MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND IN NEW MEXICO

Over the 2024 Memorial Day weekend, we ventured somewhere entirely new for us: New Mexico. We enjoyed experiencing the culture, food and architecture. Repeat: the food! We ate at a different restaurant each day to fully immerse ourselves in “New Mexican” fare, and the food was great everywhere we went. I (Stella) experienced heartburn for a few days after we returned, but it was fully worth it! 😊

On this trip, we achieved everything that we had planned: biking, hiking and kayaking, although none of these ventures were anywhere near the distances that we typically go. We also did some sightseeing, a little uncommon for us, but necessary to learn about the area. We constantly marveled at the adobe-style homes and buildings. Please continue reading to learn about our Memorial Day Weekend in New Mexico!

BIKING: Santa Fe offers some nice options for paved bike trails. Some parts of the trails do require bikers to go through the city where you have to wait at traffic lights to get to the non-urban sections. To access the beginning point of most of the paved trails, the best place to park is at REI’s parking lot (paid parking). The parking lot is right across from the Santa Fe Depot and the historic Railyard. The New Mexico Rail Runner travels from Santa Fe to Albuquerque. 

We started on the Santa Fe Rail Trail, technically a trail next to a rail. The trail goes through ‘open space’ urban areas where you’re not biking in housing areas but rather behind them where the trail was developed. There isn’t much for scenery along the trail but it is a nice trail to bike and walk on. We biked to the trailhead at Rabbit Road.

At that point, the trail turns into a dirt/loose gravel path continuing to the town of Lamy. Opting out of that since my bike needs new tires from using my Alpcour Bike Indoor Trainer Stand, we headed back on the rail trail and then turned onto the Arroyo De Los Chamisos Trail. We biked to the end and then headed back to the REI parking lot. This trail was smoother and better maintained than the rail trail. Altogether, this was a fantastic bike ride! We biked a total of: 18.4 miles.

After biking, we drove to an area called ‘Museum Hill,’ where there are a handful of museums to learn about the area. We chose the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. Surprisingly, we got in free since I am a military veteran (we did leave a donation in the drop box). This is the most wonderful museum that we have ever been to. We were awed by the vast number of exhibits and how well the exhibits were meticulously showcased. Additionally, the setup and overall style of the museum’s interior were nothing short of stunning. It is difficult to adequately describe. We highly recommend stopping here if you are visiting Santa Fe. It paints a powerful message about the history of New Mexico. 

HIKING: Unbeknownst to me, Larry had initially picked the Picacho Peak Trail, which is rated as ‘difficult.’ When we reviewed it together I suggested a different trail that would be less challenging for my new legs/ankles since the right one is not yet at the six-month recovery point. I am still in the process of developing confidence in my new legs/ankles.

The trail we chose was the Dale Ball North Loop. It is a 3.1 mile looped trail that winds through the Santa Fe National Forest and the foothills of the Sangre de Cristos Mountains. There is a large parking lot with good sinage for the trail system. And, the trail system is very well-marked throughout. 

The Dale Ball North Loop trail is packed dirt with a lot of loose gravel. If you are unsteady, I recommend using trekking poles, which I did, while other hikers flew right past me. The trail is mostly flat with some slight downhill sections where the loose gravel could send you flying if you’re not careful, hence why I used trekking poles. For me, better safe than sorry. 

Along the trail, there are a variety of different plants and trees, as well as beautiful views of the Jemez Mountains. Unfortunately, the majority of the flower buds on the cacti had not yet bloomed, but we envisioned how beautiful they must be when fully bloomed! This was a very enjoyable hike.

Afterward, we drove to Taos to check out the area since we had talked about going there in the winter. I’m not sure what we had envisioned the town of Taos to look like, but for some reason, it isn’t what we had imagined. After a fabulous dinner, we headed back to the campground in Santa Fe where we had a relaxing evening playing Othello all night.

KAYAKING: We were unsure if kayaking was going to be possible due to the high wind predicted for the duration of our trip. The last day was forecasted to be the least windy. Before kayaking, we headed to White Rock with the intent of visiting the Bandelier National Monument. It is about a 1.5 hour drive from the KOA campground in Santa Fe. Sadly, the ranger at the entrance turned dozens of vehicles around because the parking area had reached capacity. 

Turning around, we headed to the Santa Cruz Lake Recreation Area. This is a very well-maintained park managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), with two large parking areas. There are multiple pavilion picnic spots as well as ample space on the beach to set up for the day, and camping is available at Overlook Campground and the North Shore Campground (closed for construction at the time of this post). The trailhead for a short hiking path is located at the parking lot with the boat launch. The boat launch area is wide enough to accommodate two boats.

Initially, I thought the Santa Cruz Lake was larger than what it actually is. It is roughly two miles of shoreline so it did not take us very long to kayak around it. The snow-fed waters of the Rio del Medio and the Rio Frijoles begin a 2,000-mile journey and a 7,000-foot descent to the Gulf of Mexico meeting at the confluence of the Santa Cruz River before making its way into Santa Cruz Lake itself, a reservoir, created by the Santa Cruz Dam. It was a short, yet pleasant paddling experience, although numerous people were fishing along the shore. We contemplated paddling around the lake again, but decided against it because of the number of people fishing from shore. 

Back in Santa Fe, we headed to The Plaza, a National Historic Landmark in the style of traditional Spanish-American colonial cities, a popular shopping/tourist area. We are not shoppers and often avoid it altogether, but we did venture into two different stores to purchase a few items. Afterward, we ate dinner at a restaurant that offered a chicken tamale plate – it was fabulous! Restaurants that offer non-pork tamales are hard to find. One thing to note about the restaurants in Santa Fe is that many of them are closed on Sundays. 

FINAL THOUGHTS: This was a fun, new experience, and we were able to visit several places throughout New Mexico. Even though we were unable to enter the Bandelier National Monument, we still had a great time and accomplished everything that we had set out to do. And, we even had green chile ice cream from La Lecheria Railyard! If you are interested in cooking “New Mexican” style food, I recommend checking out The Chile Shop Santa Fe; the owner was very helpful in explaining the products.

WHERE IS PADDLE & TRAILS HEADED NEXT?

SOME OF THE GEAR USED:

Stella

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• Trek Dual Sport 3 (Women’s)
• Osprey Rev 6 Hydration Pack

Larry

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• SCOTT Scale 940
• Perception Cove 14.5 Tandem Kayak
• Osprey Daylite