Colorado & New Mexico - historical/architecture?
 

We are heading to northern New Mexico and southern/central Colorado in a few days. It is a spur of the moment trip, because we have some downtime ahead.

The obvious natural beauty and lovely weather is the main attraction, but we'd like to see any appreciable historical, engineering, and/or architecture icons in the area. Want to avoid glitzy tourist areas, which shouldn't be hard.

We aren't taking the motorcycle or truck, so the places need to be accessible by car.

Pointers appreciated.

Jurgen

Bandolier National Monument is about as historical as it gets. An interesting place:

Bandelier National Monument, near Los Alamos, New Mexico

Chaco Canyon National Park is another great destination. Roads are a little rough getting there but nothing a car can't handle. Also if you are in Southwest Colorado there is Mesa Verde National Park.

Rich

If you're near Taos, visit the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.

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You can also visit, or maybe even stay in , a Taos Earthship "sustainable" home.

earthship.com

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In the San Luis Valley (birthplace of Gogar) visit the Gread Sand Dunes National Monument. Not really Historical, or Architecture, but cool anyway.

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Check out Villa Philmonte just outside of Cimarron NM. Beautiful Mediterranean style villa built in the late '20s. It has been lovingly restored and is part of the Philmont scout ranch, open for tours daily.

Mesa verde is a must see.

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loretto Chapel in santa fe.

spiral staircase built with no center post or nails..

it is unknown how it was done, and nobody is willing or allowed to take it apart to reverse engineer it. i was too hungover to check it out. major regret..kinda of.

Concur with the above and all the ther recommendations. Hard to go wrong.

Jurgen, have you spent mush time in the area before?

The Los Alamos Lab is really neat if you have the time: Planning your Visit to the Museum

Santa Fe is awesome, Great Sand Dunes too. Ummm Mesa Verde, yeah. There's a cool whore house in Cripple Creek, and the Molly something mine is really neat.

Also, the last time the wife & I were in that area we drove on some of the small roads through some of the little towns (toward Truchas ??) and rural areas. We discovered a bunch of great art for sale at some of the local artists' residences where they were displaying & selling their works. Lots of it was great quality. The prices reflected the quality, but well worth it & beautiful to look at.

Given the historical/engineering angle, the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad is a must to experience. Start the day early, wandering the Chama yard. You can see and talk to the guys firing, fueling, and lubing the locomotives. Its all very laid back and authentic on the C&TSRR (unlike the fancy-dancy tourist show in Durango!). Catch the bus from Chama station to Antonito. Then ride the train from Antonito back to Chama. Views are best going this direction, and you get plenty of time to familiarize yourself with the train on the flats out of Antonito before starting the climb up into the mountains.

I heartily agree with the recommendations on Bandelier. Just a stunningly beautiful place. We take every one of our out-of-state visitors there, and no one has ever been disappointed. The museums in nearby Los Alamos are also well worth a visit.

Don't waste your time on that ridiculously overpriced and somewhat snooty mecca for liberal weirdness and so-called art, Santa Fe.

Excellent!

I have been to Taos, and southwestern Colorado and seen some of the high points (River Gorge Bridge, Great Sand Dunes National Monument, the free portions of Mesa Verde). I'm all for seeing it again, but want to find some new gems.

One of my fondest memories is driving up Highway 550 in southwestern CO and being dumbfounded by the beauty. My girlfriend has never been to NM or CO, and while I am sure she will appreciate Mother Nature, it would be great to see some man-made hidden secrets in the area.

Los Alamos will be on the agenda. We just have to lay low while the Labor Day rush passes by.

We'll be taking plenty of pics and will post here very soon.
Jurgen

If you're coming through Los Alamos - to see Bandolier and our amazing historic museums - we'll leave the key under the gnome by the front door. There's a keg of La Cumbre IPA on tap. Be sure to leave some for us...

The rest have spoken, and have done well. Enjoy your visit - enjoy some scenery and roast some green chile to bring home!

The food scene is for the most part still very high priced and boring (filet mingon and elk tenderloin). We've lived here 15 years and have never found the dining comparable to Denver or the Phoenix burbs - much less Chicago. Eat local and cheap if you eat here.

For the art - most of it lacks any sort of "liberal weirdness" at all. It more or less is either bland "match your sofa" southwestern images or the same abstract stuff you get anywhere. Some of that abstract stuff is fun and amusing, some of it may offend your conventional sensibilities. Little of it seem memorable to me.

There is a gallery with a huge pile of Weston and Adams prints (as in printed by those guys themselves). That place is like a museum itself if you're into that. Andrew Smith gallery if I remember correctly?

The landscape and the light - maybe the hippies were on to something. If you catch it right -- you'll never forget it...

If you are going up 550 anyway, there is a Anasazi settlement in Aztec, the Aztec Ruins national Monument. It is just off the hiway, so no dirt roads to traverse. They have a restored great kiva (round ceremonial building) there that is very interesting. We used to use it for various DeMolay and Boy Scout functions over the years, and it was a great atmosphere. Of course, the drive from Durango to Silverton and the Million dollar highway to Ouray offer outstanding mountain views.