Taos

June 12-21, 2021

TL;DR: Taos is a pretty charming place, with plenty of cute towns, drives, and hikes nearby to keep us busy. Also had reliable margaritas, quite a few wonderful restaurants, and some surprise shopping wins. Would be neat to see in winter when the ski mountain gets its 300 average inches of snow.

The stats

Hikes: 3
Hiking miles: 8.3 (944 ft elevation)
Miles in Eric: 485
Miles in Layla: 123
Circles of Enchantment: 1
Seatbelts fixed: 1
Rocky Mountain Junipers seen: 89
Margaritas enjoyed: 18

The sights

Taos

The town of Taos is quite cute, and there’s much more than meets the eye when you drive through town. For example, Bent Street runs parallel to the main drag and is so charming, with restaurants, coffee shops, stores, and a gorgeous display of flowers. Runs right up into Alley Cantina, which also has limited hours but is a cool spot with an indoor sunroof/greenhouse feel.

Also walked down LeDoux, which was quiet but reminiscent of the smaller, quainter streets of Santa Fe, with galleries and a museum.

Stopped at the Taos Mesa Brewing tap room, which had a nice outdoor patio and good beer and pizza. A lovely place to watch the crazy clouds during sunset, which were huge and multi-colored.

Taos Plaza is a bit commercial, but holds a great farmer’s market with lots of gorgeous produce, gifts, and food.

Since most places here are still closed Sunday-Tuesday, we were a bit out of luck while Jess’s brother was here, but we settled on The Gorge Bar and Grill, where we got lots of different margaritas and chose some nice whiskeys from an extensive list.

Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument

Though part of the monument was closed due to construction while we were here, it was otherwise pretty empty. We stopped at La Punta for a quick glance at the 800-foot gorge and confluence where Red River and the Rio Grande converge. The Rio Grande starts in Colorado’s San Juan mountains and runs 1,885 miles to the Gulf of Mexico, while Red River begins at Wheeler Peak, which is the highest point in New Mexico at 13,161 feet.

This started to feel more like Colorado, with big mountains, evergreen treelines, and big open meadows.

We stopped at Big Arsenic Campground where we parked next to a really cool truck camper and then started the 800-foot drop down. It was built super well, with sturdy switchbacks and gorgeous views in every direction. Saw lots of Rocky Mountain Juniper, Ponderosas, Englemann cacti, and sagebrush.

The rocks next to the water at the bottom of the gorge almost looked fake because they were slightly wet, and the entire scene was surreal.

The walk up was… very brutal. It might have been a mix of the sun and elevation but Jess in particular was struggling. Thankfully we made it, Jess laid down on the picnic bench, and we walked the (thankfully flat) one mile we had left. We ran out of water but were close enough to not be worried.

We also visited the southern side of the monument, accessed via the scenic route through Pilar, where we saw some good-looking primitive campgrounds and lovely views.

Checked out the Rio Grande Bridge from various angles along the West Rim Trailhead, which we walked about two miles along. Lots of blooming baby Englemann cacti and what looked like potential cult communes?

Arroyo Seco and Taos Mountain

Small and charming, Arroyo Seco was home to a few good restaurants and a very delicious looking bakery that sold out every morning of its goodies (Take and Bake; did not go but seems like it would be excellent).

The Taos Ski mountain was reminiscent of Squaw Valley, and the portion you could see from the bottom was only 1/33 of the entire mountain. Pretty busy considering the mountain was closed.

Circle of Enchantment

Well this is certainly aptly name. Pretty neat mix of gorgeous houses and small towns, then these beautiful mountains and red cliffs. Drove through Eagle Nest, which was right on a little lake and included a rather abandoned hotel that would be pretty sweet to renovate.

Took a detour to Cimmaron and were glad we did, if only for the hot dog at Blü Dragonfly Brü (see Roadfood). Apparently it’s been pretty quiet in Cimarron since 2019, when a big fire shut lots of things down; then Covid. So this year, they’re very excited to welcome the 26,000 Boy Scouts (omfg) that will be coming into town shortly.

Did a little offroading here and found some excellent boondocking spots that were pretty full. Also drove past the bustling Red River, which looked like a fun ski town.

Finished up by going through La Questa and back down the west side.

Details, details, details

We watched Enola Holmes with Millie Bobby Brown and it was cute. She’s the estranged little sister of Sherlock and Helena Bonham Carter plays her mom.

Bri hooked Eric up with a working back-left seatbelt. Huzzah!

Jess’s brother and his friend Jill arrived and joined us for a two nights, which was lovely. They have very strong livers, though, and we had a hard time keeping up.

Went to Orlando’s for some margaritas and chips but they were very busy and slow, so we ended up not going back for a full meal. Next time!

Our RV park in Taos was within walking distance of an excellent local favorite for dinner, Antonio’s. The line was long but very worth it, especially for this insane burrito Bri got that had a pork tamale and cheese relleno inside the tortilla.

Jess got a new hiking backpack and it’s changed her life! Osprey FTW.

And then this happened…

While we were sitting outside at Taos Mesa Brewery with Jess’s brother and Jill, it was super lovely until something switched and we got savagely attacked by mosquitos. The waitress simply said, “Yeah, that happens.” Sob.

Now we know

Rocky Mountain Junipers and Pinyons can live up to 1,000 and 500 years, respectively.

We tried to go La Cueva in Taos for dinner a few times but it was always busy and they didn’t let you put your name down.

Mango-butternut squash smoothies sort of just taste like mango smoothies.

The Rio Grande Bridge, which at 650 feet up is the highest bridge on the U.S. highway system and the 5th highest bridge in the U.S.

The town of Taos Pueblo, which is one mile north of the modern city of Taos, is the only living Native American community that’s both a Word Heritage site and National Historic landmark, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States. It was still closed to outside visitors due to Covid. Smart.

Taos’ famous restaurant and hotel, Doc Martin’s, is particularly excellent on Fridays and Saturdays when there’s live music in they courtyard. They also have wonderful drinks and a rather insane queso fundido.

Roadfood

Michael’s is the place for excellent New Mexican comfort breakfast food, endless coffee refills, and gigantic cinnamon rolls.

Medley was one of those places that you really want to take the ones you love so you can enjoy it with them. Incredible $6 margaritas, amazingly fresh dishes, and a lemon cream cake I’d like to replicate every weekend. Only disappointed they weren’t open more days of the week.

Veered off the Circle of Enchantment for lovingly-made beer and tasty all-beef franks piled with pulled pork, mustard and dill pickle sauce at Blü Dragonfly Brü.

At The Love Apple, everything is fresh and local, like the New Mexican lamb burger with bacon, candied jalapeños, and smoked Gouda on a house potato bun.