ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604050124
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SANTA FE, N.M.
SOURCE: ELIZABETH OBENSHAIN STAFF WRITER
Winding along the mountainside in the Pecos Wilderness, the trail led through aspen groves and clusters of purple asters as light rain misted through the trees.
In this lush mountain landscape of huge evergreens and streams, it's hard to remember that 45 minutes away lie the ruins of an Indian pueblo, baking in the heat of the New Mexico desert - vestiges of an ancient civilization that had clung for centuries to a mesa top.
Both of these worlds are within an hour's drive of Santa Fe, a small city internationally famous for its culture, art galleries and cuisine.
For the traveler who wants it all - stunning landscape, good hiking, gourmet restaurants and a feast of shopping - Santa Fe and northern New Mexico are hard to beat.
The landscape is what overwhelms you at first. Used to a lush green world, to gentle mountains and the civilized confines of the East, the austere beauty of New Mexico's desert landscapes and the clarity of the sunlight are stunning. The variety of this land can vary from desert to red canyons to heavily forested mountains and pastureland within a morning's drive.
The area also displays an ancient culture totally foreign to most visitors. Even a short visit to the area whets your fascination with the Indian cultures of the Anasazi, the ancient ones, who built multilevel pueblos and carved cave dwellings out of canyon walls before Europeans paid their first visits to the Americas.
But even for couch-potato travelers who like a vacation indulgent in its pleasures, Santa Fe is a good stop.
You can settle into one of the well-known hotels around the town square, such as La Posada or La Fonda, that capture the Spanish and Indian influences of the region in their bold architecture.
Or you might prefer staying in one of the city's many bed and breakfasts within walking distance of downtown. Pueblo Bonito, where we settled for most of a week, is an oasis of old adobe cottages and green courtyards where you can relax under the cottonwood trees to read after afternoon tea.
A day in Santa Fe is likely to be a hard day of shopping and eating, eating and shopping, and more shopping and eating. The saving grace for your waist line is that the city center is designed for easy walking.
The city is rightly famous for its art galleries. The variety and the richness of the art evolves from the energy of the American Indian art mixed with some of the finest and most innovative of modern art. Sculpture, some in fantastically creative forms, stands on patios while modern landscapes and jewelry fill gallery windows. Once the visitor has exhausted the shops around the Plaza Market, the city's Canyon Road offers another mile of galleries to explore.
The hardest decision faced by Santa Fe visitors even with a full week is which of the city's gourmet restaurants to visit.
A good place to start is with dinner at the Pink Adobe, famous for its steak topped with green chilies.
The famous Cayote Cafe, which has spawned cookbooks and a whole store full of memorabilia, is another must stop for most visiting gourmets. The restaurant has popularized gourmet Southwest cuisine - leading to a spin-off restaurant, Red Sage, in the nation's capital. If you crave lighter, more casual fare, the rooftop cafe is a nice way to sample both the cuisine and the city's mix of people.
But a favorite for both for real New Mexican cuisine as well as unmatched charm is The Shed. Tucked away inside one of Santa Fe's old plazas, a visitor can settle into one of The Shed's tiny, painted rooms and put away a huge plate of blue corn tortillas topped with a spicy tomato and chile sauce and cheese. It's a favorite worth visiting at least once on any visit to the city.
For those who can stretch their vacation for more than a week, the area around Santa Fe offers skiing in winter, numerous active Indian pueblos where tourists can shop for crafts or visit annual tribal dances, and wilderness areas with extensive hiking trails.
Most intriguing of all, though, would be a trip that allowed time to visit the ancient ruins of Indian pueblos and canyon dwellings scattered throughout the state. They offer the traveler a glimpse of the complex cultures that thrived in this country for centuries and are now all but forgotten.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ELIZABETH OBENSHAIN. 1. The ruins of the Pecos Puebloby CNBsit on a mesa high above the Pecos River valley. Drought eventually
forced the evacuation of the pueblo in the early part of the
century. 2. Sagebrush grows rampant in Northern New Mexico, near the
Rio Grande gorge. 3. San Miguel Mission on Old Santa Fe Trail was
built in the early 1600s and is the oldest church still in use in
the United States. It presides over a hillside in downtown Santa Fe.
color.