Preliminary Itinerary

(As of Dec. 3, 2007)

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Arrive at the La Fonda on the Plaza, on the Santa Fe Plaza prior to 6 p.m. for a welcome cocktail reception in the Terraza Room, overlooking the city and Sangre de Cristo Mountains. When Santa Fe was founded in 1607, official records show that an inn, or la fonda, was among the first businesses established. The inn at the end of the Santa Fe Trail, La Fonda, still occupies a corner of the Plaza. The hotel is known for its award-winning pueblo style Spanish architecture and decor, with thick wooden beams, latilla ceilings, carved corbels, handcrafted chandeliers, tin and copper light fixtures and a myriad of other details created by local artisans. Dinner will follow at the nearby La Casa Sena restaurant, the former family home of Major Jose Sena, which is located within a classic Spanish Colonial garden furnished with classic New Mexican art.

Friday, September 19, 2008

The morning’s activities begin with a walking tour of downtown Santa Fe, the second oldest city in the United States. Learn the fascinating history of ancient Indian cultures, early Spanish explorers, and American traders rolling down the Santa Fe Trail. Even the Civil War was fought near Santa Fe. History, art, and archaeology experts will discuss the rich history of this charming yet sophisticated capitol city.

On Museum Hill we will visit the world famous Museum of International Folk Art and have lunch. During free-time, you can visit the nearby Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Spanish Colonial Art Museum and the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. Periodic bus transfers back to the Plaza are available most of the day. Back at the Plaza, visit the Palace of the Governors, the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, or shop on Canyon Road. Four-day passes for the five New Mexico museums will be provided.

There will be a reception at Nedra Matteucci’s Fenn Gallery, which is housed in a spacious adobe building and includes a beautifully landscaped one-acre sculpture garden. The Gallery features works by the Taos Society of Artists and pieces by Glenna Goodacre, who fashioned the Women’s Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

We will go by bus on a guided tour of Los Alamos, the San Ildefonso Pueblo, and old Spanish villages located off the High Road to Taos. We will dine at the charming Rancho de Chimayo.

Los Alamos, once the site of a boys’ ranch school, has been the center for nuclear research since 1942. We will hear the story of the Manhattan Project and the top secret development of the atomic bomb by many of the world’s leading scientists. Research continues today in the fields of the human genome, earth and environmental sciences, space science, research accelerators, computing, radiation, and lasers.

After passing through the scenic Pajarito (Little Bird) Plateau with its volcanic cliffs, we will visit San Ildefonso Pueblo which lies in the shadow of Black Mesa. The Pueblo is famous for the black-on-black pottery of Maria Martinez.

We will visit the village of Chimayo for lunch at the Rancho de Chimayo, a family-owned hacienda specializing in northern New Mexico cuisine. Settled in the 1700s by the Spanish, Chimayo is an important cultural center for Hispanic arts and crafts in northern New Mexico. We’ll appreciate the famed “Lourdes of America,” the Sanctuario de Chimayo, a chapel built over miracle healing earth in the early 1800s and an important pilgrimage site.

A “high point” of the trip will be a visit up the old Taos High Road to see beautiful and historic mission churches such as San José de Gracia de Las Trampas. The village of Las Trampas is set in a valley surrounded by giant peaks of the Sangre de Cristos. Other sites in this area include Picuris Pueblo, the smallest of the pueblos, located in a verdant river valley, where one can visit the lovingly restored San Lorenzo de Picuris Mission Church.

In the evening, we will transport small groups to receptions at homes of Minnesotans who live in Santa Fe.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

We will explore the Pecos Monument with local scholars and have a BBQ lunch outdoors at Forked Lightning Ranch.

Pecos is the site of a Pueblo Indian trading center and village complex inhabited for more than 2,000 years, finally abandoned in the 1800s. Partially excavated in the early 1900s by the famous archaeologist, A.V. Kidder, Pecos was also the site of one of the largest mission churches built by the Spanish in the early 1600s and destroyed in the great Pueblo Revolt in 1680. A later mission church built by Franciscans in the early 1700s still stands. This land, part of the Forked Lightning Ranch, was the home of Col. and Mrs. E.E. ‘Buddy’ Fogelson. Mrs. Fogelson was, of course, the legendary British film actress, Greer Garson.

Forked Lightning Ranch is one of the first buildings designed by John Gaw Meem, New Mexico’s renowned architect, who created Santa Fe-style architecture. Meem was one of the moving forces behind the city’s adherence to Pueblo-Spanish Colonial Revival style. We will have seen other Meem buildings during our trip, including the Spanish Colonial museum and the Cristo Rey Church.

The Civil War and the Santa Fe Trail are also part of the Pecos story. The Battle of Glorieta, known as the “Gettysburg of the West” was fought nearby. The Union Army was camped along the Santa Fe Trail on what would later be the Forked Lightning Ranch. The Confederate Army was positioned at the other end of Glorieta Pass in Canoncito at Apache Canyon outside Santa Fe. While the Confederates held the battlefield at the end of the day, the Union’s surprise discovery and destruction of the Confederate supply camp behind the lines spelled defeat for the daring plans of the Southern forces to invade the West from El Paso.

Monday, September 22, 2008*

Join us for a day in the mountain wilderness on a fly-fishing adventure. Our group will be outfitted and guided to trout waters on the Pecos River, a short drive from Santa Fe. Led by experienced professionals, you will be instructed in casting techniques, entomology, and reading the water. No previous fly fishing experience is required. Anglers will have the opportunity to visit waters that are rarely fished and learn local techniques.

*Additional fee is $240.