(Note: this is part 2 of our Southwest Escape from West Texas to New Mexico, in partnership with Enterprise Rent A Car. To start from the beginning, click here.)
Day Five: Alpine, Texas to New Mexico
We had breakfast in Alpine at a small cafe called Bread + Breakfast, which was pretty unremarkable save the man with the dog that loaded his dog into his motorcycle’s sidecar. As I saw it happening, I went outside and asked to take a photo. He sighed, shrugged, and agreed, “sure, everyone else does.” (By the way, the dog is howling at the sound of the owner revving the engine. It was adorable.)
The drive from Alpine to our next stop in New Mexico was a long one. We stopped a lot along the way for photos, but otherwise, it was a four hour drive that took at least six. It kinda sucked to be in the car that long–so much to photograph, so little time. Some notable destinations we didn’t have time to visit in El Paso: Dave’s Pawn Shop (home of Pancho Villa‘s trigger finger), The Tap, Happy Monk, and Blackbird Cantina Deluxe.
The first leg of our drive took us to White Sands National Park, where we arrived late afternoon. The park is made up of 275 square miles of bright white sandy desert, which is surrounded by mountains, and completely surreal. We drove to the far end of the park, anticipating less of a crowd there, but it still wasn’t secluded. We had to walk 15 minutes into the dunes before having absolute solitude. Once we did, we ran up and down the white sandy hills like kids, took a ton of photos, and laid in the warm white sand.
Day Six: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
The next leg of our trip was just a couple more hours in the car to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. We found an amazing AirBNB called “The Garden” for a fantastic price–$75 for our own adobe home, and huge yard with a koi pond, two firepits, a gazebo, outdoor shower, and two huge galvanized metal tubs that filled up with warm, natural spring water. Half the town sits atop a huge natural spring, only 30 feet from the surface, and locals can pump the spring water for free. Because of that, the entire town is full of public bath houses, but we were pretty excited about having our own outdoor tubs and what felt like our own private spa, overlooking the mountains. The house has a wireless speaker system, connecting both indoors and outdoors to create your own ambiance. Our host let us in, showed us how everything worked, then left–the perfect interaction–and our room was stocked with baked goods from the amazing bakery in town called Passion Pie. The entire stay was nothing short of fantastic, and we disappointed we couldn’t stay longer here. One night was definitely not enough.
We hit the giant tubs the night we arrived and early the next morning. We got up extra early to enjoy a sunrise soak in the tub, taking in the scenery of the beautiful garden and the mountains around us. For breakfast, we headed into town for breakfast at Passion Pie, which had an amazing baked goods, quiches, and most importantly–waffles. In such a tiny town, we were taken aback seeing a girl with a CMJ totebag. And although something like this would’ve been unheard of in NYC–we struck up a conversation with her. She explained that she and her friends were all photographers from Chicago who were roadtripping New Mexico–doing the same thing we were–getting away from cold, awful winter. After talking for a while, we figured out that we had some mutual friends, and they took our portrait.
We left our new friends and took to the road. We passed though Albuquerque, on part of historic Route 66, where we stopped at a couple thrift and antique stores. We didn’t have much time to spend here, but if we did, we would’ve stopped at El Avarado, and Maisel’s Trading Post.
Just outside of Albuquerque was our next destination–actually a road called the Turquoise Trail. A scenic road that once connected tiny mining towns of Golden, Madrid, Cerillos and Santa Fe, it’s now just mostly touristy. (But still, very scenic.) We stopped halfway in the town of Marid to eat at Mineshaft Tavern, once a watering hole for miners after a long days work. Built in 1895, it burned down in 1944, was rebuilt in 1947 and hasn’t changed much since. It’s one of those awesome bar menus offering 10 variations on a burger, and a great selection of beer. We sat at the bar, which was unusually high–it was built as a standing bar to better serve the miners, who wished to stand at a bar after their long days hunched over in the mines. It’s the oldest standing bar in New Mexico. The tavern is also connected to a museum about the property and the town of Madrid. Apparently ringing the bell of the train below is part of the tour… but I just climbed up there.
After lunch, we set out for our final destination in Santa Fe. We checked with Lisa, the owner at in at Suitable Digs, and got the full tour of the unique properties there. We stayed in the private cabin (which is listed as The Bunkhouse), but there were several rooms in a different yet another house as well as a Spartan trailer that she’d done an amazing job at restoring. (Bunkhouse starts at $100/night, the Spartan at $150/night.) Most remarkable about Suitable Digs is that the property is totally green–utilizing solar power, a crazy water-storage system, compostable toilets, and multiple huge gardens where she grows her own food. She’s also got a cold plunge pool, perfect for those hot summer days in the desert.
Being such a food expert, Lisa gave us a lot of dinner recommendations, and we ended up at The Shed. We had to wait a while for our table, but took the opportunity to walk around downtown Santa Fe. Totally famished once we’d sat down, we ordered way too much food–but it was damn good food. We headed back to our cozy cabin, and called it a night.
Day Seven: Santa Fe
The next morning, Lisa had insisted we check out Tune Up Cafe. As promised, the food was fantastic; we enjoyed some of the tastiest huevos rancheros we’ve ever had. Soon after, we headed to our appointment with Scott Corey, owner of Santa Fe Vintage. He showed us around his (closed) shop to talk vintage then took us to his showroom about 20 miles out of the city. (Thank you, Scott!) We spent a couple hours shopping whilst shooting the shit, trading stories, and listening to Waylon Jennings. His collection is any apparel designer or vintage collectors Southwest-meets-Native-American dream. Denny walked away with a great 1940’s Serape blanket, three thunderbird charms, and a bunch of smalls; Erin made out with a couple graphic tees and an FFA jacket.
Scott’s showroom was a decent drive outside the city, so by the time we made it back into town, we were hungry again. We opted for lunch at BumbleBees Baja Grill, whose motto is “worlds slowest fast food.” Their vegetarian-chicken taco salad was solid, and their unusual sangria-margaritas hit the spot.
Our next stop was Shiprock Trading, an impressive gallery of Native American weavings, artifacts and jewelry. Owner Jed Foutz (who’s a fifth-generation trading post owner) grew up on Navajo land trading textiles, jewelry, pottery, sculpture, basketry and folk art. The store’s collection is museum quality, and we were lucky enough to get the grand tour from Jed himself. We spent a couple hours taking in the collection before finally landing on a souvenir Santo Domingo necklace.
By the time we’d finished shopping, it was time to return our rental car. Scott had recommended a craft beer and pizza place near our dropoff, and we walked to our last dinner of the trip. We passed some incredible looking motels on Cerrillos Avenue, though we were happy to be returning to our cabin overlooking the mountains. Because we had to get up early the next morning for our flight, our last night was pretty low-key, but we made it count with our dinner and nightcaps at The Cowgirl.
That’s it! Our Southwest Escape was nothing short of amazing. Check out the hashtag #SouthwestEscape on Instagram for even more photos from the trip. To do a similar trip, shoot us an email and we’ll happily give you the condensed itinerary with all the best stops. We got a lot of recommendations whilst on the road that we didn’t get to check out, which we will happily pass along. Lastly, we wouldn’t recommend trying to do this trip in under 6 days; if we had our way, we’d do it in 9, leaving lots more cushion for the middle and end of the trip.
