Santa Fe is Beautiful

Visiting Santa Fe has been on my bucket list for a very long time, and I was looking forward to it with excited anticipation.  The day we drove  from Amarillo to Santa Fe was a spectacularly beautiful day, and the clouds in the sky were as striking as the landscape.  New Mexico had an unusually wet monsoon season this summer, and there were wildflowers and signs of green plant life everywhere.

 

As we drove, we slowly rose in elevation, to over 7,100 feet.  The climb was slow and the landscape seemed flat, so it was hard to believe we were so high. 

 

As we approached Santa Fe, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains, came into view.   We were getting closer!

Santa Fe was first occupied (under a different name) by Pueblo Indians, from 1050 AD.  Is was abandoned about 300 years later, as was common when resources became depleted.  In 1540, Don Francisco Vasques de Coronado explored the area.  In 1610, Santa Fe was founded when Don Pedro de Peralta, then Governer, selected the area to become the new Capitol of New Mexico.  It became the oldest European city west of the Mississippi Rvier, and the oldest capitol city in North America.  Santa Fe has a very long history.

Santa Fe was especially beautiful when we were visiting last week, because of perfect weather, and lots of monsoon rains in August.  There were flowers everywhere.  In addition, the Spaniards borrowed the adobe method of building from the Pueblo Indians, and the historic district has preserved the look.  I love the rounded edges and the brown walls against the deep blue sky.  No wonder this architecture has inspired so many artists over the years!

 

These buildings also blend into the landscape well:

 

Another feature that makes Santa Fe so lovely is its location.  Santa Fe sits at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and they are ever-present.  Here we are driving towards the downtown historic district, from the newer urban area that spills into the valley below.

 

The first day, Lee and I visited the high-end art district on Canyon Road, as my sister suggested.  Did you know Santa Fe has the greatest concentration of art galleries in the United States, second only to the city of New York?  Who knew?  We saw some spectacular and very expensive pieces.  One oil painting, with a "sold" sign on it, was priced at $198,000!

Canyon Road provided some fun opportunities for photographic creativity.  I couldn't stop taking photographs of flowers, doors, windows, rounded walls, etc.  Here we go!

 

 

 

 

 

Above the galleries is Upper Canyon Road, which is residential.  Lee said it reminded him of village streets in Central and South America, except there the streets would be dirt.

Santa Fe seems to have many activities scheduled all year long.  For the Labor Day weekend, there was an arts and crafts fair in the central plaza, which we visited one day and purchased a few items.  That same day we visited Georgia O'Keefe's museum, a must-see for all visitors to Santa Fe.

We were allowed to take photographs of works in the first 6 galleries, but the final rooms had a temporary exhibit of works by Georgia O'Keefe and Ansel Adams when they visited Hawaii.  These two knew each other and were friends, but did not visit Hawaii at the same time.  I will include a couple O'Keefe's works here, although please do not reproduce or distribute:

Beautiful!  Georgia O'Keefe lived north of Santa Fe, in two different locations.  When we drove to our next stop, we passed through the two areas where she lived, and they were both incredibly beautiful.  I understand now why she lived there, and why they inspired her art to such a great degree.  I will have photos of that area in the next post.