The High Road to Taos (and the Low)

The High Road

If you tell someone you are going to Santa Fe, one of the first questions they ask you is "Are you driving the High Road to Taos?" It definitely should be on anyone's "bucket list" for New Mexico. Our first trip up to Taos was driven at night because we left after Ally got off work on Saturday night. On our way back, we went to Ojo Caliente (a mineral springs spa and resort - honestly, I wasn't super impressed but I'll have to comment on that on another post) so missed the High and Low Roads to Taos again.

However, last weekend we drove up to Angel Fire because we had a free room for two nights at the Angel Fire Resort. We decided this would be a good opportunity to check out both the High and Low Roads to Taos (or to Santa Fe if you want to get technical!)

We left Sunday morning from Santa Fe and decided to take the High Road up to Taos. We started it a little differently than some of the directions online suggested. The suggested route starts you heading east on NM 503; however, we took US 285/84 north into Espanola to have the hottest (by far) and one of the most delicious (tough competition in NM) breakfast burritos of my life! El Parasol has a little stand outside the larger El Paragua Restaurant on Santa Cruz Road. We ordered breakfast burritos, sat outside at one of their picnic tables (there is no inside seating), and sweat our faces off (because the burritos were hot, not because of the weather).

We picked up the High Road to Taos by heading east on Santa Cruz Road. Continuing on that road, we reached Chimayo. The thing to do in Chimayo is the Sanctuario de Chimayo, a Roman Catholic Church and National Historic Landmark. It is an important pilgrimage site for Catholics, and therefore receives almost 300,000 visitors a year (some pilgrims actually walk all the way from Albuquerque!)

 Going to call these Bean Trees (no idea what they really are)

Along the High Road, there are lots of signs for art galleries and studios, and I'm assuming most of them are attached to people's houses. We weren't really in the market for art on this trip, so we didn't stop at any of these.

I enjoyed reading the Wikipedia page on the High Road as we drove along. This way we learned some history of each little town, as well as any of the places we should stop to check out.

Truchas and its views from the road 

We took a slight detour to drive through the town of Cordova, but there wasn't much to the town. We drove past Truchas, but maybe should have detoured there instead. The next place we got out of the car was at San Jose de Gracia Church in Las Trampas. It was well worth the stop and right on the main road. You can't miss it. The church was built in 1776 and is a model for Spanish colonial church architecture. There is a cool, little cemetery in the yard and it's just an awesome place to take some pictures!

The drive through Carson National Forest, after Las Trampas (and really all the way to Taos), was really beautiful. There was very little traffic and wide open views. When we reached the stop sign (the end of State Road 76) we turned left to check out the Picuris Pueblo. It had another beautiful, picturesque church. I guess the church was torn down in 1989 due to water damage, but the pueblo members rebuilt the church by hand. Pretty remarkable!

On the way out of Picuris, we stopped at a little market for a cold beverage. There aren't many options on the high road for stopping for a soda or snack, so I'm glad we came across this. If we had continued on the High Road by turning right at the stop sign, we would've missed it!

Carson National Forest Vista Point

We stopped in Taos for some groceries (We missed Cid's Market again! Cid's is supposedly an awesome organic/crunchy market but it is closed on Sundays!) and continued on our way to Angel Fire. The road between the two is so beautiful, but better when it's not raining and your windshield wiper breaks! We ended up on the side of the road for awhile, which made this day really long. We finally made it to Angel Fire Resort and spent our evening NOT in the car, drinking wine, and playing cards on our balcony with a lovely view of the mountains and valley.

Oeste Vista Trail

The next morning, we went on a short hike in Angel Fire. We wanted to head back to Santa Fe kind of early, because we didn't want to get stuck in another afternoon thunderstorm with no windshield wiper. Oeste Vista Trail is a lovely loop (I've seen conflicting information on the distance, somewhere between 2.6 and 3.5 miles) and pretty straight forward. The views are not amazing but it was a great way to stretch the legs and get outside, without driving very far.

 The trailhead instructs you to take the Lower Loop first, which is actually the trail to the right. Kind of confusing but the right trail is correct. All signage is set up for people hiking counter-clockwise on the loop. 

The Low Road

The Low Road back to Santa Fe was a little more straight forward. No way to get lost on this road. It goes right along the Rio Grande for a lot of it, which is really cool. We stopped to eat lunch at a pull-off, and happened to be there while a group was rafting down the river. The river was pretty low at this point, so didn't look all that exciting (definitely not as exciting as our trip down the Rangitata River in New Zealand!)

In Rinconada, we saw a sign for a brewery and decided we should stop in and have a beer. Really glad we did! This little brewery had a cute patio out back with some shade and we shared a Tarantula Trek Red Ale (suggested by the bartender). After we had our beer, we walked to the fruit stand next door and went home with some tasty nectarines.

And we made it home before it rained! We were watching storms coming from both directions, but made it home with no problems. So glad we had the opportunity to explore both the High and Low Roads to Taos during the day time. New Mexico has such beautiful scenery and it seems to go on forever!

Eat to Hike, Hike to Eat - Taos, New Mexico

Allyson and I spent a great 3 day weekend in Taos, New Mexico for our 1 year wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago. Honestly, we needed another weekend (preferably filled with relaxing by a pool) after our adventure-filled Taos weekend.  This post will cover the great hiking and eating Taos and the Taos Ski Valley have to offer. I already wrote another post about our visit to Taos Pueblo. This is a must-do when in Taos.

Hiking

We went on two great hikes in the Taos Ski Valley area. Within a 30 minute drive (and a really pretty drive at that!) from of the town of Taos, is the Taos Ski Valley. There are many hikes that start along Highway 150, which heads into the Ski Valley. We selected one - Italianos Trail (Trail #59) - described on a few hiking websites as being a favorite of the locals.

Hike: Italianos Trail in Taos Ski Valley

Hike Difficulty: Moderate/Difficult (steep and constant climbing)

Hike Distance (Round Trip): 7 miles

Elevation: 8,704 feet to 11,387 feet

The trail is 3.5 miles one way (7 miles round trip) and we were basically climbing the whole way out/up the trail. We gained 2,700 feet in elevation while crossing over the river more times than I kept track of. At this time of year (August), the river crossings were fun and not difficult at all. And the wildflowers were incredible! Highlights along this trail included the wildflowers and various fungi, a breathtaking aspen grove, and a couple meadows with decent views. For people looking for a loop trail (and something even more challenging that what we did), you can make a loop out of Italianos and Gavalin Trails. For people looking for something easier, you could just hike up to the aspen grove (about a mile up the trail) and back. You would still get to cross the river multiple times and see lots of wildflowers. 

 Aspen Grove

Ally's artistic shot

 Indian Paintbrush is one of my faves.

One of the meadows

The sun and clouds were actually doing this! Magical!

Hike: Williams Lake

Hike Difficulty: Moderate

Distance (Round Trip): 8 miles (or 4 miles if you start where I recommend)

Elevation: 9,207 feet (starting at ski village) to 11,100 feet

Our second hike is probably the most popular hike in the area - Williams Lake. You can start this hike in two different places. We followed directions provided in the Falcon Guide: Hiking New Mexico, Third Edition, by Laurence Parent. Honestly, I probably wouldn't recommend this route. We started at the base of the ski lift. It adds 4 miles to the hike, making it an 8 mile round trip hike. Although there are some nice aspens along that trail, there was also a lot of construction noise right by the ski resort. The best part of the hike started once we reached the actual Williams Lake Trailhead by the Bavarian Lodge and Restaurant. Unless you are just dying to add 4 steep miles (two up and two down), I recommend starting at the main trailhead. 

I have one other strong recommendation. Don't dress based on the weather in the town of Taos. Bring layers and a rain jacket, because we got caught unprepared. It even hailed, which was a first for us while hiking. We really enjoyed this hike, but didn't get to spend much time at the lake, because the rain and hail were not exactly comfortable. 

Cool modern house in the ski valley. Telescope in the upper right hand corner. 

 A little friend found us. 

Williams Lake...it wasn't much of a lake by August. 

Eating

We had our anniversary dinner at The Love Apple. Pretty perfect, right? This place is so darn cute. It looks like someone started a Pinterest page for their dream restaurant and then actually brought it to life. Every little detail fits with their quaint, romantic vibe. We really enjoyed sitting outside on their patio lit by string lights. Make sure you try the amazing cornbread with whatever delicious butters they provided. Their menu is all organic and local and just delicious! Don't forget your cash though, because they don't take credit cards!

 They list all of the farms and other locations where they get their ingredients on the chalkboard.

 Clearly we were destroying the cornbread! My fave was the blue cornbread.

I forget what our delicious, chocolate dessert was called, but it came with a little heart shortbread cookie. Perfect for our anniversary (they do this on every dessert I think.)

Another night was had dinner at Taos Pizza Out Back. It was super casual with a great outdoor seating area. Supposedly, they have gluten free crust, but they didn't that night. We've had pizza a couple places in New Mexico and they all seem to come with sesame seeds on them. Don't knock it til you try it. I'm a sesame seed pizza eater for life now. 

Your visit to New Mexico isn't really complete without a breakfast burrito. Locals all have their favorite place to grab a breakfast burrito. So far, my fave is Taos Diner. So good! Make sure you bring your appetite, because this bad boy is huge. You can get green chile, red chile, or both (called Christmas). I highly preferred the green chile at Taos Diner and wish I hadn't ordered both, but was still very, very satisfied. 

Rio Grande Bridge

We took a little detour after our hike at Williams Lake to check out the Rio Grande Bridge. North of town, turn left to stay on Highway 64 instead of turning right to head to Taos Ski Valley. About 4 miles down the road is the bridge. You have to get out and walk out onto the bridge to really experience it. It's a little scary because the river is a long way down there, but the gorge is spectacular. There is also a trail along the gorge somewhere, but we didn't have time to check that out.