El Vado Motel
January 28, 2024
New Mexico has had a hold over me since the mid-1990s when I first traveled through the state. The skies are bluer, the landscape more inviting, and my eyes always seemed more in-focus after my visits. I have explored many corners of the state and have experienced the uniqueness each location portrays. I have traversed Route 66 from east to west and north to south—and have wandered Central Avenue through Albuquerque during so
many visits.
One of my frequent stops—on a long list of places—is the El Vado Motel, first opened in 1937—one of New Mexico’s first motels on Route 66 to welcome travelers. My first encounter was with a tiny roadside motel and its broken neon and cracked walls; to a then closed and shuttered establishment several years later, surrounded by a chain link fence and overgrown brush; to a now thriving and modern boutique hotel. The El Vado stands out with its white-washed adobe in a region where the majority of the architecture is red and earth-toned.
Having stayed at El Vado soon after their renovation, I fell even more in love with the place; staying there (or at their sister property the Monterey Motel) on each subsequent visit. When a large group of friends and I were traveling to New Mexico in October 2022, I insisted that this was one of the places we needed to stay.
During one of the beautiful afternoons, we explored the property with our eyes and our cameras, soaking in the amazing sunsets that New Mexico so often offers up. The light at dusk hit the adobe buildings making them soft and sensual. In the photograph above, the long shadows cast by the vigas became intriguing and inviting. The blue trim matched the intense blue in the sky.
“I think New Mexico was the greatest experience from the outside world that I have ever had.”
– D. H. Lawrence
The photograph of the white adobe walls of the El Vado Motel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was a winner in the New Mexico Magazine photo contest (January/February 2024). This image (and all the winners) are on exhibit through December 2024 and available for purchase at the Tularosa Basin Gallery of Photography in Carrizozo, New Mexico.
I first saw the El Vado Motel sign in 1994 in all its shining glory. The motel was constructed in 1937. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, the property closed in 2005. After much fighting between then owners and the city, the property under new ownership has restored it (and the sign) in 2018. Now a boutique hotel (with rooms and suites), retail stores, food pods, and a new event center, the original motel office has been transformed into the El Vado Tap Room serving local brews.