It’s time to learn about Taos, NM and all the spots we visited there, such as: Taos Plaza, Taos Inn, Rio Grande Gorge, Alley Cantina, Orlando's New Mexican Cafe, The Adobe Bar, Twirl, Kit Carson Museum, Taos Mesa Brewing, and many more. This is an enchanting town so please prepare for some magic!

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Would you let your spouse give you a haircut? I would and I’m going to share with you the outcome of it as well. However, I figure we should talk about Taos, New Mexico. That’s the topic of discussion here on this episode of Leons’ Great Escape!

Taos is a scruffy Bohemian Art town that is some ways is unkempt and falling apart and in others it’s teaming with life and revitalization which side of that experience you end up seeing depends on the street or neighborhood you walk through. It’s a lot like Los Angeles in that regard. In general, New Mexico is socioeconomically depressed. Don’t take my word on that how about a 2015 study by the Economic Innovation Group, a bipartisan think tank out of DC, that found:

“More than 1 in 5 adults in New Mexico live in communities or neighborhoods that can be considered “economically distressed.”

Depression can be a muse for some artists and art thrives here. I put the town at 50% artists, 40% tourists and the remainder being in the other category. The population caps at 5600 and the altitude is about 7000ft. The air feels thin to me but you’ll find natural and spiritual healers on just about every street corner and they are willing to cure you of your altitude sickness or anything else for that matter and likely sell you some rare gems and crystals to boot.

Our journey took us here by way of Turley, NM. We stayed at a lovely winery called Wines of the San Juan. They’re a Harvest Hosts location which we love.

We drove through the majestic Carson National Forest and snapped a few photos there. The Carson Forest is no doubt named after the famous frontiersmen and war hero of the 1800s, Kit Carson, who is quite celebrated in Taos. The Freemasons, of which Kit or Christopher was a member, were able to save his house and turn it into a museum. You can visit his grave site, we didn’t, too.

So what did we do over the 7 nights that we stayed here? Where did we stay in fact and how did we find it?

Candice likes to use an app called Campendium to get the lay of the land for where we will stay. There are other resources that we use but Campendium is how we found Taos Valley RV Park and Campground and it’s a good find which was reasonably priced at $38 per night. Keep in mind that that is the weekly rate. Some parks offer you price breaks the longer you stay at a them. This park had a playground and full hook-ups as well as a decent laundry room.

Now here’s what we did... First off — There is somethin’ called the Rio Grande Gorge and it’s huge. Travel west of Taos on US Hwy 64 and you’ll eventually find the fifth highest bridge in the US. It towers 650 feet above the Rio Grande River and spans over 1600 feet in length. The bridge is a three-span steel continuous-deck-truss structure with concrete filled steel-grid decks. It was called the “bridge to nowhere” while it was being built because the funding didn’t exist to continue the road on the other side. That’s how they did things in 1965. We had lunch there and attempted to buy a cup of coffee from some questionable hippies in a converted school bus but they couldn’t break a $50 and that was probably for the best.

Another nature-eye-candy feast would be the Ski Town of Taos. We spent a couple of hours driving around the mountain areas there and found some rocks to sit on and some fast moving water being fed by the snow melt.

There is also Taos Plaza where we’d eventually see some live entertainment and Pepper would dance to her hearts content. A must stop for anyone with kids is down an alley next to a bar appropriately named the Alley Cantina. Cunning parents can tag team while their kids play at Twirl. The “not it” parent can sit on the patio of the Cantina and enjoy a decent margarita for half price during their happy hour.

It’s not difficult to find a great meal at a reasonable price in Taos. One of our favorites was a spot called Orlando’s New Mexican Cafe. The posole and chili relleno were delectable and I made sure to steal one of Candice’s blue corn tacos. Pepper was on a hunger strike and didn’t eat because she’s 2.

If you like beer, visit Taos Mesa Brewery or if you want a cup of coffee, then the sights at the Farmhouse are tranquil but, warning, the service is slow. There is even a new distillery called the Rolling Still that popped up recently and they make a mean cold brew coffee manhattan.

The Taos Inn has music most nights and it’s been around forever. Stop there too if you want, or don’t. I’m not going to tell you how to live your life.

There’s a bunch of shopping to be done in this town. They have custom made guitars (Newcaster Guitar Company), hand woven rugs, and more paintings than the Smithsonian (might not be true).

On the subject of sharing, when will I share with you how my Spouse haircut went? You can see that in the episode embedded above ;)

One thing that I observed which was something very foreign to me was that the people in Taos genuinely want to catch up with each other. I gather that this is typically of small towns. There are conversations happening all over the place. You have to walk around them. There was a lot of — “How’s your brother”… “Oh, he moved to Albuquerque”… “Is the knee still giving you trouble”… “sorry to hear about such and such.”

It’s all very neighborly. I found, with time, even I started to share more about my personal journey with the people I met.

It’s dry in a desert town and by the close of our stay in Taos we were ready to get out of that aridness and into new aridness… Next up is Santa Fe but that’s a story for another time.