If you follow me on Instagram you'll know that one week ago today, I booked a completely spontaneous trip to Santa Fe. The drive is about 7 1/2 hours from OKC, and it's somewhere I've always wanted to go. Financially responsible of me? No way, but B and I needed so badly to escape for a bit, and Santa Fe was absolutely perfect.
We stayed at the Las Palomas, just two blocks from the historic Plaza where we spent a lot of our time. I booked the hotel through an app called HotelTonight which offers special discounts on rooms booked within one week of your stay. Since I booked so close to our trip, I was able to save quite a bit. Upon arrival, we had been upgraded to our very own casita, which was basically an apartment!
The area around the property was absolutely beautiful. Our casita was about a block and a half away from the hotel office (where, I'll add, the complimentary made-to-order breakfast with live music took place.) On the walk to the plaza, you could see mountains peeking out from behind the buildings, and the weather was ridiculous--so perfect.
Walking to our casita was like a walk through a small village. It was all part of the hotel, yet each casita had it's own originality. I'd never seen anything like it.
A few hours into our drive, I realized I had left almost every piece of clothing I wanted to bring hanging in my closet. This meant basically wearing a different variation of the same outfit every day. Talk about bummer, but it was so beautiful I didn't care.
Soon after we arrived on Saturday, we immediately walked to the Plaza to explore. Live music was about to start and groups of people were picnicking in the large park in the middle of the square, with the smell of the fresh fajita stand wafting through the streets. Although there were plenty of tourists to be found, it still felt homey there. After dinner on a rooftop patio, we got the best sleep we've had in weeks.
Day two, Sunday, we booked another night in our casita and continued our walk around the square. This thing goes on, and on, and on! We made a brief visit (we wish we would have stayed longer) to the Loretto Chapel, home of the miraculous staircase, and shopped from local merchants.
Sunday afternoon, we went on a hike at the Rio En Medio Trail. We ended up attempting to find it two different times, after returning back to the casita once because we nearly ran out of gas... this place is seriously hidden in the mountains. No cell reception for miles, so if you're lost, you're on your own. A lot of "I hope this is worth it!" was being said during this time. Spoiler: it was!
The hike was about 3 hours round-trip. Close to the end, our path got a little murky and we ended up climbing all the way up the side of a mountain. Turns out, this was not a part of the trail, but it did lead us to the best views of our endpoint: the most amazing waterfall. Problem was, we didn't know how to get there! It's all about the journey, right?
Finally, we made it to the end. The water was freezing (like, really cold) but we ended up taking off our shoes and running across the rushing water to where we could stand underneath the waterfall. This moment was particularly rewarding.
Money well spent.
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