Canyon Road SANTA FE’S MOST FAMOUS HALF MILE Some streets are simply a thoroughfare; they provide a way to travel from one place to another. Every once in a while though, a street is catapulted to something beyond a basic means of transportation. It develops its own allure and status beyond the lined pavement. Think New York’s Wall Street, Paris’ Champs-Élysées or San Francisco’s curvy Lombard Street. Santa Fe also has its own larger-than-life lane: Canyon Road.
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hough only a short half mile long, Canyon Road is home to more than 100 art galleries, boutiques and restaurants. It attracts tourists year round from all over the world with its quintessential adobe architecture and world class array of paintings, indoor and outdoor sculptures, glass, jewelry, clothing, accessories, home furnishings, gifts, antiques, rugs, folk art and crafts. Canyon Road wasn’t always prime retail real estate winding back into the scenic Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Once, it was just another residential neighborhood until the artists started arriving,
drawn by the light and setting. For people like Georgia O’Keefe, Santa Fe was an ideal place to derive inspiration. In fact, many of the galleries and shops are in what were formerly family homes. This tradition continues to this day. Writers, artists and artisans of all varieties flock to Santa Fe because the area practically screams creativity. And the heart of the hubbub is Canyon Road, snaking off the plaza toward the mountains as it has done for well over 100 years.