Leave I-25 behind and take the legendary Turquoise Trail. Designated a National Scenic Byway, this Albuquerque-to-Santa Fe drive clocks in at just over 50 miles, yet it feels worlds away from the freeway hustle. The road trip is hypnotic, weaving through piñon-dotted hills, volcanic outcrops, and two of New Mexico’s most fascinating historic mining towns — Cerrillos and Madrid.
For Santa Fe day trips, these two neighboring communities offer an authentic Southwest experience unlike any other, within just minutes of each other.
History of the Turquoise Trail Mining Districts
Carved from a volcanic up-thrust of some 34 million years ago, the Cerrillos Hills hold copper-rich veins of turquoise, silver, and lead. Native American turquoise mining began around 900 CE when Keres and Tano Puebloans were extracting vivid blue stones and trading chalchihuitl — turquoise prized for medicine and ceremony — across the Southwest and into Mesoamerica, making the area the oldest center of turquoise mining in New Mexico.
In addition to turquoise, Ancestral Puebloans also mined for galena, which contains silver and other minerals, which they used to create glazes for fine pottery. Their hand-dug pits and stone hammer fragments still dimple the ridges today, reminders that turquoise mining in New Mexico predates written history by nearly a millennium.
When Spain seized the area in the early 1600s, Spanish colonists began extracting turquoise, silver, and lead alongside Native miners, laying the foundations of Spanish mining history along this “Real de Los Cerrillos” that later informed U.S. mining law.
Then, bituminous coal was discovered in the area in the early 1830s. Initially the coal was used to power gold mines in Dolores, New Mexico, home of the West’s first gold rush. Intermittent and small-scale mining continued in what became known as Coal Bank (later, Coal Gulch, then Madrid), and by 1879, the area had become known as the Cerrillos Mining District. It is often cited as the oldest documented mining district in the American West.
Anthracite coal was discovered in the area in the mid-1880s, coinciding with the arrival of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company (AT&SF) to New Mexico. The mines near Coal Bank began to produce on a larger, commercial scale and by the early 1890s, a spur line was built from Waldo Junction, connecting the town that was later called Madrid to the main AT&SF line.
Industrial fever peaked after 1870, when American prospectors drove hundreds of shafts into the Ortiz range and left behind headframes, powder magazines, and wagon ruts now interpreted at local mining museums.
Coal from Madrid mines lit the first night baseball games west of the Mississippi, and illuminated Christmas displays across the entire town, including its Christmas Toyland displays of oversized cutouts of popular fairy tale characters which allegedly inspired Walt Disney. When the coal market collapsed in 1954, Madrid slipped onto the list of ghost towns in New Mexico — until artists revived it in the 1970s.
Cerrillos: Living Museum of the Old West
Step into Cerrillos and you step back in time. The story of Cerrillos begins with the Cerrillos Turquoise Mines, operational for over 1,200 years and considered the oldest continuously worked mines in North America.
This authentic Old West village exemplifies what a real frontier town looked like in the 1800s. In the late 1880s, a Tiffany & Company mineralogist/gemologist showed a collection of jewelry featuring Cerrillos turquoise in Paris, gaining worldwide attention, and turquoise became valued as a natural gem commodity.
In the subsequent mining heyday, Cerrillos was home to 21 saloons and four hotels. Stroll the dirt Main Street, pop into the Casa Grande Trading Post & Mining Museum, or hike the Cerrillos Hills State Park, where mine shafts, petroglyphs, and sweeping Galisteo Basin views share the same trails.
Outdoor Recreation in Cerrillos
Just west of town, Cerrillos Hills State Park protects 1,100 acres laced with five miles of hiking trails winding past ancient petroglyphs, abandoned mine shafts, and panoramic views of the Galisteo Basin, including views of the Sandia, Ortiz, Jemez, and Sangre de Cristo mountain ranges.
At the trailhead you’ll find trail guides and horseback-riding outfitters (Broken Saddle Riding Company) by day, and plenty of opportunities for stargazing by night. The park’s five-mile trail network includes interpretive signs detailing the area’s geological formations and the mining techniques used through the ages.
Grab a prickly-pear soda from the mercantile, then wander up the hills in town to two atmospheric 1880s cemeteries whose wrought-iron crosses lean into the high-desert breeze –– Los Cerrillos Protestant Cemetery and the Cerrillos Catholic Cemetery, the latter of which is still actively maintained and used by the area’s Catholic families today.
Things to Do in Cerrillos:
Los Cerrillos offers several things to do near Santa Fe. Key outdoor activities, historical landmarks, and interesting places to visit in Los Cerrillos include:
Casa Grande Trading Post & Mining Museum – A 28-room adobe packed with antique mining tools, the Southwest’s largest public display of Cerrillos turquoise, and a petting zoo for kids of every age featuring a llama, goats, and chickens.
Cerrillos Hills State Park – Hike, ride, or bird-watch among centuries-old diggings, with 1,100 acres and five miles of hiking and multi-use trails offering sweeping views.
Cerrillos Station – A restored depot with handmade jewelry, art, and vintage curios, plus a Thursday afternoon farmers market.
Clear Light Opera House / Kludgit Sound – Built of limestone for touring stars like Sarah Bernhardt, this 1880s opera house now houses Kludgit Sound, one of New Mexico’s legendary multitrack recording studios.
Garden of the Gods Overlook – A few miles north of Cerrillos along the Turquoise Trail, pull off at New Mexico’s Garden of the Gods Overlook from which you can see giant russet boulders erupting from piñon foothills. These multicolored sandstone fins are striking in both the early morning light and at sunset.
Historic Main Street – Wander dusty lanes lined with Territorial adobes, enjoy coffee in a former saloon, and see façades familiar from Western film sets.
Indigo Gallery – A light-filled adobe on the Turquoise Trail exhibiting nationally known painters, sculptors, and jewelers amid roadside sculpture gardens.
Firehouse Studio – This old village firehouse was reborn as a micro-gallery featuring mica wall art, jewelry, and other handmade curios.
Mary’s Bar (est. 1903) – One of New Mexico’s oldest saloons is still serving cold beer and local lore from its weather-beaten wooden bar.
Museum of Encaustic Art – The world’s only encaustic-focused museum, displaying more than 450 wax artworks in a hillside compound.
Origami in the Garden – Monumental bronze “paper” sculptures unfold across a 10-acre canyon garden that reopens each May and also produces traveling exhibitions.
Seftel Gallery – Artist Paul Seftel’s 1880s adobe hides a secret garden, camera obscura, and high-tea art experience behind its walls.
St. Joseph Catholic Church (Iglesia de San José) – A circa-1885 adobe-stone church whose bell tower still anchors Cerrillos’ skyline and community life.
Film Locations
The Old West charm of Cerrillos, its well-preserved 19th-century architecture, and its local film-making resources have made Cerrillos a favorite location for filmmakers.
Just to the north along the scenic byway from Cerrillos are the Bonanza Ranch, Eaves Movie Ranch, and Double Diamond Ranch, as well as Mortensons’ Silver and Saddlery which supplies horses, talented riders, and authentic equipment for iconic film scenes.
Film buffs will recognize the iconic imagery of dust rising from Cerrillos’ dirt streets from the pilot of Longmire (2011), Netflix’s Chambers (2018), and dozens of Westerns shot at nearby Bonanza Creek Ranch. Here are just a few more:
- The Cheyenne Social Club (1970) starring James Stewart filmed at local ranches, including the J.W. Eaves Movie Ranch
- Young Guns (1988) utilized Main Street’s false-front buildings and dirt streets
- Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden (2012)
- Dark Winds (2023 – 2025) AMC Network Series
Cerrillos remains one of New Mexico’s most authentic Old West communities, with a small year-round population that treasures its peaceful setting and historic charm. There’s so much to explore and discover in Cerrillos; come wander along the six dirt streets of this Wild West town and you’re sure to find surprises.
Madrid: A Coal Camp and Ghost Town, Reborn as an Artist Village
Just down the road, Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid) has transformed from an abandoned coal town into a vibrant, creative community. Its colorful main street is lined with over 40 galleries, shops, and restaurants, anchored by the famous Mine Shaft Tavern.
Madrid’s magic comes from its contradictions. In 1892, the community which had become known as Coal Gulch was connected to the Santa Fe Railroad and by 1894 became the Albuquerque and Cerrillos Coal Company town of Madrid.
A major stop along the Santa Fe Railroad in the 1800s, the company town became home to AA Minor League Baseball team the Madrid Miners, formed by Superintendent Oscar Huber to boost worker morale.
Initially they played on open fields, then they played in Oscar Huber Ballpark, built in 1920 by the worker-funded employees club of the coal company. During this period of the 1920s, the company town strung 40,000 Christmas lights across its ballpark and hillsides, staging nativity panoramas that drew special Santa Fe Railroad excursions.
With a cheap source of electricity being pulled forth daily from the mountain, Oscar Huber Memorial Ballpark was the first lighted ballpark west of the Mississippi. The ballpark’s grandstand, with a tin roof, was added in 1928, with the Miners then playing their first night game lit by coal-powered electricity, seven years before the first Major League Baseball game was played under lights at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Extensive stonework was later added by the WPA in 1935. In Madrid’s heyday, as many as 6,000 visitors per event attended ball games, rodeos, multicultural events, and the Christmas Toyland celebrations.
The 1950s coal market collapse after World War II left Madrid abandoned, becoming a virtual ghost town, until artists began revitalizing its vacant miners’ cabins in the 1970s.
Bohemian Renaissance
Today more than 40 galleries, cafés, and boutiques occupy former miners’ shacks along what is known as the Main Street of Madrid (NM-14). With gravel and dirt side streets and alleyways, the village of Madrid’s blueprint is 0.6 square miles, easily explored on foot after you park.
At the heart of Madrid’s Main Street beats the Mine Shaft Tavern, which opened in 1947. It is New Mexico’s longest continually-operated bar and is home of a legendary green-chile cheeseburger, 12 taps of New-Mexican microbrews, and live music every weekend.
Cultural Calendar Highlights
Culture spills outdoors, too. The Oscar Huber Memorial Ballpark, one of America’s last wooden-grandstand minor-league fields, hosts movie nights and vintage-baseball exhibitions.
- CrawDaddy Blues Fest (May): Three-day music festival drawing national acts
- Madrid Art Festival (October): Studio tours and interactive workshops
- Madrid Christmas Light Parade (December): Continuing the 1920s tradition with 50,000+ LED lights and live nativity scenes
Must-do Attractions in Madrid
Tour the Madrid Old Coal Town Museum and its Engine House Theater, where a 1901 steam locomotive, mine cars, and other artifacts, plus weekend performances, share the same cavernous space. The Engine House Theater is also the original site for Joe West’s Theater of Death. Since 2021, the traveling troupe plays various venues in and around Santa Fe and tickets are quickly sold-out, due in part to the reputation it built at its popular Madrid performances.
Madrid’s cinematic resumé rivals its art scene. The 1969 classic biker movie, Easy Rider, was filmed here, as well as David Bowie’s landing scene in the cult classic, The Man Who Fell to Earth. Disney’s road-trip comedy, Wild Hogs, also used the town as a backdrop. Maggie’s Diner, a set built for the latter film, now sells souvenirs to bikers on Turquoise Trail road trips to visit this iconic spot.
Madrid’s artistic energy continues to attract creatives from across the country. Owning a restored miner’s cabin or century-old adobe can be quite an adventure.
Planning Your Turquoise Trail Day Trip
Just 20 minutes south of Santa Fe, find yourself on the Turquoise Trail from which you can reach Cerrillos to tour the Casa Grande Mining Museum and hike one or more of the
several trails in Cerrillos Hills State Park, including the mile-long Jane Calvin Sanchez Trail — perfect for a half-day excursion into art, history, and high-desert views.
Then, roll three and a half miles farther south to Madrid for a gallery stroll and a green-chile cheeseburger at the Mine Shaft Tavern. Slow down as soon as you enter the Madrid limits for, as you round the corner from north or south of town, the traffic on the NM 14 scenic byway slows to a gentle crawl. Pull over, stretch your legs, and breathe in the atmosphere of this colorful scene. The center of town is people-watching paradise.
If time allows, continue the loop from Santa Fe to Albuquerque via Highway 14; in three to five unrushed hours kiytyou can thread past the ghost town of Golden, pause for photographs at Sandia Crest’s 10,678-foot overlook, and linger in both Madrid and Cerrillos before gliding back into the City Different.
Spring wildflowers on the Cerrillos Hills, fiery cottonwoods along Galisteo Creek in October, and Madrid’s dazzling holiday lights in December each lend NM-14 scenic byway a distinct personality. Plan a morning excursion, a full day, or an immersive long weekend –– the Turquoise Trail promises new colors, stories, and surprises anytime of the year.
Answer the Call of the Turquoise Trail
Visiting for a day or considering making one of these charming villages your home? The Turquoise Trail offers an authentic slice of New Mexico that stays with you long after you leave –– featuring ancient turquoise mines, gallery-packed boardwalks, dark-sky hikes, and chile-smothered tavern fare. Come for a day or drop anchor — this is New Mexico at its raw, authentic best.
This article was posted by Jess
