At the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, where piñon and juniper scrub gives way to the high desert plateau north of Santa Fe, a cluster of stepped pueblo-revival casitas spreads across 57 acres of the Santa Fe National Forest. Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado, which opened in 2009 on the site of a historic guest ranch that Betty Egan ran for decades through the mid-twentieth century, was designed to feel less like a hotel arrival than a re-entry into the landscape itself. The architecture — earth-toned stucco massing, flat rooflines punctuated by rounded parapet forms, exposed timber vigas, and red-cedar pergolas — takes its cues directly from Pueblo and Spanish Colonial building traditions, the walls reading the same ochre and umber as the surrounding mesa. Inside the 65 casitas and suites, bleached pine vigas cross cream plaster ceilings above dark walnut floors, and kiva-style corner fireplaces anchor each room in a material warmth that goes well beyond regional decoration. The furnishings draw on a considered palette — terracotta upholstery, Navajo-influenced geometric rugs in red and charcoal, cowhide accent pillows — that places the property in the tradition of collected Southwestern interiors rather than manufactured resort theming. The restaurant's double-height volume, dressed in local stone and animated by clusters of glass-and-iron pendant lanterns, frames the Jemez Mountains at dusk with an unforced theatricality that feels entirely native to this part of New Mexico.

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