Steven Horak - Moon New Mexico: Outdoor Adventures, Road Trips, Local Culture

Christ in the Desert Monastery

Theres a reason its called the Land of Enchantment. The smells alone would be entrancing enough: lilacs in spring, petrichor after summer monsoons, green chiles roasting at farmers markets in fall, and fragrant pion crackling in woodstoves and kiva fireplaces. Listen, too, and youll hear what makes the state special: The deep boom of drums and jingle of bells resound at pueblo ceremonies. Western tanagers warble in the trees and coyotes howl in the night. And that green chile adds a distinct taste to everythingit finds its way onto hamburgers and pizzas and even into bagels and beer.

But none of that matches the majesty of what you see: austere mesas, sandstone canyons, meadows blanketed in wildflowers, and snowcapped mountain peaks. Straight above is a vast sky colored turquoisejust like the locally crafted jewelry. At night, stars, so close you can almost touch them, paint the Milky Way. Its a lot to take in, and many visitors to New Mexico understandably feel disorientedand perhaps as well by the dizzying altitude, which soars over 13,000 feet at its highest point.

New Mexico is a sort of alternate world, one that lives by different rules. Santa Fe is an adobe utopia where the economy seems to thrive magically on nothing but art and politics. Los Alamos is a city of scientists on a hill with a secret that changed the world, and half of Roswell, it seems, is still obsessed with an alleged UFO crash there in 1947. The state is home to some of the oldest settlements in the country and also to the worlds first spaceport for tourists. There are communities named Truth or Consequences and Pie Town.

the Classical Gas Museum in Embudo

the Cumbres & Toltec steam train

Pie-O-Neer Caf in Pie Town

Visitors might need time to adjustto the altitude, certainly, and maybe also to the laid-back attitude. But theres a point of entry for everyone. Outdoor adventurers can hike for an hour or a week, along mountainsides thick with yellow-leafed aspens, and camp on surreal gypsum dunes. Culture mavens thrive in Santa Fe, with its world-class art scene and an eclectic calendar of international film and music. History buffs can explore the remnants of an ancient civilization at Chaco Canyon, spy ruts dug by thousands of passing wagon wheels on the Santa Fe Trail, or bunk down under a buzzing neon motel sign along Route 66.

At the end of the day, you can always pull yourself back into the present with a cold margarita and carne adovada with a kickbut theres no guarantee youll shake off New Mexicos spell.

balloon festival in Albuquerque

farolitos adding light and color during the holidays

New Mexico green chile stew

Take in extraordinary landscapes: Explore the undulating gypsum dunes of

: Seemingly rising organically from the earth, these stepped adobe buildings make up the oldest continually inhabited community in the United States.

Seek out is just as memorable.

Go gallery-hopping in Santa Fe: Art is life in Santa Feand is its beating heart.

Feast on Southwest cuisine: In , the food is as creative as the art and as distinctive as the landscape.

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Journey back to the : Visit old forts, count bullet holes in saloon ceilings, and trace the fortunes of prospectors in ghost-town graveyards.