As we clambered up a steep ridge above New Mexico’s high desert, a double-pinnacle formation, perched on a mesa, loomed against a cerulean sky: Chimney Rocks.

A squint of the eyes made it abundantly clear how these magnificent spires once inspired artist Georgia O’Keeffe to create one of her iconic paintings, “The Cliff Chimneys.”

“Takes your breath away,” I remarked to Lisa, my wife — and I wasn’t referring to the 7,100-foot elevation.

We were hiking on trails at Ghost Ranch, a 20,000-acre retreat north of Santa Fe where O’Keeffe frequently visited and eventually lived some three-quarters of a century ago. She interpreted on canvas a world of red rock, sand and sage, and made the landscape so uniquely her own that today this section of the American Southwest often is called “O’Keeffe Country.”

Our hike was one of the highlights of a six-day visit to the New Mexico capital city earlier this month that perfectly combined culture with outdoor recreation.

Founded by Spanish colonists in 1610 and situated on a 7,199–foot plateau, Santa Fe not only stands as America’s oldest and highest state capital, but it also serves as an art/music/culinary hub. We spent our days hiking and evenings attending concerts and bistro performances, interspersed with visits to galleries, museums and historic sites.

We also paid homage to the late artist Tommy Macaione, who was born in New London in 1907 and moved to Santa Fe in 1952. A one-time barber, he typically painted outdoors, becoming such a popular, eccentric personality that his adopted city named a downtown park for him. There, a bronze statue portrays Macaione at the easel, with his dog snoozing at his feet.

It was gratifying to see a number of other tourists strolling through Tommy Macaione Park stop to take pictures of the statue — even if we were disappointed to observe that an adjacent plaque still incorrectly identifies his birthplace as Boston.

Steven Slosberg, a former Day columnist who visited Santa Fe more than a decade ago, had alerted authorities about the error, but it was never corrected.

The only response was from another newspaper columnist, Tom Sharpe of the Santa Fe New Mexican: “Most Santa Fe monuments have mistakes and corrections. It's tradition!”

Slosberg chronicled Macaione’s rise in popularity during the 1980s, when Gov. Bruce King organized the first major exhibition of his works, the city recognized Macaione as a Santa Fe Living Treasure and the Museum of Fine Arts (now the New Mexico Museum of Art) hosted a lavish 80th-birthday celebration. A front-page story in The Santa Fe Reporter quoted Macaione boasting that he could still complete two paintings a day despite his advanced age: “I can paint like a house on fire!”

A diminutive, bearded street artist who whimsically launched a number of unsuccessful campaigns for mayor, city council, governor, Senate, House of Representatives and president, often on his self-proclaimed "Mutual Happiness Society" ticket, Macaione was known by many locals as “El Diferente.” That’s quite a distinction in a municipality nicknamed “The City Different.”

Even years after his death in 1992 at age 84, Santa Fe celebrated his Nov. 13 birthday as “Tommy Macaione Day.” In 2006 Mayor David Coss issued a proclamation that read, “His message of rejoicing in our differences to build a stronger community is as relevant now as it was during his lifetime.”

Art in Santa Fe remains in sharp focus today, particularly in galleries along Canyon Road, and atop Museum Hill, home of the Museum of International Folk Art, the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, Museum of Indian Arts & Culture and the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. Statues, sculptures and murals also abound throughout the city.

The central Plaza, meanwhile, is a popular venue for street musicians; numerous cafes and restaurants also feature performers ranging from folksingers to Native American drummers to flamenco guitarists. In addition, we attended a dazzling, season-opening concert of the Santa Fe Symphony.

Any of these experiences would have made our visit rewarding, but the icing on the cake were hikes at the aforementioned Ghost Ranch; as well as to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in Pueblo de Cochiti west of Santa Fe, and at Hyde Memorial State Park in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains overlooking the city.

New Englanders accustomed to dense, deciduous forests and granite mountains should experience the Southwest’s wide open spaces surrounded by red rock towers, hoodoos, spires and other phantasmagorical stone formations. And as much as I savor the fragrance of balsam fir along the trails of Vermont’s Green Mountains, I couldn’t stop inhaling the bouquet of sage bushes in New Mexico’s high desert.

The highest peak in the Northeast, New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, rises only to 6,288 feet; we scrambled to 9,440 feet on the Hyde Park Circle Trail just outside Santa Fe — and could see several nearby summits in the Sangre de Cristos that towered thousands of feet taller.

All in all, Santa Fe is a peak experience.