Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / United States / Santa Fe / Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado Santa Fe
Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States · Four Seasons · High Luxury
The Dalai Lama, John Wayne, Johnny Cash, and Robert Redford all found their way to this former dude ranch in the Sangre de Cristo foothills. Four Seasons took over the 57-acre retreat north of Santa Fe in 2012, carrying forward a house once run by Betty Egan, the first female fire chief in the United States.
- 65 rooms
- Opened 2012
- Neighborhood: Tesuque
- Rooms from 630 sq ft (59 m²)
- Architect: Hart/Howerton, New York & San Francisco
- Interiors: AvroKO & Wilson Associates & Langlois Design
About Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado Santa Fe
- Betty Egan, who ran the ranch for two decades, was also the first female fire chief in the United States.
- The Hooton family's memoir about running the ranch, Guestward Ho, was adapted into a TV series.
- Entry-level rooms start at 630 sq ft (59 m²).
History
The 57 acres in the Tesuque Valley that Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado Santa Fe now occupies have been used as a guest retreat for nearly a century, though the story of the land begins much earlier in the indigenous and Spanish colonial history of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The Tesuque Pueblo, one of the nineteen surviving Rio Grande Pueblos, has occupied the valley floor just south of the property since at least the fourteenth century — a continuous presence that gives the landscape its particular weight of human history.
The formal history of the resort property begins around 1932, when Bess Huntinghouse — a former Harvey Girl who had worked in the Fred Harvey Company's legendary southwestern dining rooms before settling in New Mexico — purchased the land and established Rancho del Monte as a dude ranch. Dude ranches of that era served a specific market: wealthy Easterners seeking the romance of western landscape without sacrificing comfort, a formula that translated naturally to the Santa Fe area with its combination of dramatic scenery, distinctive culture, and proximity to the railroad. The property passed through the Hooton family — whose novel about their experiences running a dude ranch, Guestward Ho, was adapted into a television series — before landing in 1968 with Betty Egan, a Cleveland widow who transformed and renamed it Rancho Encantado.
Egan ran the property as an idiosyncratic personal vision for more than two decades, attracting a remarkable guest list that included the Dalai Lama (who spent nine days here, reportedly on horseback), John Wayne, Johnny Cash and June Carter, Robert Redford (who lived at the ranch while filming The Milagro Beanfield War in the late 1980s), Maria Callas, Jimmy Stewart, and the royal family of Monaco. Egan was also, not incidentally, the first female fire chief in the United States, having founded the Tesuque Volunteer Fire Department while running the ranch. After her death in 1992 the property passed through several owners; the original adobe structures were razed in 2007 and a new resort built on the site. Four Seasons assumed management in July 2012. The current property preserves the name and the orientation toward the Sangre de Cristo foothills while offering 65 casitas across 57 acres, Terra Restaurant's panoramic views across the valley, and a spa program suited to the high desert altitude of approximately 7,000 feet above sea level.
The setting
Located at 198 State Road 592 in Tesuque — 8 miles north of Santa Fe's historic Plaza — the 57-acre property sits within the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Sonoran high desert, near the Santa Fe Opera and 200+ art galleries. 10 miles from Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.
Restaurants and bars
- Terra — Restaurant
- Terra Bar — Bar
Experiences
- Spa with soaking courtyards — 10,000 sq ft spa with 15 treatment rooms and four private soaking courtyards with steam rooms, dry saunas and outdoor showers.
- Restaurant Terra — Contemporary Southwestern cuisine, including a signature paella with bomba saffron rice; Terra Bar offers the Terra Signature Burger.
- Fitness centre and movement studio — 1,200 sq ft fitness centre plus an 800 sq ft movement studio for yoga, pilates and meditation.
- Hiking and biking in the Santa Fe National Forest — Direct access to the Santa Fe National Forest for hiking and biking, plus other year-round outdoor pursuits nearby.
- Santa Fe arts scene — Minutes from Santa Fe's arts community, including 200 art galleries, a dozen museums, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and the Santa Fe Opera.
- Complimentary downtown shuttle — Complimentary shuttle to downtown Santa Fe, leaving every hour, on the hour.
Amenities
- 800 sq ft movement studio for yoga, Pilates, and meditation
- 57 rolling acres with direct access to Santa Fe National Forest for hiking and biking
- Adventure Center led by Adventure Architect Hans Loehr; tailored outdoor excursions
- Complimentary hourly shuttle to downtown Santa Fe (8 miles)
- Kiva fireplaces and outdoor firepits in rooms and terraces; stargazing programs
- Pool
- Hot tub
- Fitness center
- Fine dining
- Pet-friendly
Awards
- AAA Four Diamond (2026)
- Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star (2026)
- New Mexico's Leading Hotel Suite 2025 (World Travel Awards) (2025)
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