Santa Fe Conservation Trust
2026 INSIDER TOURS
Ruins · Artifacts · Views · Historical Sites
Rare opportunities to explore archaeological and geological sites on private land and tucked-away gems in public places.
THE TOURS
Insider Tour Star Party in the Galisteo Basin
Friday, April 17, 2026
6:00pm – 10:00pm
$175 per person, includes drinks and dinner
Join us for a celebration of our dark skies at a private home on conserved land in the Galisteo Basin. Gaze through multiple telescopes and learn from astronomers while enjoying drinks and a Cowgirl-catered dinner. Peter Lipscomb and friends will guide you on a journey through the night sky, exploring the moon, planets, their moons, glowing nebulae, and distant stars.
Insider Geology Tour near La Cienega
Thursday, April 23, 2026
9:30 AM – 2:00 PM (approx.)
$175 per person, includes lunch and half-day tour
Tickets on sale Friday, March 27, 2026
Join local geologist Kirt Kempter for a geologic hike near La Cienega. We will hike approximately 3 miles, including a 400-foot descent into the Santa Fe River canyon. The landscape here is dominated by ancient and young volcanic features. The older volcanoes date back to ~26 million years ago, and include Cerro Seguro, the high point in the area. Younger basalt lavas, approximately 2.5 million years old, are related to the Cerros del Rio volcanic field. The rocks in the La Cienega area tell of volcanoes both ancient and young, plus the rise of the nearby Sangre de Cristo mountains. We will also review the local hydrology, discussing why many natural springs occur in the area. Participants should bring adequate water and hiking gear. Hiking poles recommended.
Insider Archaeology Tour at Posi-Ouinge
Thursday, August 20, 2026
9:00 AM – 2:00 PM (approx.)
$175 per person includes lunch and half-day tour
More details coming soon.
Explore the largest of the Chama River Valley’s pueblo ruins with lithic expert and archaeologist Mary Weahkee (Santa Clara, Comanche). Posi-Ouinge, near Ojo Caliente, was occupied for more than 300 years, had up to 2000 rooms and was abandoned in the 16th century. What was life like for the residents? Why did they leave?
Insider Archaeology Tour at Pueblo San Marcos
Thursday, October 22, 2026
9:00 AM – 2:00 PM (approx.)
$175 per person includes lunch and half-day tour
More details coming soon.
Join us for a tour of Pueblo San Marcos with Dr. Kari Schleher, Director of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at UNM, along with Archaeologist Tamara Stewart, the Southwest Projects Coordinator for The Archaeological Conservancy and Assistant Editor of American Archaeology. One of the largest pre-Columbian settlements in North America, Pueblo San Marcos was occupied between A.D. 1250 and the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, during which time it grew to an estimated 2,000 adobe rooms in 22 room blocks enclosing ten to twelve plazas and including the remains of an early 17th century Spanish Colonial mission and metallurgical smelting features. The site remains highly significant to Pueblo people today, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and has been established as a permanent archaeological preserve in southern Santa Fe County.
This fascinating tour will explore some of the exciting recent research conducted here and the important role the site played in the Galisteo Basin and beyond. A short, easy hike will take participants around the site’s highlights and includes walking on uneven terrain. We will meet at the Lone Butte General Store parking lot nearby on south NM 14 and carpool to the site, bringing appropriate hiking gear and water, including trekking poles as needed. Visitors are asked to be respectful of this ancestral site and, while encouraged to pick up and examine artifacts, to leave all cultural remains where they were found.
ABOUT THE GUIDES
Peter Lipscomb
Peter Lipscomb began his education and advocacy for sensible lighting practices nearly two decades ago. During that time, he has backed legislative actions on the state level, supported outdoor lighting ordinance efforts in Clayton and Union County, Rio Arriba County, and Taos and Taos County. As former Night Sky Program Director for the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Alliance, he compiled the nomination packet to designate Clayton Lake State Park New Mexico’s first International Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association. A 2016 honoree of the Stewart Udall award, today he serves as Cerrillos Hills State park manager and conducts guided night sky tours for residents and visitors to New Mexico as owner of Astronomy Adventures.
Kirt Kempter
Kirt Kempter is a Fulbright Fellow and Ph.D. graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, now living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A volcanologist and field geologist, Kirt has conducted extensive field research in Costa Rica, Mexico, and New Mexico, and has worked with the NASA astronaut training program, providing field geologic training to astronaut candidates. His interest in global geologic processes has allowed him to lead field-oriented expeditions to destinations such as Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Africa, and Antarctica. Kirt has led educational tours for Smithsonian Journeys and National Geographic Expeditions since 1993, and greatly enjoys sharing his passion and knowledge of geology with tour participants. On the side, Kirt particularly enjoys photography, cooking, and tennis.
Mary Weahkee
Mary Motah Weahkee is a member of the Comanche Nation and Santa Clara Pueblo tribes and is a retired archeologist and anthropologist who worked with the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs for many years. She worked on each of the three archaeology projects related to recent building projects along Grant Street: Santa Fe Convention Center, First Presbyterian Church, and Santa Fe County Administration Building. In 2018, Mary Weahkee, was asked to try her hand at a particular task that dates to more than 1,000 years ago: weave a blanket made of turkey feathers. She taught herself the technique, the process of winding each feather around yucca cord, by examining ancient blankets housed at museums around the western United States. She is a mother and grandmother who loves teaching her family and others about aspects of prehistoric and present day Native American cultures.
Mary Weahkee is named after both sides of her family. Her Comanche father’s last name, which was her maiden name, was Motah which loosely translates as plugged nose. On her Pueblo side, Weahkee means the tinkle of a little bell. She was also named after her Comanche grandmother, Mary, who was one of the last medicine women of the Comanche Nation.
Dr. Kari Schleher
Dr. Kari Schleher (Ph.D. University of New Mexico, 2010) is the Curator of Archaeology at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. Kari’s first experience at Crow Canyon was as a field research intern at Shields Pueblo in 1999. She worked in the lab at Crow Canyon from 2011 through 2020 as the Laboratory Analysis Manager and then the Laboratory Manager. She incorporates data from Crow Canyon projects in her research on pottery in the Ancestral Pueblo world.
Kari’s research interests include the archaeology of the southwest US and especially the history of Ancestral Pueblo communities in New Mexico and Colorado. Her major focus is on studies of material culture, especially pottery, and what these artifacts can teach us about what life was like the past. She is especially interested in using scientific studies of materials and methods used to make pottery to better understand choices made by potters in the past. Over the past 20 years, she’s worked on archaeological projects, both in the field and in the lab, from across the southwest, with an emphasis on the north central Rio Grande region of New Mexico and the Mesa Verde region of southwest Colorado.
Tamara Stewart
Tamara holds a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Science in Archaeology and has more than 25 years of professional experience in the Southwest, with particular emphasis on the Galisteo Basin of southern Santa Fe County and northern and central New Mexico. She has authored and co-authored hundreds of cultural resource management reports and management plans, State and National Register nominations, and National Historic Landmark nominations. Tamara recently completed the National Register Multiple Property documentation form (MPDF) Cultural Landscape of the Greater Galisteo Basin, North-Central NM. Tamara additionally works as Southwest Projects Coordinator and Assistant Editor for the non-profit preservation organization The Archaeological Conservancy and their nationally-distributed quarterly publication American Archaeology magazine.