Sandia Peak (that mountain towering above Albuquerque) is reachable both by Tramway cable car as well as by road, around the back side. The Sandia Peak Tramway is about a half hour drive from Tamaya.

Q - How far is Santa Fe from Tamaya Resort?

A - It's an easy 50 mile drive northeast, that takes about an hour from Tamaya to the Santa Fe Plaza downtown.

Q - What are the best things to do in Santa Fe?

A - Santa Fe, with its many galleries and museums is an hour drive north of Tamaya. Highlights all center on The Plaza, which is surrounded by galleries (Rich's favorites are The Rainbow Man and Antieau) and shops. If you're hungry, The Plaza Cafe, right on The Plaza, is our favorite.

Just steps from the Plaza are The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, New Mexico Museum of Art, IAIA Museum, and New Mexico History Museum.

Canyon Road, four blocks from the Plaza boasts over 100 galleries, most of them amazing collections of local, Indian, Southwestern, modern art, and jewelry. Worth walking and wandering.

Museum Hill, ten minutes from the Plaza (two and a half miles), has the spectacular International Folk Art Museum, The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, The Botanical Gardens, and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

Q-What's worth seeing north of Santa Fe?

A. The legendary cliffs of Abiquiu, home to Georgia O'Keefe and featured in her paintings, Pedernal Peak, and Echo Amphitheater (ignore the CLOSED signs) are just an hour north of Santa Fe.

An hour and a half (70 miles) northeast of Santa Fe is Taos, former home of Dennis Hopper, DH Lawrence, and Aldous Huxley. It's also where you'll find more galleries and the legendary multistoried Taos Pueblo.

A fabulous alternate route to Taos is to make a left at Pilar as you drive north, then proceed up the amazing Pilar Canyon, across the little Taos Junction bridge, then brave a few miles of dirt road until you reach the absolutely breathtaking Taos Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. It's 10 miles northwest of Taos, and one of the very highest bridges in the US. Keep your eyes peeled for mountain goats.

Q-What's worth seeing west of Santa Fe?

A-The volcano you're visiting (yes, you're very close) has had its cone and its caldera obscured by millions of years of geologic activity. But it's here and SO worth visiting.

The Caldera itself is now a preserve, called Valles Caldera National Preserve, home to abundant prairie dogs and over 3,000 elk, not to mention eagles and trout.

On the way to The Caldera, you'll pass Los Alamos, yes, THAT Los Alamos, has several museums based on The Manhattan Project.

Bandelier National Monument is also on the road to The Caldera, and protects archeological Ancestral Pueblo sites. and offers a short easy walk with many ladders you can climb to visit the cliff dwellings.