My Mom’s Visit to NM

April 25, 2025

After my Sara, my organizing partner up in Seattle, came down to meet me in Albuquerque, my mom came to town! She lives in Virginia, and had never been to this part of the country before. We had a great time! In this post, I’ll give you the highlights of the trip, plus lots of photos.

Our first stop was to meet up with my mom’s college friend, who lives in Albuquerque. I hadn’t seen her since I was a kid, so we all had fun catching up. After that, my mom and I headed to Santa Fe. We drank decadent hot chocolate at Kakawa Chocolate House and talked to a wonderful woman who works for The Horse Shelter, a non-profit that specializes in rescuing horses in New Mexico. After that, we headed up Canyon Road, where I had gone earlier in the week with Sara. My mom and I wanted to see some artwork. I love how Santa Fe is filled with colorful and fun artwork. I also wanted to go back to L’Ecole Des Beaux Arts, the hand-made watercolor store in the Canyon Road district. This time we got to see them in the process of making the watercolors. I bought more watercolors to add to my stash, and realized that we had been in the store with the New York Times bestselling author, Samin Nosrat, author of Salt Fat Acid Heat.

Drinking decadent hot chocolate.

Canyon Road artwork.

Canyon Road artwork.

Canyon Road artwork.

People making watercolors at L'Ecole Des Beaux Arts.

Testing out my new watercolors.

After that, we headed to our hotel at Ojo Santa Fe, where I got a chance to play with my watercolors. We enjoyed some nice hydrotherapy in their legendary healing, spring-fed water pools, and soaked up the gorgeous sites and scents. We ate dinner at the resort, and as you can probably imagine, it was out-of-this-world! The next morning, we got to play with a pair of husky-shepherd puppies. The spa collaborates with a nearby shelter to help adopt out puppies looking for homes. What a great idea!

Ojo Santa Fe.

Puppies to be adopted at Ojo Santa Fe.

On our voyage through the wild west, I drove my mom through Lincoln, to see the Old Lincoln Courthouse, where Billy the Kid made his most famous escape. We got burgers in Ruidoso, and decided to spend the night so we could maximize our chances of seeing wild horses. It wasn’t hard to find them at all! The horses were hanging out in town. We also drove up to Grindstone Lake to check out the view. In the morning, a herd of elk were hanging out on the golf course, and shortly after that, the horses showed up on the golf course as well. I had read online that the horses like to hang out near Ski Run Road, so we decided to head up there to see what we could see. Ruidoso sits at about 6,700’ in elevation, but it didn’t feel that high when we were driving there. As we kept going up and up Ski Run Road, and the road felt narrower and windier, we noticed how steep the drop off was. Charlie usually does all the driving, but since it was just me and my mom, I was the one in the driver’s seat. We hadn’t realized that we are both a little afraid of heights, and as the road kept going up and up, we were getting a little delirious. We weren’t sure if we would have to drive back down the curvy steep road or if we should just keep driving. Our elevation was surpassing 10,000’ feet, and my mom was saying her Hail Mary’s as I kept driving. We were scared but we were also both laughing, so we called Charlie to see if he had any advice. He could see our location on Google Maps and could see what we were eventually going to hit Ski Apache, where we could easily turn around. He calmed us down enough to make the turn around and stop at an overlook with a group of very nice motorcyclist gentlemen. We got out of the car, had some laughs with the guys, took in the views, and headed back down the hill, feeling much more centered and confident. We made it down just fine, and headed to Cloudcroft.

Billy The Kid's stomping grounds.

Place of Billy The Kid's most famous escape!

Horses in Ruidoso.

Horses in Ruidoso.

A herd of elk on the golf course in the morning.

Getting our picture taken at around 10,000' by a group of motorcyclists.

As we were almost into Cloudcroft, we saw another herd of wild horses, so stopped to take a picture. Cloudcroft is another high-altitude town, located at 8,676’ in elevation. We did some shopping at the cute boutiques in town, and got a recommendation for a good lunch spot. We went to High Rollin’ Coffee, which was absolutely phenomenal! It’s all vegetarian food, and the menu changes each week. This week they were offering the most delicious salad I’ve ever had, and a really yummy dessert-like toast. They both went together really well! I also got a delicious rose-water matcha latte. The atmosphere is super clean and fresh. I highly recommend this place!

Wild horses outside of Cloudcroft.

Cute find at a shop in Cloudcroft.

Delicious lunch at High Rollin' Coffee.

Instead of driving straight back down to Carlsbad, we hit up our first (of three) national parks on this trip- White Sands! White Sands is within the Chihuahuan Desert, and covers 275 square miles- the largest gypsum dunefield in the world! In 2018, fossilized human Ice Age footprints were found that date back to 23,000 years old. This is the oldest known site of humans in the United States. We made it back to Carlsbad on Saturday night, and went to the Living Desert (forgot to take photos, but had a great time). That evening, we headed to Carlsbad Caverns National Park to see the bat flight (no electronic devices allowed). Since it’s early in the season, we did get to see plenty of bats, but it was nothing like when Charlie and I had gone late in the season and it was like nothing we had ever seen before!

White Sands.

Carlsbad Caverns.

Monday night, we went back to Carlsbad Caverns, and walked down the path to the main room. They’ve done such a nice job with this park! It’s illuminated just right, and the path has handrails to make it easy to navigate. We both took tons of photos at the natural beauty, and then took the elevator 75 stories back up. That evening, we went out for a delicious dinner at The Trinity, Carlsbad’s historic hotel and restaurant. The building dates back to 1892!

Tuesday, we went out to Guadalupe National Park, and hiked the Smith Spring & Manzanita Spring Trail. Guadalupe National Park is so special because it’s the largest exposed reef in the world. Fossils are found everywhere! The hike took longer than expected, because we kept looking at rocks, but we did enjoy a nice shady oasis at Smith Spring. We also got really lucky with the weather! The sky was perfectly clear, but if we had waited two days to go, we would have been pummeled with a strong dust storm. Charlie had to drive back from El Paso in the dust storm and he said it was the worst one he’s ever been in, and he’s lived in the desert almost his whole life! Later that evening, we went to a Carlsbad Area Art Association demonstration at the Pottery Studio, where my mom got to meet a bunch of my artist friends.

Guadalupe National Park.

Guadalupe National Park.

Guadalupe National Park.

On Wednesday, my mom’s last day in town, I took her to see my artwork on display at The Artist Gallery, where she picked up some gifts for friends, and a new pair of earrings for herself too! We then went to my Rotary meeting, and my mom got to see presentations from the local high school students-of-the-month. After that, we got to go tour Frieda Bates’ house, extraordinary New Mexico based bead-worker and all-around awesome human. For dinner on my mom’s last night in town, we went down to Mariscos, sat out on the patio, and had really great shrimp tacos.

We had a great time, and I’m so glad my mom was willing to come all the way out here to visit. I’m already planning her next visit!