Day Trips from Santa Fe

Yes — Taos is the best single day trip from Santa Fe, about an hour and 35 minutes north. The draw is Taos Pueblo, a continuously inhabited adobe community more than a thousand years old and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, plus the historic plaza and the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge west of town. The Pueblo closes to visitors for ceremonies and for a quiet time each late winter and early spring, so confirm it's open before you go. Our full Taos day trip guide maps the loop, and if you'd rather stay over, the Old Taos Guesthouse is a characterful base.

Take the High Road up and the Low Road back. The High Road climbs through the mountains in about 40 minutes to Chimayó — home of the Santuario de Chimayó pilgrimage church and a legendary green-chile lunch at Rancho de Chimayó — then continues past the weaving village of Truchas and the old church at Las Trampas. The Low Road drops down along the Rio Grande for the drive home. Our two-part High Road guide covers Chimayó and Truchas.

Absolutely — Bandelier is about an hour from Santa Fe, and its Main Loop Trail leads past Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings you can climb into on wooden ladders. The park has used a mandatory shuttle from White Rock during busy months in past seasons, so check the current access rules on the National Park Service site before you drive up. For a quieter alternative with guided access, Puye Cliff Dwellings on Santa Clara Pueblo land is excellent. Outfitters like Great Southwest Adventures and Camaratour run guided trips if you'd rather not drive.

Los Alamos, about 45 minutes from Santa Fe, is the birthplace of the atomic bomb, and its history is the reason to go. The Los Alamos History Museum tells the Manhattan Project story, and the town sits right next to Bandelier — the two pair naturally into a single day up on the Pajarito Plateau.

The red-and-gold cliffs an hour to an hour and 15 minutes northwest of Santa Fe are the landscapes Georgia O'Keeffe painted for decades. Ghost Ranch offers hiking and landscape tours, and the O'Keeffe Home and Studio in Abiquiú runs guided tours by reservation — book well ahead, as they sell out and run seasonally. Make a day of it with a tasting at Black Mesa Winery on the way, or stay over at The Grand Hacienda. Our journal revisits Ghost Ranch in more depth.

They're two different places, often confused. Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs is the day trip — a historic hot-springs resort about 50 minutes north, with a cluster of geothermal pools that have drawn bathers since the 1800s. Ojo Santa Fe Spa Resort is a spa just south of town, minutes from the Plaza — lovely, but not a day trip. If you want the drive and the history, go to Ojo Caliente; if you want a soak between museums, Ojo Santa Fe is closer.

The southern option, about 40 minutes down the scenic NM-14 Turquoise Trail, Madrid (say "MAD-rid") is a former coal-mining town reborn as a strip of galleries, studios, and cafés. It's an easy half day, and the back-road drive through the Ortiz Mountains is half the point. Pair it with a stop in the old mining town of Cerrillos.