Glamping in Taos
A little overdue, but here’s a summary of our trip to the incomparable city of Taos in northern New Mexico. Taos is a little hard to describe. It’s part frontier town, part ski resort, and part hippie/hipster indie art hub. Add that it is the home of one of the most magnificent Pueblos in the country, and, well… you just have to experience it yourself.
We took a long weekend and decided to try to do things a little differently. We stayed at an RV hotel called Hotel Luna Mystica in a retro trailer named “Rosie”. The hotel is situated outside town to the west, near the airport and right next to the Taos Mesa Brewing Company (Mothership location). More about that in a minute. First, you have to see pictures of the place.
The night we arrived, we went to check out the Rio Grande Gorge, which is just five minutes west of the hotel on the main road. Our plan was to hike the gorge the next day, but it was just too hot and exposed (our monsoon rains obviously got delivered to the wrong address). So we' took a couple of snapshots and will have to keep this one on the list for the next trip.
The next morning we headed up to the Taos Ski Valley and cooler temperatures to get a decent hike in. We decided on Williams Lake (which we rated at 1/2 a Nambe Lake in difficulty). It’s quite a drive just to get up there. Beautiful and pretty easy going as far as the Ski Village. After that, it gets steep and unpaved. Do not recommend in less than ideal weather. Check out the full photo gallery from our hike here.
It was on the trail we met our first ever trail-cat, “Curdis” (named after Wisconsin cheese curds, apparently) with his traveling companions, a black lab and his person. He rode up on her shoulder across her backpack. Sadly, Curdis did not consent to a photo. In addition, we encountered a pair of marmots who were eager to let us know that we paused for lunch a bit too close to their den.
Dinner after the hike was at a very humble, but delicious Mexican place popular with the locals. The Guadalajara Grill has two locations in Taos. Michelle got the chimichangas and I had carnitas tacos on fresh homemade corn tortillas that reminded me that all store-bought corn tortillas are basically edible tire patches.
After dinner, we walked over to the Taos Mesa Brewing Company for a couple of local beers and to check out the scene. Huge outdoor patio is great in the evening breezes. The menu is limited but tasty, and they have a full range of German traditional brews from Pilsner to Doppelbock, as well as plenty of IPAs for the hip beer crowd. The thing we didn’t realize was that this place is also a concert venue. Did I mention it was right next door to our trailer? The first night’s concert was kind of an etherial electronica thing. It wasn’t our bag, but it was fine. The second night… a pair of black metal bands. To paraphrase Stevie Ray Vaughn, “If the trailer is a rockin’, don’t bother sleepin'‘.”
But it did give us an excuse to stay up way too late and check out the stars. I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere. The clear air and the elevation combine to offer a star field that feels like you’ve traveled back in time.
One note about the hotel. If you have mobility issues or don’t enjoy a sense of adventure going to the bathroom, then maybe stay at one of the other hotels in town. It’s a tight space and the all-in-one shower/toilet takes a little getting used to. They do have full shower rooms near the trailers, which we used, that were clean and worked fine. But foretold is forewarned. It’s also a metal box, so full-sun summer days aren’t probably going to be your best experience. Go in the fall.
We’ll be back in a month or two to see the things we missed.
