Trippy Santa Fe at Meow Wolf

We r looking for you.

Same.

We are by the fridge.

Ok, not sure how to get back there. I am by the end of the dryer, heading to fridge.

To people who have visited Meow Wolf, this text exchange will make sense. (It makes me laugh.) Otherwise, probably not. But where else can you open a clothes dryer, slide in and down, ending up in an alternative world? Or open a refrigerator, walk right in and through, entering another portal into to a fantasy land.

Opened in 2016, Meow Wolf Santa Fe (there are newer knockoffs in Denver and Las Vegas) boasts 70 rooms of “immersive art” from a psychedelic cave to a moonscape, haunted forests, a fantastical treehouse, anime alcove, video light show and so much more, excess being a key aesthetic — created by Santa Fe artists, who must have very strange dreams at night? (And I likely will tonight too.)

It’s a crazy, trippy place, in a former bowling alley on the edge of Santa Fe, a so-called immersive art experience, with no prescribed course. You wander wherever strikes your fancy, through tiny alcoves with psychedelic art and light and sound shows, up and down narrow staircases, along curving passageways.

What I liked most was the sense of entering an alternative universe at every turn. You walk into an old-fashioned, conventional two-story haunted house (aka House of Eternal Return) but you can leave at any moment. Crawl through the living room fireplace or walk through a clothes closet or slide down the dryer or pass though the refrigerator and you are in a strange fantasy land, each portal leading you to yet another bizarre scape. And tantalizing you with views of other environs to explore below and above, if you can only figure out how to get there. For Game of Thrones fans, yes there is a connection to Meow Wolf. Thrones author George R.R. Martin, who lives in Santa Fe, helped this fantasy land take flight. Perfect fit.

We had a far more conventional experience dining at La Choza, which has delicious Mexican and New Mexican food including my favorite new mocktail made with grapefruit juice.