From Santa Fe to Taos: A New Mexico road trip

As the morning sun begins to warm the mountain air, we slide into our rental car and head north on U.S. Route 84. We pass through small towns and scrubby high desert for about an hour before dipping down into the Chama Valley. The artist Georgia O’Keeffe is synonymous with New Mexico. We stop by the O’Keeffe Welcome Center in Abiquiú to take in the current exhibit, Artful Living: O’Keeffe & Modern Design. Next, we're escorted up the hill to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Home & Studio. The painter bought a deteriorating hacienda in 1945 and fixed it up, splitting her time between here and a house on the nearby Ghost Ranch for most of the next four decades. We’ve booked the Pita’s Tour, led by Agapita “Pita” Lopez whose grandfather, mother and brothers worked for O’Keeffe. Lopez leads us through the house, showing us the artist’s garden, living room and studio. We linger in the modest bedroom, taking in the view of the valley that inspired paintings like Winter Cottonwoods East V, 1954 and Winter Road I, 1963.