May 17, 2012 – Do you know the way to Santa Fe?

We woke up early this morning at the Bernalillo Super 8 since the air conditioning wasn’t doing much good to keep the room cool.  After grabbing a motel breakfast we drove to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

San Miguel Church in Santa Fe

We had no trouble finding a parking lot available near the state capitol building allowing us to walk around Old Town Santa Fe.  We were impressed with the antiquity of the area and saw the San Miguel Mission Church that may be the oldest church in the United States since it was built in the early 1600s.  There are a few adobe buildings remaining in the city including the church and a few old houses.  However, most are what locals call “faux-dobe” which looks a great deal like the real thing.  We walked through the Palace of the Governors and the state capitol building which has a lot of art displays.  The Loretto Chapel was a beautiful old church that has a spiral staircase that is said to be a miracle since it has two complete 360 degree turns and has no supports other than at the top and bottom.  The stairs were built of wood in the 1870s.

Spiral Staircase at Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe

We grabbed a mid-morning snack from a street vendor, Rogue’s Carnitas who has been featured on several Food Network shows. Mary had a red chile chicken tamale and I had a green chile tamale.  We both enjoyed our snacks.  Rogue’s specialty is the carnita but they looked too large for us this morning so we opted for the smaller tamales.

We took a short drive to the Wheelwright Museum which was small but well organized and displayed.  The museum houses the collection of Mary Cabot Wheelwright and includes art from many of the native Pueblo cultures, Navajos and Spanish Americans.

On leaving the museum, we drove on the Santa Fe Trail to toward Pecos, New Mexico.  We stopped for lunch at Bobcat Bite, a local favorite that is also featured on Food Network shows.  The restaurant is tiny with about a half dozen tables and perhaps six seats at the counter.  The two waitresses stayed very busy the whole time we were there since the place was very busy.  Mary had a ham and cheese sandwich on whole grain bread that had two slices of ham that were about a quarter inch thick each and a generous coating of melted cheese.  I had the Albuquerque/Santa Fe regional favorite, the green chile cheeseburger.  Bobcat Bite makes theirs with a 10 ounce patty of sirloin and chuck with Swiss and American chess with green chile.  Both of us enjoyed our meals although both were very large servings.  Bobcate Bite got the name because when the restaurant opened in the 1950s, bobcats would come down from the nearby mountains and scavenge for food around the restaurant.

Spanish mission ruins at Pecos, NM

From there, we drove to Pecos National Historic Park to walk around ruins of Pueblo culture from the 1200s to the 1800s.  It is believed that when Ancient Pueblo people like Anasazis left their villages at Mesa Verde, Chaco and other locations, they may have come to areas like Pecos.  The area was occupied by Spanish missionaries in the 1600s who built a large mission from adobe that remains standing, although in ruins today.  The walk around the sites was about 1.5 miles but the strong breeze made the heat very comfortable.  Also at the park is the site of the Battle of Glorieta Pass which is called by some “The Gettysburg of the West” since the efforts of the Confederates to expand into the western territories were thwarted by Union forces in March 1862 and was a turning point in the war.  We took a walk of about three quarters of a mile out to one of the battle sites.  There were also places where wagon tracks from the Old Santa Fe Trail were still visible in the ruts in the desert.

On the drive today, we drove on several historic roads including the Santa Fe Trail which was an important route from Franklin, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico from 1821 until the about 1880 when railroads make the route obsolete.  We drove part of the Old Pecos Trail, the Las Vegas (New Mexico) Trail and Rt. 66.  Part of Rt. 66 was once part of El Camino Real which was the royal highway between Mexico City and San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico from 1598 to 1882.  The highway has nothing to do with a half car/half truck from Chevy although we did see an old El Camino on El Camino Real!  Although we didn’t have Jill (our Garmin Nuvi) with us, the GPS in the rental car (Maggie since the GPS is a Magellan unit) did fine to help us find our way around.  One thing that is difficult to adjust to is the way that the GPS announces directions.  Jill will say, “In 2 miles, make a right turn on Rt. 123”, however, Maggie will say, “Make a hard right turn on Rt. 123 in 2 miles”.  It just startles me when she says to make a turn BEFORE telling how long to drive until the turn.

We got back to the Bernalillo Super 8 by 6 pm and since we were still full from the huge lunch, we ate fresh fruit for dinner.  

Tomorrow, we plan to do some sightseeing in Albuquerque and return the rental car before checking in at the Days Inn near the Albuquerque Airport.  Our flight home leaves at 8 am on Saturday morning.

View Larger Map