Santa Fe has become one of our favorite destinations to visit,especially on day trips.It is majestic but quaint, full of history but still a mecca for modern artist in one unforgettable little bundle. The first time we visited the city we decided to make a weekend trip of it. We chose to take the scenic route called the turquoise trail instead of going on the interstate because we were still trying to get a "feel" for New Mexico. There were a few stops we made along the trail at a gallery and jewelry shop and then again in the little city of Madrid. We went window shopping mostly (we had the dogs with us) and stopped for lunch at The Hollar, a dog friendly outdoor restaurant that was built from old train cargo containers. If you were visiting the area I would definitely recommend a drive down the Turquoise Trail. It is just touristy enough that you can find great gifts but each little city has a different type of eclectic charm to offer. When we arrived at our vacation rental I was not impressed. But, the owner seemed nice and we were not planning to be there much anyways so I just blew off my misgivings. We dropped our stuff off and we made our way to a local park, Fort Marcy playground, to let the kids and dogs blow off steam. We stayed at the park for.ev.er. Our kids had so much fun which was balm to our souls since we had not quite found our niche in Albuquerque by that point. After the park we were ravenous so we decided to go eat at Tomasita's. We had to wait to be seated for a bit but we just spent that time exploring the train station next door. The food was well worth the wait and we had a really enjoyable family dinner until I checked my phone. I had a message from the homeowner that she did not want us to leave the dogs at the house anymore. That threw a major kink in our weekend plans and honestly we were pretty devastated. In all our travels until this point we had never had anyone complain about our babies. We almost packed up and left but why waste a trip.
Brent researched some dog friendly trails for us to hike the next day and we were good to go. We headed to Hyde Memorial state park the next morning and proceeded to go on the most difficult hike we had accomplished up till that point. The circle trail peaked at an elevation of 9,440. There is an elevation change of 1000' that you climb in the first mile and Brent wore Mat on his back the whole way up!
Zadie was spooked by a snake about 100 feet into the trail,
I got us lost and we decided to add in a side hike to a "waterfall".
When we finally made it back to the car about 4 miles later were totally exhausted but we all agreed that we had a total blast.
We ate dinner at the house and headed to the park again. The next day we decided to do a short hike before we headed home. I was less than enthusiastic about this decision due to a general lack of sleep for everyone but a park volunteer told us we absolutely couldn't miss the Aspen hike.
It was the end of September and all the Aspen trees were putting on their fall show. The scenic drive up the mountain was worth the trip alone, but when you added in the beauty of the hike it truly was unforgettable. Stark white trunks leading to yellow foliage, mixed in with the dark blue green of fir trees all on a rolling mountain backdrop, it was breathtaking.
Every turn in the trail was a new act in the show and it was hard to take in all that beauty.
One of my favorite parts of the view were all the heart and initial carvings on the trunks of the Aspens. Usually finding so many defiled trees would make me really annoyed but the trees didn't seem to mind and I could totally understand how people could get caught up in the romance of their surroundings.
The hiking trail was really wide and packed full of people. The incline wasn't too steep, you could tell it was a trail made for observation more than anything.
It was a great ending to a trip that was totally not a bust.
We have visited Santa Fe a lot since this trip but we haven't opted to stay over night since then. Although, we have taken the time to visit more well known locations such as the Plaza and the historic district. For such a smallish town Santa Fe has far more to offer than a lot of it's bigger surrounding cities, If you ever thought about visiting, you definitely should.
The Browns
