Getting the flavor of ... Georgia O’Keeffe’s New Mexico, and more

Georgia O’Keeffe’s New Mexico

Despite being a native of Wisconsin and a longtime figure on the New York art scene, Georgia O’Keeffe considered rural New Mexico her true home, said Elaine Glusac in The New York Times. The painter resided there from 1949 until her death, in 1986, and the state’s desert landscape inspired her most important work. There’s no better place to start an “O’Keeffe-country tour” than at Santa Fe’s Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, which houses more than 1,100 of her artworks. The museum runs tours of her 5,000-square-foot former home and studio, which is located 60 miles away in Abiquiu. “To investigate O’Keeffe’s inspiration further, leave the guides behind.” Venture to nearby Ghost Ranch, a “21,000-acre spread,” where she owned another home. In Ranchos de Taos, stop to see the San Francisco de Asis Church, which featured prominently in several of her paintings. Contact: Okeeffemuseum.org

Alabama’s unearthly pleasures

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For most travelers, Huntsville, Ala., remains “under the radar,” said Becky Krystal in The Washington Post. Yet this small city in north-central Alabama has a fascinating history, from its founding by a Revolutionary War veteran to the prominent role it played in the American space program. Nicknamed “Rocket City,” Huntsville is home to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, a museum and educational facility with an enormous old Saturn V rocket towering over its premises. Yet Huntsville also offers plenty of “earthbound attractions,” including impressive 20th-century mansions and a “vast collection of antebellum homes.” An estate called Burritt on the Mountain, built in the 1930s, today serves as a “regional museum with a lofty perch overlooking the city.” And at the Huntsville Botanical Garden, you can breathe in the “heavily perfumed air synonymous with the South.” Contact: Huntsville.org