We fell in love with New Mexico on our first long RV trip. It really is, as their slogan says, the Land of Enchantment. Perhaps especially to people born and bred in the Northwest. Every place we visited was different and interesting. We knew very little about the Southwest, so we grabbed all the tourist pamphlets and literature we could and we felt like we knew a little more after our visit. I think it was during this time that we really began to realize what adventures we could have living the RV life. There is really no other way we could take this much time to explore so many different and fascinating locations.
On that first trip, Fall of 1999, we stayed about a month at Santa Fe and explored the city and surrounding area. We loved the City with all its wonderful museums, the turquoise sellers in front of the Palace of Governors, the (to us) exotic architecture and little byways to explore. We bought a reasonably-priced museum pass good for about 10 days. With it, we got to visit the Georgia O'Keeffe painting collection, the Palace of the Governors, the International Folk Art Museum, and the American Indian Museum. 
We visited the Chapel of Loretto, with its inexplicable staircase that makes you wonder about miracles. (If you don't know this story, it's well worth a quick Google.)
On a side trip while we stayed in Santa Fe, we drove to Bandalier National Monument and archaeological trail where you can walk into ancient ancestral pueblo dwellings. (You have to climb 140 feet on four sets of ladders. )
We used public transportation for the most part to get around the City. It was easy and fast -- we caught the bus right outside our RV Park.
We drove the Turquoise Trail up into the Sandia Crest Byway with its amazing scenery. We visited Sandia Cave -- the first known human dwelling in the new world. The trail at the summit of Sandia Crest is at over 10,000 feet.
We visited Taos with all its wonderful art and history and we went to the El Sanctuario Church at Chimayo. While in that wonderfully authentic Indian village we bought fresh-ground peppers right from the farmer. Wish I had some now.
After leaving Santa Fe, we stopped for a few days at several other New Mexico places and everyone of them was interesting. Lincoln, which is kept as it was in the 1860s, is where Billy the Kid shot a couple of deputies and escaped from jail -- you can see the bullet holes. Roswell has its camp UFO museums, which you've gotta see once, but it is actually quite a nice little town. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is wonderful. The cave formations are so beautiful I even forgot to be scared while we explored.
The pictures are: Taos pueblos and cemetery, El Sanctuario Church, old Lincoln County Courthouse. and one of the formations at Carlsbad Caverns.
We didn't have a camera on this trip. (Only the sunset and the Sandia Peak snaps are ours and are from a later trip.) It would be great to visit all these places again so that we could get our own pictures -- and also of course because we love New Mexico.
It's a prime example of a major traveler's dilemma. So many new places to visit, so many old ones to go back to, and so little time! We did go back to New Mexico last year and spent more time in the Albuquerque area -- that's another post.
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