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I've bounced around all over SW on several occasions and my time in NM always have been v. positive. I tend to stay away from LA-ised Santa Fe and other slick spots. Safety has never been an issue, I mean even in El Paso (almost NM).
Oh, and I spend over 20yrs in Seattle and never had any issues (no gun needed). Sure, large cities can have some wicked or derange folk, but people know where the problem children are.....and I found beauty in my neighborhood and photographed it often (small things). Pike Place or the Needle++ have been photographed to nauseaum.
Les
On occasion I noticed there is real life outside the GG/viewfinder.
My recommendation, Los Alamos and Bandelier National Monument. I grew up in Los Alamos, my pals and I would ride our bikes to Bandelier on Fridays after school to go camping and exploring (early 60's). My best friends parents would meet us there with our gear and camp with us. It was a very magical place (and time) back then. There's also the Valle Grande just outside of LA in the Jemez Mountains, an extinct caldera that is beautiful. It's on the road to Cuba and the Four Corners/Shiprock area.
Rick Allen
Argentum Aevum
practicing Pastafarian
I second Bandalier. Not many people know about it. Beautiful canyons, mesas and cottonwoods. Keep your eyes open for petroglyphs, etc. -- they are all over the place, but not marked. Keep your eyes open for hunters as well -- they are all over the place, but not marked.
...also don't forget Chaco Canyon! Very magical experience if you have some time to pitch a tent in the campground there. A good general store in Cuba near the east entrance to stock up on supplies...but do be careful as parts of the road in to Chaco can get really greasy when wet!
If you're going from Mesa Verde, to Shiprock, it's worth the 85mi sidetrip into Arizona to visit Canyon de Chelly....
I'm getting hungry just thinking about Tomasita's in Santa Fe!
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
I have a sensitive stomach, but the best MexTex food I ever had was actually in a tiny breakfast restaurant fully inside a trailer house on the Navajo Res with Shiprock in the background. You can always tell by the number of pickup trucks parked outside. I was the only non-Indian in there. A long time ago, so don't go looking for it. Just look for where the pickups are now.
Good advise. This morning I made myself some breakfast burritos. Potatoes, tomatoes zucchinis and onions from my garden, as well as FRESH NEW MEXICO HATCH green chiles -- and pinto beans, of course OK, I did not make the Monterey Jack cheese or tortillas either, but they reminded me of New Mexico!
I can't take a picture -- I ate it!
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