Things to do in area

Indian Market

Each August, an estimated 100,000 people attend the largest juried Native American art show in the world – Southwestern Association for Indian Arts’. (SWAIA’s) annual Indian Market. This remarkable event takes place on and around the central plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and sponsors over one-thousand Native artists from more than one-hundred tribal communities in North America and Canada. Artists show their latest work and compete for awards in SWAIA’s prestigious judged art competition. Santa Fe’s Indian Market has endured for the past 100-years and today generates upwards of 160 million dollars annually in revenues for artists and the community.

Pecos National Park

Between the towering Sangre de Cristo mountains and the flat-topped Glorieta Mesa lies Glorieta Pass, through which a continuously unfolding story of human culture has traveled to and from the Pecos Valley for thousands of years. Pueblo and Plains Indians, Spanish conquerors and missionaries, Mexican and Anglo armies, Santa Fe Trail settlers and adventurers, tourists on the railroad, Route 66 and Interstate 25...the Pecos Valley has long been a backdrop that invites contemplation about where our civilization comes from and where it is going. Thousands of years of this rich history is preserved for visitors at Pecos National Historical Park.

Bandelier National Monument

Bandelier National Monument protects over 33,000 acres of rugged but beautiful canyon and mesa country as well as evidence of a human presence here going back over 11,000 years.  Petroglyphs, dwellings carved into the soft rock cliffs, and standing masonry walls pay tribute to the early days of a culture that still survives in the surrounding communities.

Santa Fe Plaza

Listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, the Plaza is the heart and soul of the city. The gathering spot for residents and tourists alike is surrounded by city landmarks, shops and restaurants.

LA CIENEGUILLA PETROGLYPHY SITE

Just beyond the edge of Santa Fe and a short hike through the deep silence of the terrain lies a rocky ledge that seems to whisper to passersby, the dark stone speaking a cryptic language. Carved into the boulders of the ledge at the La Cieneguilla Petroglyph Site and  throughout the Southwest are thousands of petroglyphs thought to originate from the pre-contact time of the Spanish colonial era. Despite a great deal of scholarly study throughout modern history, no one can say for certain what these depictions meant to the people who created them. Not only does their meaning remain shrouded in mystery, but many of the etchings’ depictions are indecipherable, leaving curious visitors to speculate.

THE CATHEDRAL BASILICA OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISSI

Situated in the Santa Fe Plaza, this cathedral was built in 1886, and is known for its beautiful Romanesque architecture. You don’t want to miss this classic New Mexico cathedral.

GEORGIA O’KEEFE MUSEUM

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, opened to the public in July 1997, eleven years after the death of our namesake artist. A visit to the O’Keeffe Museum offers insight not only into the artist’s paintings, but also her creative process and the light and landscape that inspired her. In addition to the main Museum campus in Santa Fe, the O’Keeffe Museum maintains O’Keeffe’s two homes and studios in northern New Mexico, a research center and library, and a variety of collections relating to O’Keeffe and modern art.

One of the most significant artists of the 20th century, Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was devoted to creating imagery that expressed what she called “the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it.” O’Keeffe’s images—instantly recognizable as her own—include abstractions, large-scale depictions of flowers, leaves, rocks, shells, bones and other natural forms, New York cityscapes and paintings of the unusual shapes and colors of architectural and landscape forms of northern New Mexico.