Road trip time, nothing I love more than hitting the road to a new destination. We started from our home town Castle Rock, CO. Santa Fe here we come!
First stop was Bishops Castle. I have lived in Colorado for the majority of my life and have heard about this magical place, but I’d never been. And finally we made the beautiful drive to see it! Pictures do not do this stunning an intricate castle justice, so many spiral staircases and hidden drops, if you’re afraid of heights you may not want to go in but the views are worth the fright. It’s open to the public and donations are appreciated.
Onword to Santa Fe, we drove straight to see Ethyl the Whale, a huge 82 foot long life-size sculpture of a blue whale made of recycled plastic. It was created by two artists from San Francisco to bring awareness to the negative impact plastics have on the environment. Located on campus at the Santa Fe Community College, you can drive right up and take pictures with this massive sculpture. We got some fun family pictures for the memory book.
Now that we’re in Santa Fe first things first, brewery hopping. Every vacation it’s an absolute must that we check out the local brewery scene and first stop was Santa Fe brewery. They have three locations in Santa Fe, the break room which was near our hotel, is a small historic building in downtown Santa Fe with a cool history. Awesome little patio and food trucks nightly. The Java Stout and the Nut brown Ale were my top two.
Second stop was Chili Line Brewery attached to Pizzeria De Lino. This little spot was our favorite! First time we just went for beers and we sat out back on the little patio which is part of the pizzeria. They only do small Batch beer here which means they brew three one barrel batches every brew day. By doing this the beer is fresh and seasonal beer can truly be seasonal changing from week to week. They are dog friendly and the Putazo pairs nicely with the margherita pizza.
And yes I’m finally getting to the Mexican food. First place we went which was highly recommended by many is The Shed. This place is always busy so I recommend you make a reservation. The restaurant is massive and the service was incredible, they are known for their red chili it has won numerous accolades including a James Beard Award. I ordered the cheese enchiladas and added two fish tacos, plenty to take home for leftovers.
You can’t visit Santa Fe without going on a hike and they have tons! Our hiking adventure was just that, an Adventure. The first hike we ventured out to was Little Tesuque Creek Trail. We followed the map and drove all over and could not find the trailhead. The second hike, Dale Ball trails. It is a 25 mile network of natural surface trails in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. We get almost there and discover the road is closed, not sure for what or why but hopefully it’s open by now. As you can see our hiking adventure is going swimmingly.
Well we are about to get lucky, we look to our right and there is a small little park so we figure let’s just get out here and walk the dogs. We walk around for a little while and discover a small creek. It’s kind of hard to get down to it because the trail was very steep and muddy but I was determined to take the dogs on a hike. We made it down and walked along the creek to discover it goes on forever. A beautiful tree covered trail next to a nature conservancy, our day had definitely turned around. The Nature Conservancy Trail is a 1.3 mi loop through the Santa Fe River.
If you’re a coffee lover you must check out Iconik Coffee Roasters. We went to four different coffee shops, Iconik was by far the best! They have two locations one downtown and they’re both beautiful inside. I highly recommend you pop in here for some great coffee and breakfast, they have amazing options from omelettes, breakfast tacos to pastries. Vegetarian and vegan friendly they also do lunch and dinner. One stop shop!
Lastly but certainly not least Kakawa Chocolate House, chocolate lovers rejoice! This little shop makes some of the best chocolate I have ever tasted, they have it all from Earl Grey truffles to red chili caramels. They are known for their drinking chocolate elixir also known as hot chocolate, but this stuff is wildly different stemming from the historic recipe that spans the time period 1000 BC to the mid-1900 AD. Stop in for some tasters and leave with tons of chocolate.
Hope you enjoyed Santa Fe with me.
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