A Trip to New Mexico
/Back in November, before the rush of the holidays, my best friend from high school Ariel and I indulged in a little get away. We were in pursuit of the dwellings, scenery, inspiration, and culture that had powerfully influenced our shared heroine: Georgia O’Keeffe. I’m finally getting around to telling you all about it!
An early flight out of Boston delivered me to Ariel in Chicago, where she lives, and together we headed West. I was eager to get back to the desert more than two years after my most favorite trip I’ve ever taken, and was excited to spend some quality time with a friend I don’t get to see all that often.
We landed in Albuquerque and piled our stuff into the crappiest Dodge Journey I’ve seen come off a rental lot. We were headed North for Santa Fe, and it was chillier than the New Mexico of my mind had been. Still, warm colors and scrubby desert flora gave way to steep, craggy mountains, and I was quickly immersed in that “other planet” feeling specific to a New Englander in the Southwest.
Arriving in Santa Fe, sleepy from a long day of travel, our accommodations at La Posada de Santa Fe were a welcome sight with all its Southwestern charm, a fancy spa, and a roomy suite (thanks to Ariel’s platinum status - the girl gets around). Starving, we headed out to a casual early dinner at Casa Chimayo - a very authentic introduction to New Mexican spice, and enjoyed lots of creamy guacamole and sizzling fajitas.
We woke up to gently falling snow the next morning, pleasantly surprised having not even seen flurries in New England yet. Our first stop was the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in downtown Santa Fe to give us a proper overview of the artist and her work before we set out in her footsteps. It’s a small museum that allows you to consider the collection deeply. We went through the whole place three times over, and hit the gift shop twice, where I picked up this book in anticipation of our journey out to GOK’s residences.
Emerging from the museum, the snow situation had apparently escalated, and we trudged out into the fluffy inches that had quickly accumulated. We headed towards the Santa Fe Plaza and lunch at Cafe Pasqual’s. This was one of our favorite meals of the trip, and the atmosphere was a little fiesta in the heart of a vibrant city.
By the afternoon we were facing a regular Vermont blizzard, and it seemed we had no choice but to hit the spa. Climbing the snowy mountains looming over the city, our Dodge barely made it to Ten Thousand Waves, tucked away in mountain junipers. We felt the altitude climbing the stairs to the hot tubs, and soaked luxuriously under falling snowflakes.
We skated down the mountain and found dinner at Paloma, which offered a more modern and trendy take on Southwestern cuisine. I continued to cope with New Mexican chile, which seemed to baptize everything with a dose of heat intent on making me cry a little.
The next day was our most highly anticipated: Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O’Keeffe lived and worked. I revved up the Doge, said a little prayer to the motor gods, and we pushed further North into the real desert, drinking in the scenery. No kidding you would come here to paint!
Our intimate tour of GOK’s Abiquiu home was the highlight of our trip. We explored her historic adobe house and gardens, poked around her studio and took in her personal desert views. The details were incredible; from carefully arranged collections of found rocks and bones, to the record player spinning her favorite classical records, to the herbs and spices and pots and pans carefully aligned in her pantry. We soaked it in and imagined Georgia going about her day.
After that, we headed to Ghost Ranch, the site of Georgia O’Keeffe’s other New Mexico home, which was hardly another hour up the road. We stopped quickly at Bode’s General Store for a fuel up and souvenir grab - it’s really not to be missed. Ghost Ranch is a little spooky per its namesake upon pulling up; very isolated and you instantly get the feeling a church owns it now (which it does). We wandered around the dude ranch and hiking trails waiting for our tour to begin.
The tour exceeded all expectations though, a burly cowboy guide named George and his trusty driver taking us out in a little bus to the sites Georgia O’Keeffe spent time painting. He held up little prints of her work in plastic sleeves, setting them just so against the natural formations they described. It was fascinating to see the landscape from her perspective this way, and to get so much background on O’Keeffe’s process and paintings.
The tour ran late and we hesitated on following the road further to Taos, but George and the bus driver encouraged us to keep going, and to be sure to stop for dinner at Orlando’s. We were glad we did, winding through gorges and mountains for the most breathtaking drive of the trip. And Orlando’s was a spot-on recommendation, warming us up with a colorful atmosphere and incredible burritos. We drove home under bright desert stars.
The next day we’d be heading back down to Albuquerque, but not without browsing the Canyon Road Galleries, sampling a little drinking chocolate at Kakawa Chocoalte House, and meeting up with my dear friend from college, Hannah, at Modern General Feed and Seed. She’d recently moved to Santa Fe (jealous), and it was so nice to catch up with her over blue corn pancakes and avocado toast in the very hip brunchery.
We arrived at our accommodations for our final night in New Mexico with big smiles on our faces. Los Poblanos is a historic inn and lavender farm, and is easily one of the nicest places I’ve ever spent a night. We marveled at a pair of peacocks perching among rows of fragrant lavender on our way to check-in.
Dinner that night and breakfast the next morning were the best eating of the trip, at the Inn’s farm-to-table restaurant, Campo. Lavender garnished cocktails, vegetable tostadas, lavender chicken, mole amarillo…every dish was more perfect than the last.
We ended our trip nearly burning the historic inn down with a brief fireplace malfunction, but all’s well that ends well, and we slept especially well in our lavender scented room.
After a morning bike ride around the farm, we said goodbye to New Mexico and headed home. Ariel and I both felt endlessly inspired having seen the desert through Georgia O’Keeffe’s eyes, and giddy at having spent such a relaxing few days sharing laughs and swapping stories. Fellow creative souls, this is a pilgrimage you must take, and one I will never forget.
