Taos, New Mexico

After spending a week in Santa Fe, we left on May 6 and drove north 75 miles to Taos. Taos is located at 6,900 feet on a plateau at the base of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains (the southern portion of the Rockies) to the east and the Rio Grande River to the west.

Taos is known for its artists, galleries, shops, fine restaurants, and as a skiing area.

Santa Fe had a population of 62,000, whereas Taos has a population of only 4,700. We found that we preferred the smaller town atmosphere here, and that there was a greater variety of affordable shopping as compared to Santa Fe.

We stayed at the Taos Valley RV Park just a short distance from the downtown plaza. It was a nice quiet RV park.

The highlight of our visit was the tour of the Taos Pueblo, which was located only a few miles from town. 100 Indians still live in the pueblo much as their ancestors did 1,000 years ago. They live without electricity and running water. They get their water from the stream that passes through the pueblo. The three story pueblo buildings are composed of straw and mud bricks. Many residents still use the outdoor ovens (shown in the middle photo) to bake bread.

The plaza in Taos (in the third photo) is surrounded by shops and restaurants and is the heart of the city. It has been a central meeting place for all the different groups (Spanish, Mexicans, American) who have controlled Taos. It has a rich history of conflict and many famous people have lived here. (Kit Carson, D. H. Lawrence, Georgia O’Keefe)

We have been gone for close to four weeks and still no mail. We decided to try the mail forwarding system from the post office and it certainly isn’t working for us. It’s a long story but our mail is somewhere between California and Florida.