Taos, New Mexico

We left Colorado Springs on Thursday, which was a few days later than we planned as we had to wait for a FedEx package to arrive before we could depart.  To get to Taos I put in the address of the campground into our GPS unit and selected fastest route and did not think anything of it.  The mileage came up as 249 which I thought was a little longer from my previous calculations.  I saw that the GPS was taking us via Interstate 25 to US Highway 64, which is where the Taos RV park is located, so I figured that would be the most direct route to go.  It was not the most direct route but it did take us the most scenic route.  Highway 64 is part of the Enchanted Circle route that surrounds Taos.  Our route took us on half of the circle and the views were just spectacular.  It was a narrow two lane highway which meant some slow going pulling our rig, but it was worth it.  Here is a map of the Enchanted Circle, we were on Highway 64.

I had picked out a little RV park outside of Taos as the reviews were good and the view from Google earth made it look nice.  It is not that far from town and it has great views of the surrounding mountains.

There are only 18 spaces in this RV park and the landscaping, as you can see, is natural desert. 

Today we went sightseeing.  First stop was the San Francisco de Asis Church, which is something like 200 years old.  It was made famous by Ansel Adams in photographs and Georgia O’Keefe in paintings.  It is constructed of adobe.

From there we went to downtown Taos to the historic district to walk the plaza, window shop and have lunch.  Here are pictures of the plaza

Lunch was outdoors at a café in the John Dunn Shops plaza, The Bent Street Café.

From there we went to Taos Pueblo which is a working community of Native Americans living in the original pueblo buildings. 

Interesting note for this attraction.  There is an entrance fee for each person, plus a fee for each camera! 

From there we went to the Rio Grand Gorge bridge.  This is a bridge that spans a very deep gorge created by the Rio Grande river.  It is only a few miles from our RV park.  It is fascinating  to be driving on the highway and all you see if flat land with mountains in the the distance then you come upon this gorge that is something like 900 feet deep.  Can you imagine what the settlers traveling west must have felt when they came to this!  We have bridge, they did not.

The bridge

The gorge

The gorge

View down from the bridge

Last stop was a housing development just past the bridge that is called Earthship.  These houses are made into the earth using recycled materials and are completely self sustainable.  It was interesting to see, but actually it seems like a pile of junk in the desert!

The visitor center

One currently under construction

That was our day.  We did not plan on seeing all these sites in one day, it just worked out that way.  The weather is spectacular with sunny, warm days and cold nights.  We are here till Monday when we will move to Santa Fe for a week.