A favorite place to visit when you go to Santa Fe is the Flea Market located 8 miles N on 84/285. Given those directions from a tour book, you may wonder how you are going to find this place once you hit the 5 mile mark. You'll chuckle when the next exit sign shows "Flea Market Drive" coming up. All-in-all you will have a delightful time spent browsing the various jewelry, spice, clothing, and art vendors. You will get some incredible bargains, as well as the chance to meet many local people and eat some great local food. A must see. Open on weekends only.
Just a few miles north of Santa Fe on the road to Tesuque is the Shidoni Gallery and Sculpture Garden. They have several acres of large sculptures on display for sale. There is no charge to walk around. Both the size and price will prevent you from taking one home, but they like to have people walking around looking. Try and be there on a Saturday when they do their "pours". You can watch them actually pouring molten metal into the sculpture molds. There is also an indoor gallery on the premises and an interesting glass blowing facility next to the sculpture garden. A visitor can easily spend an hour or more there. Get driving directions in Santa Fe. This area is definitely not walking distance from the plaza.
