Albuquerque New Mexico Oh yea Santa Fe too

Founders in 1706 as a Spanish colony and sitting in the high desert, Albuquerque is New Mexicos largest City, it was named after a Spanish administrator and viceroy of Mexico, Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, Duke of Alburquerque....they had super long names back in the day... but what a fun city, we had a blast.. we went to a alpaca farm and I got kisses from a couple of beautiful alpacas....if you know anything about alpacas you know how rare that is because only when they know their owners and feel very confident around them and only then, they may allow their backs and necks to be touched and some will tolerate being stroked or petted although many do not like their feet, lower legs, and especially their abdomen touched or handled....so it was treat when they crowed around me and two of them offered kisses!  

(They knew a Alpaca lover when they saw one) this farm was located off the on turquoise trail, now the Turquoise Trail Highway links Albuquerque and Santa Fe with lots of whimsical historic mining towns along the way, most of them have been taken over by artists ...course the name comes from the blue-green turquoise stone, first mined by the early Pueblo people this stone has become nationally recognized and is linked with New Mexico and Nevada, the Trail is also fast becoming known for its adventurous hiking and bike trails and in spite of the recent growth to the area, The Turquoise Trail remains historically quaint and Old West. 

We drove up to the Sandia Mountain Crest and hiked some of the trails there is a small hut at the very top of the mountain.

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Great hiking!

We went to Old Town, thand of course the Museum of Natural Histry..where they had lots of dinosaurs!

 I chose a RV park that was located almost half way from Albuquerque and Santa Fe so we could explore both cities.

Santa Fe was founded as a Spanish colony in 1610 and is New Mexico’s capital. It sits in the Sangre de foothills and it is renowned for it Pueblo style architecture. Santa Fe is now one of the most regarded art centers in the world and Canyon Road has the highest concentration of art galleries in the city so we toured around and visited some art galleries. What a beautiful and interesting city! 

this then drove around the surrounding historic district’s crooked streets that wind past many adobe landmarks, including the Palace of the Governors, now home to the New Mexico History Museum we saw some wonderful old pueblo buildings!