“The Joy of Living in Santa Fe, New Mexico”
Santa Fe is a place I fell in love with in 1989, when my then wife and I vacationed here. It was so historic, unique, diverse, quaint and artsy I felt an instant draw to this place and I hadn’t even started my art career yet. After our visit, I subscribed to “New Mexico magazine” and I vowed one day I’ll live there and took the magazine for over 20 years dreaming that I would make it my home someday. Well, fast forward some 30 years, and after my marriage failed, I decide to change my life and I moved to Santa Fe in December of 2019. The timing was not the greatest since covid was about to happened, but I obviously had no control over that, so I made the best of it I could. Since then, I’ve gotten involved in art groups, hiking groups, church as well as social groups and I would say I’m fitting in well and feel like this is my hometown.
Santa Fe is uniquely situated in the Sangre de Christo mountain range and rests at 7,000’ elevation and is the highest state capitol city elevation in the US. The elevation also means that we have four seasons. (Sometimes we have all four seasons in one day!) People ask all the time if it gets really hot in the desert, as if we are similar to Phoenix. We definitely have some hot days before monsoon hits, but it almost never hits 100 (or 90 for that matter) and the nights are oh so nice, with temps dropping as much as 30 degrees. We have a proper monsoon, or rainy season, most years in July. And in winter we have snow. Snowfall varies by year but can reach hundreds of inches in the mountains. It snows much less in town, but we do get a handful of big dumps every winter. Generally the snow starts to evaporate as soon as the sun comes out, which is most of the time. We’re blessed with close to 300 days of sun on average. And with that sun comes amazing winter activities, like skiing and sledding. It’s common to have warm days in early spring, which can give a false sense that winter is truly over. That being said, it can also be a nice time to get out of the house and start the garden or get in an early season bike ride. Spring in Santa Fe is typically windy, but not terribly so. Expect a rogue snowfall in late spring. Fall just might be the best season in Santa Fe. The weather has cooled down a little, but the days are still long — a perfect combination for getting outdoors for hours on end. And in the mountains, the aspens begin to turn their signature bright yellow.
Santa Fe is the 3rd oldest city in the US and still has a relatively small population under 90,000. The diverse population is made up of primarily 3 groups: The Natives, Hispanics and Anglos. The pueblo inhabitants of Santa Fe and the surrounding areas built their homes from adobe, a sun-dried clay brick, as far back as 1,000 years ago. When the Spanish came up from Mexico in the 1500s they adopted this style, too, because it is somewhat easy to build. The thermal properties of adobe also help keeps homes cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
When artists and architects started coming to Santa Fe in the 1920s and ’30s, they wanted to establish a unique identity for the town. The pueblo revival style was mandated for the historical district of Santa Fe in 1957 and it is generally used all over town, though modern and industrial influences are starting to surface in the many in-fill projects in town, especially the Santa Fe Railyard. Santa Fe gets about 2 million visitors a year, so lots, of great restaurants, art galleries, hotels, opera house, festivals and events occur here throughout the year. And with 3 mountain ranges close by there are lots of outdoor possibilities. Skiing, mountain biking, hiking and so much more are available in abundance here. It is a joy to live here!