Welcome to:
Santa Fe County, New Mexico
Explore the gravel roads around Central New Mexico.
Our newest field guide is out now. We cover a lot of ground in Santa Fe County: Ride Tesuqué, the Nambé Badlands, Chimayó, Agua Fria, Lamy, Cerrillos, the Rowe Mesa, San Pedro, Edgewood, Santa Fe, and more. Pick up your free copy at a local shop, visit the link below.
Introduction
A strong argument can be made for Santa Fe County being one of the birthplaces of the global adventure travel industry. Historically isolated, northern New Mexico’s remoteness made coming and going from Santa Fe County an adventure in and of itself. Founded in 1607, the City of Santa Fe is the oldest capital city in the United States. As transportation methods evolved, the county emerged as an influential hub in the Southwest, and as a popular travel destination.
Early-twentieth-century travel advertising portrayed Santa Fe County as an “exotic” destination in part due to what makes the place unique: a blend of Native, Spanish/Mexican, and Anglo cultures, language, and traditions. There is no other adventure-travel destination that looks, feels, or inspires humans quite like Santa Fe County. There is magic to it all.
Bicycles have always served as an adventurous means to travel across the state. Yet, gravel bikes reimagine and engage with Santa Fe County’s unique multicultural and creative heritage in a New Mexico-true sort of way. This guidebook intends to spark Old West wanderlust in adventurous cyclists seeking diverse riding terrain, a blending of cultural narratives, and plenty of things to do off the bicycle.
Welcome
Santa Fe County is pleased to share this gravel-bike-focused guidebook with residents and visitors. We are excited to offer traveling cyclists a valuable resource, while also enhancing the county’s quality of life and connection to the region’s natural beauty. This guide demonstrates commitment to and support for making Santa Fe County a world-class biking destination. It also furthers our goals of enhancing new and established work opportunities through sustainable economic development and tourism in the region.
Santa Fe County is dedicated to recruiting and expanding economic opportunity through arts and culture, agriculture, and outdoor-sports tourism. Gravel cycling not only adds to our recreational offerings, but also develops and sustains the businesses that provide goods and services within the local economy. Bicycle use promotes businesses throughout Santa Fe County.
Photo: The Zozobra Festival is your escape from “gloom.” On a glorious night in late summer at Fort Marcy Park they light it on fire and burn away your gloom. 2024 marks the 100th Anniversary. Fire dancer in front of old man gloom, c. 1950. Photo: Palace of the Governors Photo Archives
Road Origins
Santa Fe County naturally serves as the central hub of New Mexico. Since the earliest humans established cliff-dwelling communities here, the landscape has offered adventure. Hunting and gathering meant leaving the known for the unknown. This behavior led to paths and trails. These routes were later adopted by Spanish explorers and settlers in the sixteenth century.
The arrival of Europeans expanded the New Mexico adventure- travel narrative. Getting to and from Santa Fe County involved arduous and dangerous overland travel. El Camino Real de la Tierra Adentro (Royal Road of the Interior) alone was a 1,600- mile route that connected Santa Fe to Mexico City, the capital of New Spain. Santa Fe County remains close culturally and economically to Mexico. This can be recognized while riding local roads like Pacheco Canyon and Ojo de la Vaca.
Santa Fe County is also the traditional central trade hub of the Southwest. Puebloan people’s trade practices reflected their intimate knowledge of the natural landscape and neighboring cultures, including Pueblos in present-day Santa Fe County. They traded with non-Pueblo groups too, like the Navajo, Apache, Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo settlers. Goods exchanged were wool, livestock, and metal tools. Europeans and Anglo-Americans introduced new materials and products, which were adopted into established commerce networks. Trade facilitated relationship building, resource sharing, and road expansion in rural Santa Fe County.
The High Road to Taos and the Santa Fe Trail are examples of how Native trade networks pushed more individuals to travel into Northern New Mexico. Indigenous trade networks and subsequent Spanish conquest brought settlers who eventually founded towns on the High Road to Taos (today’s NM 503).
After the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Spanish were expelled from New Mexico for twelve years. Upon returning, seventeen families settled the town of Santa Cruz de la Cañada at the north end of Santa Fe County in 1695. Among these original settlers, a few migrated seven miles east to an area known as Tsi Mayoh in the Tewa language. The Spanish named it Chimayó, therein founding the communities of Rio Chiquito, Cordova, Truchas, and Peñasco.
Meanwhile, the Santa Fe Trail (1821–1880) between Independence, Missouri, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, created the first commercial highway in North America. Anglo traders began using the trail prior to the United States annexing the Southwest in 1848. Trade during 200 years of Spanish colonialism consisted of mountain and ranch products, the Santa Fe Trail expanding the range of goods. The same origin applies to the Old Spanish Trail (1831–1850), which facilitated mule pack trains between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, California. These Old West trails laid the foundation for an eventual adventure-travel-based tourism industry in Santa Fe County. Tales of the risks, dangers, and raw elements on the traders’ overland journeys created a certain allure.
By the 1890s, the arrival of the railroad contributed to increased mining and livestock ranching, population growth, and road development throughout Santa Fe County. The rail also created greater awareness of and curiosity about travel in the Southwest. Later, the democratization of travel brought by automobiles and the construction of Route 66 introduced the road-trip adventure to people. New Mexico’s unique blend of cultures, art, and landscape moved people to travel. Santa Fe County’s colorful scenery, arts and crafts, National Forest and Bureau of Land Management properties, and healthy, fresh air continue to produce the Southwestern mystique known around the world.
Photo: Looking down San Francisco St. towards
the Saint Francis Cathedral, c. 1869.
Photo N. Brown, UNM Photo Archive
A History of Adventure Cycling:
Coinciding with the railroad’s arrival was the bicycle. A cycling craze gripped the United States beginning in the 1890s, spawned by the human yearning for adventure. Bicycles are a means to this end. Santa Fe County residents quickly adopted a love for cycling shortly after the first bike was seen here circa 1882. Three “trick riders” traveled to New Mexico on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway to entertain crowds interested in the sport.
The Santa Fe County landscape presented a blank canvas for bicycles, one in which every ride was an adventurous experience. Bicycles drew people from around the nation, as well as globally, and contributed to expanding Southwest adventure tourism. Stories of cycling feats like Tom Wheeler crossing “the sandy desert of New Mexico” while attempting in 1895 to ride the perimeter of the United States in 300 days made headlines. Soon enough, a majestic landscape, colorful sky, and a diverse Old West spirit would combine to make Santa Fe County a world-renowned cycling destination.
Bolstering early interest in cycling were the social bicycle clubs that emerged in New Mexico. Their dedication to promoting cycling for recreation, fitness, and transportation eventually contributed to an adventure travel and outdoor recreation economy in Santa Fe County. Naturally they followed the trends, with road bikes being a focus before mountain bikes came on the scene. Santa Fe County supports the popular Santa Fe Century road bike event, while the City of Santa is ranked as one of the most bike friendly communities in the U.S. Together, the County and City of Santa Fe also achieved International Mountain Bike Association Silver Ride Center status. It recognizes large scale mountain bike destinations that offer a host of trails for different riding styles.
Yet through it all the adventurous riding terrain of Santa Fe County continues to evolve and offer cyclists a challenge, and the addition of the gravel bike expands on this narrative. Because the gravel bike is influenced by road and mountain bikes, Santa Fe County immediately offers adventure cyclists another way to engage with the sport of cycling in New Mexico. With a long standing culture of cycling in place, Santa Fe County joins the conversation around great places to ride a gravel bike. The routes in this guide are a reflection of a cycling legacy rooted in adventure travel.
“This country is a veritable cycler’s paradise, and there are few places, if any, which afford such elegant natural roads as are found in the vicinity of Santa Fe.”
— An 1894 NEWS article on New Mexico
Scan & Ride Interactive GPS Maps
ridewithgps.com/app
Start navigating and recording your ride on the Ride with GPS app with just a single tap, or get spoken turn-by-turn directions for your routes using the signature voice navigation feature. No data? No problem! You can download routes to navigate while offline and record rides without a data connection. The GPX file is also available for your cycling computer/head-unit.
On the following gravel route pages, scan the QR code with your smart phone to land on our digital route page, making it easy, safe, and fun for cyclists to go on great rides.
We encourage people to get outside, reconnect with nature, and embark on two-wheeled adventures. The Ride with GPS mission is to build a global community of riders who create and share routes, discover new adventures, and go on better rides, more often.
Nostalgia for the Past Vision for the Future
Southwest Gravel Travel By Rail
A major factor in Santa Fe County’s development into a global adventure-travel destination was the railroad. While the City of Santa Fe was bypassed during the construction of the original Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe line between Chicago and Los Angeles, a spur line was built in less than a month connecting the City of Santa Fe and Lamy, 19 miles south. Nostalgia for West train travel continues to lure adventurers to Santa Fe County. And a future that weds train and bicycle mobility is taking shape in New Mexico.
Amtrak
Gravel cyclists seeking to escape the urban confines of Chicago-Kansas City-Los Angeles have the option of hopping on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief train. You can relax in an overnight cabin, or simply enjoy the scenic views along the journey. Traveling on the Southwest Chief only adds to the adventurous lure of a gravel-bike trip in New Mexico. This rail line’s legacy is that it ushered in the start of the tourism industry in Santa Fe County.
New Mexico Rail Runner Express
This is an excellent regional railway that makes Santa Fe County even more accessible to gravel-adventure enthusiasts. It provides daily service, with weekday, weekend, and holiday schedules connecting the Albuquerque-Santa Fe corridor. Each train has eight secure, designated bicycle spaces that make it convenient to plan a visit, and you can start your ride right from the Santa Fe Railyard.
Santa Fe Southern Railway (SFSR)
Due to Santa Fe County’s mountainous terrain, a station hub in Lamy was chosen. Eventually in 2020, market-condition changes led to SFSR being acquired by a local group of investors. They currently offer rail entertainment via their Sky Railway adventure-travel-themed experiences. The continued use of the rail line will also strengthen mobility and connectivity in Santa Fe County. To learn more visit: skyrailway.com
Agricultural Heritage
Santa Fe County: Connecting Agricultural Entrepreneurs, Farmers, and Ranchers to Resources
An ongoing component of Santa Fe County as a travel destination is efforts to preserve New Mexico’s agricultural heritage, and support a local food system that withstands future climate-resilience needs. The county, in partnership with ESHIP Rio Grande Initiative through Forward Cities, developed a food community-navigator project called AgriGate in 2017. This online portal connects agricultural entrepreneurs, farmers, and ranchers, to resource providers based on each operation’s own needs. The goal here is to respect the land, feed the soul, and honor the story.
Farming and ranching are deeply ingrained in the culture of Santa Fe County. The acequia water system is thousands of years old and instrumental in consistently delivering the needed resources to fields throughout the county. New Mexico’s agricultural bounty and influence have contributed to the region’s worldwide culinary notoriety. Food production is important because it’s part of the state’s cultural identity.
AgriGate emerged from a larger debate in 2010 around use of genetically modified seeds in the Santa Fe food ecosystem. A group of local citizens advocated for policymakers to develop plans that included addressing food, farming, and ranching issues. These efforts led to four distinct areas of focus: Protection of Land and Natural Resources; Supporting Agricultural Operations; Promoting Agricultural Use of County Properties; and Understanding the Capacity of the County Food System. Santa Fe County’s AgriGate portal is an example of leveraging community insights into learning-based action.
AgriGate serves as a resource for residents and visitors to better understand and connect with the Santa Fe County food ecosystem. Its goal is to help people discover local food producers and buyers. Off-road cyclists can use it to plan an adventure that includes exploring personal palate tastes and interests.
To learn more visit: agrigatesfc.org
New Mexico Cuisine
A culinary bounty of ingredients, aromas, and tastes
A significant contribution made by New Mexico to mainstream American society has been the introduction of flavor profiles that early on seemed “exotic” but have grown to reflect an ever-evolving multicultural reality. Cuisine here is a fusion of Native American, Spanish, and Mexican culinary traditions, with each contributing distinctive flavors and ingredients to create what is now known as New Mexican food. The regional cuisine here first introduced many people to “adventurous” eating experiences as Santa Fe County became a global travel destination.
Navajo, Apache, and Pueblo people cultivated and harvested crops like corn, beans, squash, and chile peppers. It was the Puebloans who introduced the technique of roasting chiles, which is a well-known fall tradition in New Mexico. Later, the Spanish contributed new ingredients and ways in which to prepare foods.
Arriving Spanish settlers brought with them livestock (beef, pork), and wheat flour, and added new cooking methods such as frying and baking. Native people quickly adopted these elements into their traditions. Carne Adovada is a dish that exemplifies this process of cultural fusion: Chunks of pork are marinated in red-chile sauce, garlic, and other spices, then slow cooked until tender.
Spaniards also imported a number of unique spices and herbs, like cumin, oregano, and garlic, which were themselves of African and Arabic culinary origin. The use of chile peppers in New Mexican cuisine was influenced during this era by the Spanish introducing dried chiles, and employing them in their sauces. Later, settlers from Mexico added tomatoes and avocados to the table.
There is a reason New Mexican cuisine is known for its bold and spicy flavors. It’s a reflection of the evolution of cooking styles and traditions to create something new and different. Even today, many of the ingredients and methods used in New Mexican cuisine continue to be fused and shared across cultural boundaries. The food traditions of Santa Fe County have served as a catalyst to introduce ethnic flavor profiles to people around the world.
Field Report
SANTA FE CENTURY & GRAVELÓN
Since 1985, the Santa Fe Century has grown to become a beloved road-cycling event in the Southwest. Changing cycling trends have required expanding the event’s scope. In 2015, a gravel-race offering called Gravelón was added to the Santa Fe Century weekend. New Mexico’s cycling community was hungry for an off-road challenge, and Gravelón has been meeting expectations while continuing Santa Fe Century’s mission to be a budget-friendly scenic ride with excellent food stops.
An important milestone for the Santa Fe Century occurred in 1991, when, after the event’s launch by the Sangre de Cristo Bicycle Club, the first race director was named. Local cyclist Willard Chilcot had the vision to improve the event experience, and supported and ran the event for over 20 years. By 2000, participant growth was such that it required the formation of the Santa Fe Century Committee, which continues to manage the event.
Parallel to a wider cycling-industry trend, the Santa Fe Century has seen its participation increase as road cycling became less appealing. Gravelón aims to attract a wider audience, namely younger riders, to help promote all types of cycling. Gravel bikes help reimagine adventure travel in Santa Fe County. Courses are a mix of dirt double-track, rustic paved segments, and gravel roads. There are short sections of technical terrain that will challenge riders of various skill levels. Gravelón has diversified the Santa Fe Century weekend experience.
Evidence of gravel cycling expanding its influence is found with the current race director, Hadji Corona. Originally from Mexico, he is one of the select few Latino race directors in the U.S. This benefits the event in a state with a significant bicultural and bilingual population. Under his leadership, Gravelón is positioned to bring a wider audience into the gravel-cycling community. Hadji found gravel through mountain biking. Riding dirt roads to access trails over 30 years has prepared him for longer gravel rides.
Traversing Sacred Land
Spirituality in the Land of Enchantment
Generations of Santa Fe County residents believe the land is composed of sacred soil. It holds profound historical, cultural, and spiritual significance. It provides a sense of place. A colorful tapestry of Indigenous heritage, Spanish/Mexican history, natural beauty, and contemporary cultural contributions has forged a unique belief in land sacredness recognized and respected by the diverse communities. Sacredness is not only a reflection of the land’s past, but a reflection of the continued living and evolving relationship between Santa Fe County’s inhabitants and its traditions.
Spirituality holds diverse meaning and is subjective to personal experiences. It can be found within a religious context, or outside of it. Spirituality is a pathway to explore themes about existence, find inner peace, and connect with a higher purpose. Sacred landmarks and sites across Santa Fe County produce cultural awareness, promote respect, foster a connection with nature, and inspire creativity. It’s reverence for sacred soil that has attracted people from around the world to Santa Fe County.
A byproduct of inter-acculturation in the Southwest is spirituality within the context of religious syncretism. A combination of Catholic and Indigenous spiritual practices produced a distinctive religious landscape in which soil is revered by Christians and Indigenous people alike. The beliefs surrounding the village of Chimayó are a perfect example of this syncretism.
The legend of the sacred dirt in Chimayó centers on El Santuario de Chimayó, a Roman Catholic church. It is considered one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in the United States for those seeking healing. El Posito is a feature consisting of a small room next to the chapel, containing a pit of sacred dirt. Those who make the pilgrimage to Chimayó believe the dirt has miraculous healing properties.
A common thread between Christian and Indigenous spiritual practices here is the belief the earth has the power to heal—and the human desire to venerate that source, the land of Santa Fe County. Syncretism extends to the gravel adventure because cycling might be considered a spiritual exercise that produces a clarity of vision for things taking place around you. Bicycles remind us of the intrinsic balance and interconnectedness of life, nature, and our own self-care.