New Mexico
The Best of New Mexico: Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque
Program No. 11005RJ
Learn the history and culture of northern New Mexico as you explore Native American sites, visit historic monuments and communities and experience the art colonies of Santa Fe and Taos.
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8 days
7 nights
16 meals
7B 4L 5D
1
Check-in, Program Registration, Orientation, Welcome Dinner
Albuquerque, NM
2
New Mexico History, Old Town, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
Albuquerque, NM
5
Santa Cruz Farm, Chimayó, Museum Hill
Santa Fe, NM
6
Architecture & History, Santa Fe Plaza, Free Time
Santa Fe, NM
7
Los Alamos History and Bradbury Museums, Bandelier Monument
Albuquerque, NM
8
Program Concludes
Albuquerque, NM
At a Glance
Explore the best that New Mexico has to offer: the cosmopolitan heart of Albuquerque, the state's largest city; the Old World charm of Santa Fe; and the frontier spirit of Taos. From history and culture to cuisine and the arts, compare and contrast these unique cities and see how they evolved into the jewels they are today.
Activity Level
Let's Go!
Walking up to four miles daily over varied terrain. Standing for up to two hours at a time. Getting on/off motorcoach multiple times a day. Elevations up to 7,500 feet.
Best of all, you’ll…
- Explore the renowned museums and art galleries that make northern New Mexico a mecca for both artists and collectors.
- Visit Los Alamos and learn about the history of the Manhattan Project.
- Explore Bandelier National Monument and enjoy a traditional meal hosted by a Pueblo family.
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Louie Hena
Louie Hena has been an activist in the field of revitalizing traditional Pueblo agriculture and protecting indigenous food and seed sovereignty. A member of the Tesuque and Zuni Pueblos in New Mexico, he is a renowned permaculture design consultant, Rio Grande and Rio Chama river guide, and an educator on traditional land management systems. He helped organize the Traditional Native American Farmer Association, the New Mexico Acequia Association and the Indigenous Food and Seed Sovereignty Alliance.
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Louie Hena
View biography
Louie Hena has been an activist in the field of revitalizing traditional Pueblo agriculture and protecting indigenous food and seed sovereignty. A member of the Tesuque and Zuni Pueblos in New Mexico, he is a renowned permaculture design consultant, Rio Grande and Rio Chama river guide, and an educator on traditional land management systems. He helped organize the Traditional Native American Farmer Association, the New Mexico Acequia Association and the Indigenous Food and Seed Sovereignty Alliance.
Cisco Guevara
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Cisco Guevara honed his storytelling craft around campfires deep in the river canyons of northern New Mexico. A river runner since his teenage days in Los Alamos, “the Atomic City,” he has become a New Mexico legend: instantly recognizable by his black hat. Cisco’s stories range from his rebellious youth, to tales that draw on his Hispanic and Native American heritage, to hair-raising adventures in the wilderness, to haunting tales of love and loss.
Don Bustos
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Don Bustos farms on land his family has owned for more than three centuries. In the 1970s, he began converting his farm to year-round organic production with more than 70 varieties of fruits and vegetables. Don has passed generations of farming knowledge to hundreds of the state’s farmers. He aims to empower and educate others and show them how to be self-reliant. In 2015 he was the recipient of a James Beard Foundation Leadership Awards, recognizing those “who influence how, why and what we eat.”
Sherry Moon
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Sherry Moon is a certified interpreter for the profession of heritage interpretation and an experienced group leader. She has a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications and has taught communication and art. For nearly 20 years, she has been a group leader specializing in the Southwest and Alaska/Yukon. As president of the Rocky Mountain Guides Association, she is regarded as a local expert. Her interests include the arts, history, heritage, geology, reading, outdoor activities, and socializing with friends.
Jolene Catron
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Jolene Catron, who leads groups in the Mountain West and National Parks, weaves a rich tapestry of indigenous heritage into the fabric of the area's history. She strives to foster understanding and appreciation for the profound cultural and environmental significance of the places she leads in. During the offseason you can find her driving her taxi, listening to music, and crocheting. She is a military veteran and a citizen of the Navajo Nation with family ties to the Pueblos of Zuni and Laguna.
Suggested Reading List
(15 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
The Best of New Mexico: Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque
Program Number: 11005
A Land Apart: The Southwest and the Nation in the the Twentieth Century
Discusses how Indigenous, Hispanic and non-white people have established their place in the land that is rightfully theirs.
American Indian Myths and Legends
An illustrated collection of 180 traditional stories from all over North America.
Santa Fe, History of an Ancient City
A revised edition of of this classic history of Santa Fe to the mid-nineteenth century, featuring essays by ten scholars and hundreds of archival photographs, drawings and maps.
The Southwest Table, Traditional Cuisine from Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona
Expert on chili peppers and spicy foods, Dave DeWitt (aka "the Pope of Peppers") blends Southwestern culinary history with 130 authentic recipes and cooking techniques in this tantalizing collection of fiery, flavorful dishes from Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
Indian Arts of the Southwest
Featuring color photographs of the basketry, pottery, weaving, jewelry, and carvings of 200 noted artists, this book is both a collector's guide and cultural history of the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Pueblo peoples and other native peoples.
New Mexico's Stolen Lands: A History of Racism, Fraud and Deceit
This book begins with the end of the Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteeing land to Spanish, Mexican and Native people. It details how organized crime rings lead to decades of poverty for these people. Then the Tierra Amarilla Courthouse Raid in 1967 brought this struggle over land to the national spotlight.
The Art of New Mexico: How the West Is One
An illustrated compendium of New Mexico art from the 1880s to the present that considers historical and cultural significance with a wealth of information about the artists and their pieces. Written for a broad audience.
New Mexico, A History
This cooperative effort between three native New Mexicans is the first complete history of New Mexico. It charts the state’s development from 16th-century Spanish colony to frontier province, from its 1912 American statehood to a hub of (often classified) scientific research. A vital source for anyone seeking to understand the complex history of the West.
Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest
This illustrated introduction provides an in-depth look at the ancient cultures that first inhabited the pueblos and cliff dwellings of the American Southwest. Organized chronologically, it features hundreds of maps, mostly black-and-white photographs and site diagrams.
Roots of Resistance: A Land of Tenure in New Mexico
Details the history of land ownership from 1680 to present and how Indigenous and Mexican communities preserved their way of life despite losing their land to Capitalism.
Talking With the Clay, The Art of Pueblo Pottery
With color photographs throughout, this 20th anniversary edition of Trmible's portrait of the Pueblo people as revealed through pottery traditions includes interviews with a new generation of artists.
An Indigenous People's History of the United States
From the perspective of Indigenous People, this book demonstrates how policy against Native people was designed to displace and eliminate them and how they fought back, resisting the expansion of the West.
Edge of Taos Desert, An Escape to Reality
First published in 1937, this story reveals the spiritual awakening the New York socialite experienced through Taos, the Pueblo Indians and Indian Tony Luhan, whom she later married.
The Spell of New Mexico
A selection of 12 thoughtful essays on the New Mexico state of mind by great writers, including C.G. Jung, Mary Austin, D.H. Lawrence and Lawrence Clark Powell. Hillerman succeeds in communicating the lure of the desert Southwest in this wonderful, literate introduction to the state.
The Great Taos Bank Robbery
Nine indelible tales of life in New Mexico by the great newspaperman and author of the terrific series of mysteries set on the Navajo Nation.