Most visitors to Santa Fe see the same few blocks: the plaza, the cathedral, the famous galleries along Canyon Road. They are worth seeing. But the city rewards the traveler willing to look past them to the hidden Santa Fe underneath.
It is found in the small kitchens serving the real New Mexican table, in the studios where working artists actually work, and on the high trails just outside town where the light does what no gallery can capture. Go in the shoulder seasons, stay a little longer than you planned, and let the pace slow to the altitude.
For the Arizona traveler, Santa Fe is close enough for a long weekend and different enough to feel like a genuine escape - a reminder that some of the best discoveries are only a few hours up the road.
Originally published in View AZ Highlife Magazine, June / July 2007.