The Lure Of Santa Fe : A Paradise on Earth for Walkers and Runners

You know them well: days when your urban body and lungs need a break; when you want to escape the pollution or the inevitable freeway jam; when you’re forced to exercise at the gym because the air is too foul to venture outdoors. You need an antidote, and Club Med is too much and too far. Head for Santa Fe.

Besides the town’s obvious, much-advertised wonders--adobes, art, atmosphere and ambience--add to those another A, for air. Santa Fe is an opportunity for a quick hit of unadulterated fresh air, especially for clean-air-starved Southern Californians. It’s the Evian of climates, and a good excuse to flee the Southland to spend a day or two indulging in New Mexico’s wonders.

Here you can rediscover your lungs and legs and find out what they are still capable of. And, best of all, Santa Fe is a place where you can walk for hours while enjoying the town’s natural beauty along with the artistic displays in its wealth of galleries.

What follows is an ambler’s guide to some favorite walks and runs in Santa Fe, along with some convenient points along the way for refreshment and other diversions.

Keep in mind that Santa Fe is no seaside village. It sits at 7,000 feet in the high desert and backs up against 12,000-foot mountains. Before plunging into the city’s streets at the same gait as your run on the beach at Malibu or San Clemente, you may want to test the equipment with an easy walk or two.

If you normally take your excursions early in the day or near sunset, bring along a jacket or extra sweatshirt because the early morning temperatures are often 20-30 degrees cooler than noon temperatures. It also cools off quickly in the evening.

The best way to ensure that you have pleasant, entertaining walks and runs around Santa Fe is to begin your activities from the old plaza in the town center. The less expensive hotels are quite some distance from the plaza, most of them along Cerrillos Road, a very un-Santa Fe-like strip of hostelries and fast-food restaurants that leads from Interstate 25 into town.

What you might save in dollars you can lose in convenience. It can take a half hour or more to find a parking place downtown. There are pleasant hotels near the plaza, and all of them make wonderful starting points for sauntering around town.

Tourist Tickler

A good get-acquainted walk begins near the El Dorado Hotel at Sandoval and San Francisco streets. Head east along San Francisco and you’ll see gallery window displays, clothing boutiques and restaurants. A couple of blocks more and you’ll find yourself at the main plaza.

The Palace of the Governors, with a history dating back almost 400 years, dominates the north side of the square and provides the canopy for the daily Indian market, where you can bargain from 8:30 a.m. until early evening for fine handmade goods. Shops and galleries fill in the rest of the plaza.

Continue along San Francisco until it dead-ends near St. Francis Cathedral, the setting for much of Willa Cather’s famous novel, “Death Comes to the Archbishop.” Turn left, north, one block to Palace. Directly across the street is Sena Plaza, a charming, former hacienda whose fully enclosed, bench-filled patio is surrounded by shops and restaurants.

After relaxing at Sena Plaza, take a left off Palace onto Otero and wander up the block to Marcy. On the right, about five houses down, is Josie’s, an inexpensive, unpretentious and wonderful little Mexican restaurant that prides itself on homemade food and specializes in take-out. Indulge. Try the hot tamales with chile for $5, then retrace your way down Marcy to Washington, where a left takes you back to the Plaza.

Take a right along Palace and you’ll be back beneath the portals of the governor’s palace, then continue past the Museum of Fine Arts. The latter, built in 1917, is a good example of Santa Fe architecture and houses an excellent collection of regional art. Just west of the museum is the St. Francis Auditorium, which in summer is the site of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Farther down Palace on the left, poke your head into a small inner plaza and find a cafe called the Downtown Subscription, a fine place to sit outside, select from an ample list of coffees and pastries, and read a newspaper or magazine from its large collection. Just around the curve and you’re back at the El Dorado after about an hour’s walk.

The Gallery Gambol

Everyone who visits Santa Fe heads up Canyon Road, a narrow, winding, gently uphill way that is filled with galleries, more than 100 at last count, and includes several notable cafes and restaurants.

Catch the beginning of Canyon Road by wandering east along Alameda along the Santa Fe River Park to Paseo de Peralta. Turn right and look for the carved sign that signals the start of Canyon Road.

By the time you’ve passed the galleries and reached the top of lower Canyon you’ll have discovered picturesque Patrick Smith Park and covered about 1 1/2 miles. You can either cut left across the park at Acequia Madre or continue ahead to Camino Cabra, where lower Canyon dead ends.

If you take a right for one block, you’ll find Cristo Rey Church, one of the largest adobe buildings in the United States, with some walls almost seven feet thick. Head back down and you’ll eventually run into Alameda, which takes you along the river back into the town center. All in all, a very pleasant three-mile trek that can be either a long walk or an easy run.

The Museum Meander

Another option is shorter. From Canyon Road, head up Camino del Monte Sol toward St. John’s. Stay on it until it intersects with Old Santa Fe Trail. Turn right and in less than half a mile you’ll see a sign and road for the three famous Native American museums: The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of International Folk Art and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

You could stop here to tour the museums. Afterwards, return to Old Santa Fe Trail and turn left. Cross the street and you can return to town by going down Garcia, another interesting residential street that takes you back near the entrance to Canyon Road about 1 1/2 miles later. The total distance is a little over four miles.

The Guadalupe Loop

A more modest tour begins again at Sandoval and San Francisco streets, heads down San Francisco west to Guadalupe, then left about three blocks to the Guadalupe/Aztec/Agua Fria/Montezuma area of shops and restaurants. You can wander along these streets (Guadalupe is the main artery) and browse through Southwestern arts and crafts in numerous shops, taking a break at any one of half a dozen restaurants. Among them are the Zia Diner, Guadalupe Cafe and La Tertulia, a former convent that serves some of the best Southwestern cuisine in town.

To close the loop, go down Guadalupe to Montezuma, turn right and curve around past the tiny Jean Cocteau Theater (a delightful place to return later to see an art film, if you wish) and the interesting Sanbrusco Center shopping complex to Agua Fria. Another right and you’ll wander past La Tertulia to Guadalupe again. Head left and you’re on your way back to town.

If you’re a first-time visitor to Santa Fe, or simply want a little more structure to your walking tours, consider calling Waite Thompson at (505) 983-6565 or (800) DETOURS. Thompsons’s 2 1/2-hour Santa Fe Walks leave daily at 9:30 a.m. and again, less crowded, at 1:30 p.m. from the La Fonda Hotel lobby. For $10, Thompson, who’s been regaling visitors with tales of Santa Fe for a dozen years, will relate the town’s history as well as point out some of its better restaurants and shops.

The Monte Sol Circle

A longer, more taxing and panoramic route, better to run than walk, begins on Canyon Road but veers right at Camino del Monte Sol, a thoroughly Santa Fe street with individualized adobes and spectacular views of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.

Before heading up the Monte Sol hill you might want to stop for breakfast or lunch at the start of a run at Celebrations or the Canyon Road Cafe, both pleasant, informal restaurants with alfresco dining. Each is near the Monte Sol turn. (At Celebrations, don’t pass up the potato-leek fritatta .)

If coffee is your fuel, directly opposite Celebrations is The Bookroom and Coffee Bar, which offers varieties of caffeinated concoctions and baked goods.

About a mile uphill along Monte Sol, the route heads left up Camino de Cruz Blanca. Rounded hills form the backdrop for St. John’s College, known for its Great Books curriculum that starts with the Ancient Greeks. The road crests near the college, and a glance back down reveals the city of Santa Fe below as well as the high desert countryside of the Rio Grande River Valley beyond.

At this point the road becomes Camino Cabra and descends to the intersection with Canyon Road near Cristo Rey Church. You can complete the loop by taking Canyon back to town, or jog a little farther down Camino Cabra and take the Alameda route. Altogether, a scenic and interesting tour of about five miles.

The Upper Canyon Climb

For the truly ambitious, two optional legs to this course offer further enticements. Instead of heading back to town off Camino Cabra, turn right at Upper Canyon Road near Cristo Rey Church. This is the country side of Santa Fe living, with large spreads where horses graze in green-brown pastures set against the mountains to the east.

About 1 1/2 miles up the road, turn left at a small bridge and double back along Cerro Gordo, where you get a view of the Upper Canyon area from above. Here you’ll see more striking adobes, including some with rounded, hump-shaped walls and roofs. Another 2 1/2 miles and you’re back in town at Gonzales Street. Turn left one block to Alameda, then right along the river until it all begins to look familiar. The run from near the Plaza totals about 7 1/2 miles.