First Stars III - Activities in Santa Fe

First Stars III
July 16-20, 2007
Santa Fe, NM

Activities

Contact:
Brian O'Shea
505-606-1617

First Stars III

Activities in and around Santa Fe

Santa Fe is within driving distance of Taos, Los Alamos, and Albuquerque. Local attractions include the Georgia O'Keefe Museum and the Santa Fe Opera, which will be running during First Stars III. The 2007 season schedule can be found here, and note that it is advisable to purchase tickets well in advance. In addition, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival will be taking place at the time of First Stars III. Those who are more physically inclined may be interested in hiking Bandelier National Monument, which contains a large number of Native American archeological sites.

Useful tourism resources:

Food: Salman Habib maintains a web page listing many of the excellent restaurants in the Santa Fe area. A large number of them are within walking distance of the La Fonda hotel - the hotel concierge can provide you with a map and suggestions.

Cosmology Workshop: First Stars III will overlap with the Santa Fe Cosmology Workshop, which will be held on July 2nd-20th. We encourage FS3 participants to consider also attending the workshop (and vice versa).

Possible hiking opportunities: Alex Heger has suggested several possible hikes for people who arriving a few days before, or departing a few days after, the conference. Possibilities are below - please email Alex if you are interested.

1) Deception Peak/Lake Peak (Sunday, July 15).
Starting at the Santa Fe Ski Area parking lot (10,300') hike to Deception Peak (12,300', 2h), from there back down (1h) or continue to Lake Peak (12,400', adds some 1-2h). Start hike at 6:00am (leave Santa Fe at ~5:00am) The road to the Santa Fe ski hill is also popular to bike up.

2) Wheeler Peak (13,161'), highest point in NM (Saturday, July 21).
Start at Taos Ski Area parking lot (9,200') or at the Bavarian Restaurant (10,000', authentic unfriendly service but unauthentically bad food). Hike to Wheeler peak (5h or 3h). Return one of the routes. Start hike at 6am (leave Santa Fe at ~4am).

3) Sandia Peak.
Start at Sandia Peak Tramway parking lot (~6,300'). Hike to Tramway mountain station (~10,300', 5-6h). Take tramway down (15 min, $9). Start hike at 6am (leave Santa Fe at ~5am). While there is possibly less of an issue with thunderstorms, it does get really hot in Summer when starting too late. There is a reasonable restaurant directly at the tramway station at the top of the mountain. If you have a late flight on Saturday afternoon or evening, this hike could be done in the morning. Or you an just take the tramway up the mountain, walk a bit around, visit the restaurant.