New Mexico: A beguiling mixture of ancient and modern

Small town of Madrid (Image: Archant)

A state (America’s 47th ) with a vibrant, intoxicating mix of cultures – Native American, Spanish, and Anglo – all seemingly working in harmony. A place which has harboured some of the greatest secrets and mysteries of the 20th century, from the clandestine city that developed the atom bomb to the town still convinced aliens descended upon it seventy years ago.

As many did in those days, DH Lawrence arrived in the 1920s to sample the clean air in an attempt to stave off tuberculosis (he ultimately failed). New Mexico, he said, ‘was the greatest experience from the outside world I have ever had. It certainly changed me for ever … the moment I saw the brilliant, proud morning shine up over the deserts of Santa Fe, something stood still in my soul … and the old world gave way to a new’.

It was this beguiling mixture of ancient and modern that attracted us, along with the stunning views that have always drawn writers like Lawrence and great painters like Georgia O’Keefe – whose distinct flowers, glowing landscapes, and images of bones against the stark desert sky are iconic contributions to American Modernism.

In this immense mountain state – the fifth largest by area in the USA – it was not just a necessity but also a delight to roll along the endless, perfectly constructed highways (Route 66 passes through NM) in our sturdy Hyundai Sonata. We could go miles without encountering another human being (let alone a coyote, or a roadrunner), motoring through acre after acre of countryside covered by pinyon and juniper, glimpsing the occasional herd of cattle on a far away ranch – or once, surely the world’s longest freight train with over two hundred carriages.

Chuck Berry would have been an obvious choice, but instead it seemed more appropriate to our surroundings to tune into the profusion of country radio stations as we wended our way south. We alighted on one in particular, Willie’s Roadhouse, and his ensemble of artists, with their melancholy yet also uplifting lyrics, became the soundtrack to our holiday – the well-known like Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn, and the curiously-named and less familiar (to us) Lefty Frizzell, Johnny Paycheck and Bobby Bare.

Rustic sign at Rancho de Chimayo Inn (Image: Archant)

Santa Fe

First stop was the state capital, Santa Fe, a chic, stylish city with its distinctive, Pueblo (Native American) style architecture (low-slung, earth-coloured buildings built of adobe brick) and casual laidback feel. There is little of modern America here, and the central plaza on a sunny day is ‘a piece of endless Spain drowsing in an endless siesta’.

Superb accommodation abounds in Santa Fe, but none can have possibly bettered the two places where we stayed – the Inn of the Turquoise Bear, and the Inn of the Five Graces. The former is one of the artistic landmarks of the city, for half a century the home of the renowned gay poet Witter Bynner and a boisterous gathering place for his friends and visiting luminaries such as Lawrence (a great friend) and O’Keefe, along with the likes of W.H.Auden, Aldous Huxley, Clara Bow, Errol Flynn, Rita Hayworth, Christopher Isherwood, JB Priestley and J Robert Oppenheimer.

The ITB is a rambling villa built in the Spanish-Pueblo style, set in verdant gardens dominated by huge pines, with delightful rock terraces. We stayed in the characterful, beamed Georgia O’Keefe room, a large reproduction of her famous Jimson Weed/White Flower No 1 over our luxurious king sized bed. The speciality of the house are the sumptuous, gourmet breakfasts that set you up for the day, replete with homemade smoothie starter, delicious pancakes and huevos rancheros (rancher’s style eggs). Our host, Dan, made us most welcome, revelling in the history of his inn and providing us with tea, coffee and cakes throughout the day if we felt peckish.

Further down the road on the edge of the old town is the splendid Inn of the Five Graces, where lush textiles and colourful exquisite furnishings adorn the bedrooms, while the bathrooms are tiled with intricate mosaics. This was a stunning, restful experience - high-end luxury, but with a warm ambiance and a personal touch inspired by its owners the Seret family.

Eileen Wise sings country and western (Image: Archant)

There’s much to hold you in Santa Fe with its galleries, boutiques and Museums and excellent restaurants. We sampled two of the best eateries in town, La Plazuela in the historic La Fonda Hotel and a fancy 5 course dinner at the more modern Anasazi Inn. We were keen to head thirty miles northwest, to the town of Los Alamos. Here in 1942, the most brilliant crowd of scientists ever grouped together lived and worked in this ‘secret city’, carved out of the mesa, whose very existence was denied to the rest of New Mexico (and the world) while they pursued the Manhattan Project, the creation of the atom bomb that would eventually lead to Hiroshima and the end of World War 2. The Bradbury Science Museum and Historical Museum between them tell the whole story in fascinating detail, and you can wander around Bathtub Row, Oppenheimer Drive and Trinity Drive and get a good feel for where the likes of the genius leader of the mission, and his colleague the redoubtable US Amy chief General Leslie Groves, lived.

Albuquerque and the Turquoise Trail

From Santa Fe we headed down to Albuquerque, off the main highway and onto the more scenic Turquoise Trail, stopping off at the old mining town of Madrid where we took a lunchtime drink and exercised our feet to the sound of a country rock band at the rough and ready Mine Shaft Tavern.

Albuquerque, with its sprawling combination of homes and shopping malls, was more like the essential American town. Here we stayed at Los Poblanos, on the outskirts close to the Rio Grande river. This magnificent farmhouse offers comfortable rooms in the classic New Mexican style, complete with four-poster beds, wood-burning fireplaces and hardwood floors – but it’s the cuisine that marks it out from its competitors.

Lavender is the speciality of the products grown organically on the farm, and - along with a range of other mouth-watering products - is available in highly inventive forms in the restaurant and farm shop.

Cosy room at Rancho de Chimayo (Image: Archant)

Truth or Consequences

We left behind the custodians of our room – a pair of beautiful and very vocal peacocks – and ventured into ABQ’s Old Town. There we won a certificate of bravery after negotiating the world’s one and only Rattlesnake Museum, with its collection of quite unnerving creatures from all over the Southwest.

But we were keen to be ‘Kings of the Road’ once more and head down south, and so with Roger Miller crooning away we took to Interstate 25 and made our way down to the wonderfully named town of Truth or Consequences (after a famous TV quiz show of the 1950s). Here our refuge was media mogul’s Ted Turner’s soothing Sierra Grande Lodge and Spa – relaxing because the superb array of hot tubs the inn makes available to its guests.

For a fascinating day trip from T or C (as the locals call it) we headed west on the Geronimo Trail, where the ‘ghost’ towns of Winston – not named after the prime minister – and Chloride took up most of our time. Open range cattle grazing contentedly greeted our arrival in the former, where the beautifully stocked store grocery store also had a large selection of handguns for sale. A postcard underneath the counter gave a clue to the political affiliation of these parts (although NM, as a whole, was for Hilary Clinton): it depicted a pretty girl leaning down her lips on a toilet seat, with the words ‘I Kissed a Democrat’). Chloride’s glory days were in the 1880s, after silver was discovered in nearby hills and the subsequent rush saw eight saloons, three stores, two butchers shop, a hotel – and at least two brothels - springing up in just two years. The activities of this vibrant little town were chronicled in its very own paper, The Black Range: in my mind, Chloride was like something out of a James Stewart film, perhaps Bad Day At Black Rock!

Once gold became the monetary standard in the 1890s, Chloride began to decline. But thanks to the herculean efforts of resident Don Edmund, much of the old town has been beautifully restored and gives a real flavour of what life was like in those rough-hewn times. The Hanging Tree, in the middle of the town, was not, we discovered, for public executions: it was more a place for the inhabitants to hang around.

Roger Hermiston and Eileen Wise in New Mexico (Image: Archant)

Lincoln and Roswell

Another superbly atmospheric ‘ghost’ town that drew us back to the Old – and Wild West – was Lincoln, east of T or C. This was the stamping ground of Billy the Kid, the amoral outlaw (don’t believe the cosy legend) who shot and killed at will in the ferocious County Wars of the 1890s, before being run to ground further north by Sherriff Pat Garrett. Here you can walk round the County Courthouse and see where Billy was incarcerated while waiting to be hanged, and then stroll over the road to the Wortley Hotel where – foolishly – a deputy allowed him to have dinner, and from where Billy escaped, shooting dead his host on the way out.

Billy the Kid’s story is all, albeit embroidered in legend, inescapable fact. Twelve miles east, at the town of Roswell, the facts surrounding a very strange incident in July 1947 are very much up for debate still. For the US Air Force, one of its weather balloons – and its cargo of dummies – crashed into a field that day. But many others remain convinced that this was an astounding intergalactic event, that the balloon was an alien craft, and the dummies the three dead bodies of visitors from outer space.

The Chicago Daily News’s front page story of July 8 was ‘American All-Stars Win 2-1’; perhaps the editor was hedging his bets about the second, surely more interesting story – ‘Army Finds Air Saucer on Ranch in New Mexico’! The UFO Museum and Research Centre in Roswell sets out the case for – and against – in painstaking yet exciting fashion. And the town itself has entered into the spirit over the years by adding motifs of saucers and little green men to its shop fronts. The 1947 affair has become the town’s brand.

Ruidoso

While in the southeast we enjoyed a terrific stay at the town of Ruidoso, home of the quarter racehorse, with the prestigious All American Futurity held here on the Downs Race Track on Labour Day. Indeed, this mountain village is a great draw for outdoor sports lovers, with excellent winter skiing, summer hiking and fishing, and championship golf courses.

We stayed at a wonderfully comfortable and spacious casita – one of Escape Resort’s properties quietly tucked away in woods off the main road. At breakfast time, it was a delight to watch a herd of deer wander over to our back gate. Ruidoso has plenty of good eating spots but we were content to buy in our food and use our excellent kitchen, kick off our shoes and relax with a good book in front of a cosy fire.

Chimayo

Back in the trusty Hyundai, Johnny and Dolly and all the rest sang us all the way 200 miles back up north to our last port of call, the village of Chimayo, just north of Santa Fe and en route to the artistic community of Taos in the foothills of the spectacularly beautiful Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Supplicants and pilgrims from all over the world flock to the village church, the Santurio de Chimayo, mainly to scoop up a handful of dirt from its antechamber, thought to have healing properties (some even eat it, for internal ailments). We, however, were pilgrims at the table of New Mexico legendary restaurateur Florence Jaramillo (‘Mrs J’), who runs a superb restaurant, Rancho de Chimayo, famed for its inventive New Mexican cuisine.

Mrs ‘J’, Connecticut-born, is in her 80s but – as we discovered in an absorbing hour-long conversation - keeps a firm hand on the tiller of her creation, and is appraised of all developments in her industry. Rancho has been going since 1965, and has earned her a Lifetime Achievement Award from America’s National Restaurant Association.We enjoyed a sumptuous meal there, enchiladas enveloped in green and red (‘Christmas’) chillies, served to us by an engaging and attentive staff. We staggered back over the road afterwards to a cosy room in Mrs J’s (relatively new) and restful hacienda.

Back to the airport the next day, and a stunning flight over the Rocky Mountains to Colorado, on to New York, and then back to London. Two and half exhilarating weeks in this magical state – truly a land of great beauty and cultural contrast.

FACTS

We flew Virgin Atlantic (www.virginatlantic.com) from London Heathrow to New York and United Airlines (www.united.com) from New York to Santa Fe.

We stayed and dined at: www.turquoisebear.com / www.fivegraces.com / www.lospoblanos.com / www.sierragrandelodge.com / www.ranchodechimayo.com / www.theescaperesort.com / www.lafondasantafe.com / www.rosewoodhotels / www.luigistours.com (Breaking Bad Tour) / www.hertz.com