Start from 16 curated places around Chama, NM, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Fina's Diner
Chama's top-rated restaurant, a family-run diner on Highway 17 serving hearty New Mexican and American breakfasts and lunches — green-chile-smothered burritos, skillets, and eggs done right for a high-country morning. The locals' daily anchor and the most-praised spot in a village with few options.
Foster's Hotel & Restaurant
A historic 1880s hotel, restaurant, and saloon by the river, one of the oldest businesses in town, serving hearty American plates and reputedly home to a ghost or two. As much a piece of Chama history as a meal.
Trails & outdoors
Chama River Walk
An easy, flat path along the Rio Chama through the edge of the village behind the train depot, shaded by cottonwoods and good for a relaxed stretch of the legs between train and meals. The simplest walk in town, with the river and the mountains as backdrop.
Rio Chama Trail, Heron Lake State Park
A moderate trail from Heron Lake State Park down along the Rio Chama gorge, crossing a swinging suspension bridge over the river toward El Vado, through pinon and ponderosa with canyon views. The area's signature day-hike, on a sailing-only 'quiet lake.'
Things to do
Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad
A 1880s coal-fired narrow-gauge steam train, the longest and highest in the country, climbing from Chama over 10,015-foot Cumbres Pass to Antonito, Colorado, through aspen, gorges, and the Toltec tunnel. The reason Chama is on the map and one of the great train rides anywhere.
Heron Lake State Park
A 'quiet waters' (no-wake) reservoir southwest of town ringed by ponderosa, prized for sailing, kayaking, fishing, and bald-eagle watching in winter. The serene lake escape, free of roaring motorboats.
Landmarks & sights
Downtown Chama
A few blocks of weathered wood-and-tin storefronts along Terrace Avenue, a genuine high-country railroad village that hasn't been gentrified, with the steam-train depot and yard at its heart. Small, unpolished, and authentic, the whole point of Chama.
Tierra Amarilla
A historic Hispano village south of Chama, the Rio Arriba county seat, with adobe homes, an old courthouse, and the nearby weaving village of Los Ojos, all rooted in centuries-old land-grant culture. A quiet, atmospheric drive into northern New Mexico's deep Hispanic heritage.