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Attractions & Activities: Exploring Nearby Pueblos & Monuments
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Ten Native American pueblos are located within an hour's drive of central Albuquerque. One national and two state monuments preserve another five ancient pueblo ruins.
The active pueblos nearby include Acoma, Cochiti, Isleta, Jemez, Laguna, Sandia, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Santa Domingo, and Zia. Of these, Acoma is the most prominent.
When you visit pueblos, it is important to observe certain rules of etiquitte: Remember to respect the pueblos as people's homes; don't peek into doors and windows or climb on top of the buildings. Stay out of cemetaries and ceremonial rooms (such as kivas), since these are sacred grounds. Don't speak during dances or ceremonies or applaud after their conclusion; silence is mandatory. Most pueblos require a permit to carry a camera or to sketch or paint on location. Several pueblos prohibit picture taking at any time.
The Turquiose Trail Known as "the Turquoise Trail", NM 14 begins about 16 miles east of downtown Albequerque, at I-40's Cedar Crest exit, and winds some 46 miles to Santa Fe along the east side of the Sandia Mountains. This state-designed scenic and histoic route traverses the revived ghost towns of Golden, Madrid, and Cerillos, where gold, silver, coal, and turquoise were once mined in great quantities. Modern-day settlers, mostly artists and craftspeople, have brought a renewed frontier spirit to the old mining towns.
Golden is approximately 10 miles north of the Sandria Park junction on NM 14. Its sagging houses, with their missing boards and the wind whistling throught the broken eaves, make it a purist's ghost town. There's a general store widely known for its large selection of well-priced jewelry, as well as a bottle seller's "glass garden". Nearby there are the ruins of a pueblo called Paako, abandonned around 1670. Such communities of mud huts were all that the Spaniards ever found during their avid quest for the gold of Cibola.
Madrid (pronounced with the accent on the first syllable) is about 12 miles north of Golden. Madrid and neighboring Cerillos were in a fabled turquoise-mining area dating back to prehistory. Gold and Silver mines followed, and when they faltered, there was coal. The Turquoise Trail town supplied fuel for the locomotives of the Santa Fe Railroad until the 1950's when the railroad converted to diesel fuel. Madrid used to produce 100,000 tons of coal a year, but the mine closed in 1956. Today, this is a village of artists and craftspeople seemingly stuck in the 1960's: Its funky, ramshackle houses have many counterculture residents who operate several crafts stores and import shops.
The Old Coal Mine Museum (tel. 505/473-0743) invites visitors to go down into a real mine that was saved when the town was abandonned. You can see the old mine's offices, steam engines, machines, and tools. It's called a living museum because blacksmiths, metalworkers, and leatherworkers ply their trades here in restoring parts and tools found in the mine. It's open daily; admission is $3 for adults and seniors, and $1 for children 6 to 12; children under 6 are free.
Next door, the Mine Shaft Tavern continues its colorful career by offering a variety of burgers on the menu and presenting live music Saturday and Sunday afternoons and some Friday and Saturday nights; it's open for dinner Wednesday and Friday through Sunday, and attracts folks from Santa Fe and Albequerque. Next door is the Madrid Opera House, possibly the only such establishment on earth with a built-in steam locomotive on its stage. (The structure had been an engine repair shed; the balcony is made of railroad track.)
Cerillos, about 3 miles north of Madrid, is a village of dirt roads that sprawls along Galisteo Creek. It appears to have changed very little since it was founded during a lead strike in 1879; the old hotel, the saloon, and even the sheriff's office look very much like an Old West movie set. It's another 15 miles to Santa Fe and I-25.
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