254 which follows Tesuque Creek coming down the mountains. The section we plan to do is a 6 mile out and back hike with just over 760 feet elevation gain. The trailhead is at the end of a residential area along Big Tesuque Canyon Road. The problem is there is quite limited parking with spots for a few vehicles towards the end of the dirt road and a few more a quarter mile before that. There were openings at the first parking area which we hoped meant there would be one at the better parking area but it was already full so we needed to backtrack. It turns out the trailhead is nearly 0.4 miles from where we parked to the end of the road but there is very limited traffic other than other people like us hoping to get a parking spot.

Trailhead Along Tesuque Creek

Even when the road ends and trail starts, we are walking down a path that has some sort or fencing on either side of it since there are homes in the adjacent lots. It isn’t until we are nearly a mile from our car that we enter a forest area that feels like a normal hike.

Initial Part of Trail

Continuing Up

As we continued up the trail we had a few geocaches to look for and at one point the trail splits onto both side of the creek with one being labeled as Winsor Alt. We decide to hike up the alternate trail and see where they come back together less than a mile up the trail.

Rocky Portion

Weidemeyer's Admiral Butterfly

Swallowtail on Flowers

Every now and then, we would see bicyclists coming down the trail but never saw any going up it. It appears that there is a shuttle bus system that can be used to bring the bikes and riders up the mountains - possibly to the ski resort at the top - and then there are long downhill routes that can be used to get back to some lower parking lot where they started.

We ended up going just under 3 miles from our parking spot and found one last geocache before turning back. This cache was interesting since it was placed back in 2007 but only has a couple dozen finders. It was most recently found in in early November last year but we were struggling to find the container. After 15 minutes of searching along the hillside, I spotted what looked like a lid sticking out of a small rock slide. I was really expecting it to just be trash but discovered it was a camouflaged peanut butter jar with a logbook inside. As I signed the log, I noticed the most recent finder listed was from 2012 not 2025. I later discovered that a geocacher had stated they moved the container to a better spot in 2014 but they likely had actually never found the original hide and replaced it with a new one and that’s what subsequent cachers were finding. We never did find the replacement container so the next person looking for this one has 2 chances to find it.

We decide that this trail wasn’t all that enjoyable or scenic so we headed back taking the other side of the loop portion on the return trip. As we made our way back down the trail, I noticed that there was another geocache hidden up a trail to the north on a hill. It hadn’t been found in over 5 years and we felt good enough to give it a try. It was only a tenth of a mile as the crow flies but the hill was steep and rocky with many switchbacks to get up there. But as we finally got to ground zero, I found the metal cookie container being used as the cache. It had rusted in the past 5 years making it tough to open but found the log book in good condition and signed in. We actually got the best view of the hike from up here. We slowly descended the loose rocks to the main trail and then the long walk along the road to the car. By now there were several open parking spots in the nearer lot. It’s not clear why this trail is so popular since it wasn’t nearly as nice as many others we have done in the area. We ended up with 5.7 miles and nearly 1200 feet of elevation gain.

Best View of Today's Hike

Having done hikes the past 2 days, we opt for a less strenuous day on the following one. El Rancho de Las Golondrinas (the ranch of the swallows) is a living history museum celebrating the 18th- and 19th-century Spanish Colonial heritage. It’s only about 5 miles from camp so quite convenient to visit.

Entrance Gate

We knew that they had docent led tours at 9:30 so we arrive shortly after they open to get our name on the list. Admission is $8 per person with our senior discount. There is a small museum with various displays that kept us busy until tour time.

Displays in Museum

Ornate Woodworking

We started out with 6 visitors and the docent. He gave us lots of background on how this place was an important stop on the El Camino Real - a 1600 mile trading route between Mexico and Santa Fe. It came into existence in the early 1700’s. Obviously buildings have been reconstructed but in keeping with their original form and materials. At each stop, we are given the background of how this particular building was used hundreds of years ago.

Adobe

Inside Home

Weaving Loom

Thirty minutes into the tour, the other 4 visitors needed to leave so we had a very personal tour for the rest of the time. The church was quite colorful.

There is even an area with farm animals they would have had back in the day. Of course Chris was happy to see goats.

A Flock of Sheep

Goat Looks Through Fence

Burros

This docent was very knowledgeable about the topic at hand. I think he said he has been volunteering here for decades so he has story after story explaining how the people lived, ate and made clothing and shelter.

Dinnerware

Kitchen

Tin Shop

After the tour was over, we wandered on our own back towards the main entrance. We knew there was also going to be an 11:30 tour of some of the museum grounds scattered around the 200 acres. There is a small restaurant near the visitor center so we opt to get a quick bowl of soup so we could make it for the second tour and not starve while on the tour.

A different docent led a much larger group of 16 or so people. We ended up walking quite a distance between the various stops. Many of the buildings on the grounds were relocated from other areas of New Mexico.

Adobe Tower

Inside Schoolroom

Church on a Hill

Many of the buildings in the outer reaches of the grounds are locked but our guide had keys so we were able to see inside the schoolroom and old mill. There were a pair of frogs sitting on a stump submerged in the small pond.

Mill with Water Wheel

Frogs in Pond

Log Cabin

It is an active museum that does have a garden with an irrigation system in place. There seemed to be a fair number of workers or other volunteers wandering around. Some of them in period clothing to explain various aspects of life here. We spent 4 hours total between the 2 tours and exploring on our own. It was actually quite entertaining and informative.

Garden

When our last full day rolled around, we planned on doing another hike but this one was going to be on the longer side. Atalaya Mountain is a 9118 foot peak on the eastern side of side of Santa Fe. It’s in the same general area as the Sun and Moon Mountain hike we had completed earlier in our stay. There are many trail and trailhead options to complete this hike. We pick one in AllTrails that uses the Atalaya Trail and the Dale Ball Trail. We liked that this 5.4 mile hike is a loop which we typically prefer over an out and back style hike. The downside is there is nearly 1650 feet of elevation gain and the parking for the hike is really difficult. There are two different parking areas. The one closer to the trailhead has 7 or 8 spots and the one a tenth of a mile further can fit 3 or 4 cars. Chris’ research suggests all the parking spots are filled by 8 AM. The backup plan is to park at the same location we did for our Sun and Moon hike at St John College but doing so will add almost 1.5 miles each way to our hike - that was 3 miles we hoped to avoid. To hopefully get a parking spot, we are up early and out the door before we even had breakfast. As we pulled up to the further parking area, all the spots were open. Instead of checking the better spots, I wheeled into one of the 4 spots and we started to enjoy our breakfast we had brought along. Before we were even done eating, all the spots were taken. Our strategy had worked.

The trailhead is in a rather affluent neighborhood. In fact we need to walk the street, into a gated community for a half mile before we reach the actual trail. Even though it felt a bit odd, we crossed paths with a couple of residents walking their dogs at 7:45 and they didn’t seem to give us an evil eye.

Entering Gated Community

As might be expected with any mountain hike, the trail starts out uphill. We had chosen to complete the loop in a counterclockwise direction. In hindsight, we found the downhill section of the Dale Ball Trail to be rather treacherous so maybe clockwise would have been a better choice? It will take 2.8 miles climbing before we reach the summit just under 1600 feet up. Another good thing about getting such an early start meant it was cooler plus at this time of day the trail was almost completely in shade. As we climb, we get some nice views of Sun and Moon Mountains to the southwest. At just under a mile in, there was a trail split with a sign labeled “Steeper Route / Easier Route”. We picked the easier route not only for the obvious reason, but there was a geocache hidden just off this section of the trail.

Moon and Sun Mountains

Steeper to the Left, Easier to the Right

When we got to the turn for the geocache, we realized it was actually hidden about a quarter mile away up a side trail named Atalaya Lookout Trail. We decided the extra half mile and the time spent looking for the cache would be okay since we were early in the hike. It turned out to be a good call. The view from the lookout was nice and we eventually found the well hidden container after 10 minutes of searching.

View from Atalaya Lookout

We still had another 1.4 miles to the summit and some of it was rather rocky. At the summit we had another cache to find and we took advantage of the views to have a well deserved snack.

Up the Mountain

View from Atalaya Summit

As we worked our way down the opposite side of the mountain on the Dale Ball Trail, we were having serious boot traction issues with the steepness and loose rock. We were forced to go a bit off trail at some points to simply get some traction. It was slow going but after a half mile of this, things improved and we enjoyed the hike again.

Heading Down Dale Ball Trails

The good thing with the Dale Ball Trails is they are very well marked but the bad thing is there are so many different options that we have trouble at times knowing for certain we are on the trail we want. About a mile before we get back to the car, we come across something called Castle Rock. It’s a neat rock outcropping that has Sun and Moon Mountains in the background. I also spotted another short-horned lizard along the trail. It blends in quite well so I’ve creatively edited the photo to make is stand out.

Nice Views on Way Down

Castle Rock

Short-Horned Lizard

With all the extra detours for finding 5 geocaches, our hike came in at 6.4 miles and 1980 feet of elevation gain. It was a tough but very pretty hike. The 2 weeks outside of Santa Fe were fun and we surely could have found another 2 weeks of things to see and do. But we need to move one with our next stop being just outside of Albuquerque in the town of Rio Rancho.