Cool towns to visit in northern NM?

We plan to visit Santa Fe and Taos next July and we want to get out and explore smaller towns in the area too. Looking for suggestions. Thanks!

Chimayo would be at the top of my list. Also, there's a really pretty loop you can make over the Valle Caldera and pass through Jemez Springs.

Back in the 90s I stayed at an old downtown hotel in Las Vegas NM.  I liked the town and hotel.

Phil Stevens wrote:Chimayo would be at the top of my list. Also, there's a really pretty loop you can make over the Valle Caldera and pass through Jemez Springs.

What’s there that I should see?

John F Dean wrote:Back in the 90s I stayed at an old downtown hotel in Las Vegas NM.  I liked the town and hotel.

Plaza Hotel featured in the Convoy movie? I went by there one year the town happened to have a musical festival and there was lots of fun in the downtown park. Even motels were fully booked and I stayed the night in the KOA in a tent.

Never saw the movie. My wife picked it out.  We were both partial to old hotels.  I am not sure,it was along time ago, it might have been off of a town square.

Ned Harr wrote:

Phil Stevens wrote:Chimayo would be at the top of my list. Also, there's a really pretty loop you can make over the Valle Caldera and pass through Jemez Springs.

What’s there that I should see?

The town itself is worth just taking in as an experience on its own...it's an archetypal northern NM settlement, with most of the historical bits intact, like the acequias that still carry water to fields and orchards. There's a shrine that thousands travel to every year that has dirt with reputed healing qualities, and a famous chile that the locals say is the best. It's been caught up in the tourist gentrification treadmill but the locals are trying hard to keep it authentic. They even chased off the film crew for the Milagro Beanfield War back in the '80s and forced them to shoot in Truchas instead (I had a girlfriend who had just returned from living there for a year around the time this went down and she thought it was a hoot).

I feel that knowing a little more about what you like to do might help folks with recommendations.

Do you like art, Or museums, Or hiking?

Or maybe you like scenic drives, ghost towns, etc.

Anne Miller wrote:I feel that knowing a little more about what you like to do might help folks with recommendations.

Do you like art, Or museums, Or hiking?

Or maybe you like scenic drives, ghost towns, etc.

When it comes to small mountain towns I’m looking for great restaurants/cafes, interesting little places to visit, etc. We do like to hike and visit museums, but I’m focusing more on stuff locals probably also do regularly.

Hi Ned,

I agree with your priorities.  When I used to travel a great deal for work, my meals were covered by the company … no real price limit.  I would search for the places the locals ate at to get local food.   I can get an expensive steak anywhere, but a fried baloney sandwich in Youngstown is special.

Places I have been would be Ruidoso and the Four corners Area where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet.

Anasazi Cliff Dwellings are a must and can be seen at Mesa Verde National Park, Chaco Canyon, and Canyon de Chelly.

The most spectacular of course is Carlsbad Caverns though that might be a little out of the way.