Thanks. That puts Santa Fe up there. We are driving this round to avoid the Rona. It's about 15 hours to Santa Fe and 17 to Breck. If we go to Colorado, we might drop down and go through Albuquerque on the way home.
If you decide on New Mexico, let me know and I'll give you a list of restaurants, specific foods to try and some wineries and breweries worth hitting up.
As far as the wineries, New Mexico has some really great ones on par with California, Washington State and Arizona. Frankly imo the wineries around Santa Fe and Albuquerque (Gruet, St Clair, Casa Rondena and Black Mesa in particular) are some of the best in the country especially if you like hotter weather grapes like Zinfandel, Syrah/Shiraz, and Tempranillo. I definitely liked the wines better in New Mexico than the more famous "Texas Hill Country" and Niagara wine regions.
And as far as food goes, once you've had actual New Mexican food you'll realize just how sh^*ty TexMex is. Getting some chillaquilles or huevo ranchers covered in a Christmas sauce made that day from fresh Hatch chili's just blows away the straight from a can Tex Mex stuff you usually get. The red chili ribs famously invented at El Pinto's but available all over New Mexico are incredible. I highly recommend the ribs at Sadies as well, but it's better to stretch it out and get the original at El Pintos then go to Sadie's for some handmade blue corn tortilla enchiladas. And the specialty of New Mexico the Hatch chili cheeseburger? It's found in abundance and always great even at local chain restaurants like Blake's Lotaburger. And the Christmas or Green sauce breakfast burritos at Tia Sophias are the best singular breakfast item I've had other than the pork chillaquilles at MartAnne's in Flagstaff Arizona and the Spam Loco Moco at Ken's House of Pancakes in Hilo, Hawaii.
![Red-Chile-Ribs-at-El-Pinto.jpg](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi0.wp.com%2Fthenexttrip.xyz%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F09%2FRed-Chile-Ribs-at-El-Pinto.jpg&hash=ad26248fc0008f10d742210629ce1506)
![new_mexico+058b.jpg](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F_NLo6sXVHd3o%2FTFlcPWOg_qI%2FAAAAAAAAASA%2FZMyRfIyIGzg%2Fs1600%2Fnew_mexico%2B058b.jpg&hash=ccc9939a4292927041d6b4ac532b8f42)
![47e18b10406598bb8fbc7466c42e9334.jpg](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F47%2Fe1%2F8b%2F47e18b10406598bb8fbc7466c42e9334.jpg&hash=09c6b17a58da2942962e7ea6c98fd4eb)
![348s.jpg](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fs3-media0.fl.yelpcdn.com%2Fbphoto%2Fgy7BLExAUONiT0W8RKIEnA%2F348s.jpg&hash=0a76ab3a3bf3bf2bdb566fd90b48aea3)
![GreenChileDouble-2.jpg](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.squarespace-cdn.com%2Fcontent%2Fv1%2F5c378c9e297114d62a28a94a%2F1562858883859-8C7UU5297QE0X7J6TPJ9%2Fke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kKQ1xBlOM7WxMkwWe95lhjkUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKcMqQWq0cYjfM5jLBa0sz3Rt9dqOJw0ABqnOEeS16cazGmwmKtXae4XX90fwiq1GqX%2FGreenChileDouble-2.jpg%3Fformat%3D1500w&hash=e02f7e14a7882b6c1a2cfb467fbf19f7)