Photo: Matt Briney/Unsplash
Santa Fe to Sedona is one of the country's great road trips, and not just for the scenery. The route traces a corridor of Indigenous history, contemporary art, archaeological sites, and canyon wilderness that doesn't have a real equivalent anywhere else in the U.S.—and ends with a few days in one of the better places in the country to do absolutely nothing.
The itinerary below leans into a slow, steady pace that capitalizes on the area's mesmerizing landscapes and TK. Mornings are for hiking Bandelier's canyon trails or watching Monument Valley's sandstone mesas ignite at sunset; afternoons drift toward gallery crawls on Canyon Road or long lunches at the kind of family-owned restaurants where red or green (or Christmas, if you can't decide) is a ritual, not a question. By the time you reach Sedona for a few wellness-focused days, the pace of the desert will have done half the work already.
Road trip highlights from Santa Fe to Sedona, Arizona
Photo: Jake Johnson/Unsplash
Driving through the American Southwest’s high-desert light and rugged beauty makes it easy to see where local artists find their inspiration. Give yourself enough time to lean into the region’s languid pace.
In Santa Fe, ease into the Canyon Road scene with a visit to Turner Carroll Gallery. Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return is a can’t-miss for its trippy interactive installations, while The Shed is a family-owned local favorite for enchiladas. (Red sauce is the restaurant’s signature, though no one will look at you sideways if you request them Christmas style.) Set aside a day for hiking and inspecting the archeological sites of Bandelier National Monument.
Choose your detour: Taos Pueblo, a UNESCO World Heritage site, for fry bread and Indigenous art; Taos for the Millicent Rogers Museum’s 7,000-plus artifacts; or Chimayo for its historic church and handwoven textiles influenced by Hispanic and Tewa traditions.
In Arizona, take in the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park and the Four Corners Monument, where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado all intersect. If possible, time your visit for sunset, when the Martian-like landscape’s red sandstone buttes and mesas seem to ignite with fiery color.
End your road trip with a few wellness-focused days in Sedona. Cathedral Rock and Boynton Canyon invite reflection during morning vortex hikes, and Latin restaurant Mariposa lets you unwind with a farm-to-table dinner and red rock views.
Where to stay
Photo courtesy of Bishop's Lodge, Auberge Collection
Bishop’s Lodge, Auberge Resorts Collection, is a meticulously restored 19th-century estate on 317 acres of Santa Fe’s Sangre de Cristo foothills, with a historic chapel and al fresco art classes.
Ambiente, A Landscape Hotel is a design-forward adults-only property that sits low in the Sedona landscape—angular, quiet, and built to disappear into the desert it overlooks.
