Bernalillo, NM / Santa Fe, NM

We stayed a few nights just outside of Albuquerque, NM at the Coronado Campground in Bernalillo.

One day, we hiked the Piedras Marcadas Canyon trail in the Petroglyph National Monument to see some petroglyphs. These were our first petroglyphs on our trip, so it was interesting to look around; but it was hot with no shade, so once we felt like we had seen enough, we cut the 1.5 mile hike a little short and headed back to the RV.

The next day, we drove to Santa Fe. We walked around the Santa Fe Plaza for a while, going into a few shops and into The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis. The main reason we went to Santa Fe, though, was to see Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return. We really didn’t know what to expect, but the websites’s description of “an immersive art experience” is pretty accurate. (“Weird” could be another way to describe it, though!) We enjoyed walking through all the rooms to see what strange creation they’d come up with next. Just the puzzle of winding our way through the rooms and trying to make sure we didn’t miss anything was fun in itself. Some of the most interesting entrances were through a refrigerator, a bedroom closet and down a tree trunk. The pictures below show a few of my favorite rooms. We thought about trying to solve the mystery that’s hidden throughout the rooms, but decided we’d rather just relax and look around instead of struggling to find clues to solve the mystery.

Afterwards, we walked across the street for dinner at Tortilla Flats. I had not yet learned that their “Red or Green” question was the official state question for which type of chiles I wanted. And I later learned that instead of saying “both”, I should have replied “Christmas”. Evidently, the preferred chile color is quite the debate in New Mexico!

While driving around, I saw a store with tons of outdoor metal decorations that caught my eye. We stopped and walked around, getting a kick out of some of the art there. I couldn’t believe how much inventory they had in one location, but it made it really cool look around!