Taos is town filled with southwestern art galleries, local jewelers, and plenty of handmade crafts and clothing tucked into distinct adobe style building that scream southwest, but so many places were closed in October of 2020 due to Covid that we spent just one day walking through old downtown.
We grabbed a quick flatbread and beer flight at Taos Mesa Brewing Taproom. We visited the church of San Francisco de Asis, an 18th century adobe. Then we headed off the beaten path!
Our next stop was a bridge over the Rio Grande on US-64. Some hot air ballooners offered to trade us their balloon for our RV, but I told them living in a balloon would be a big challenge, especially for the dog.
Next we headed out to an unincorporated area of Taos to learn about Earthships. These are off-the-grid, eco homes made of natural and recycled materials. Typically the walls of these homes are made of tires filled with earth for insulation. The architect of the Earthships, Michael Reynolds, started this movement in the 1970s and wanted to build homes that
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- relied on natural energy sources (like solar or wind) that were independent from “the grid”,
- used building materials that were indigenous to the area or recycled, and
- could be built by a person with no specialized construction skills.
Earthship owners build the homes to efficiently use rain water for all water needs including use of the waste water to grow sustainable gardens. Wind and solar are used to produce their own electricity. All of the other building materials are from mother nature or recycled goods. The idea is to live without relying on public electricity, water, or food distribution. The Greater World Community in Taos has over 70 of these off-grid homes.
The rather expensive “tour” wasn’t worth the price, especially as an RVer, because the self guided tour covers topics like solar panel usage, water conservation including small RV like water systems for filtration and heating. However, walking around to see a few of the creative housing designs was fun and if you really want to see how things work, check out this site (https://earthshipbiotecture.com/nightly-rentals/) for rentals and consider a weekend getaway in one.
From there we had great fall colors as we headed south through Embudo and Dixon, stopping in Ohkay Owingey at Black Mesa Winery (a Harvest Host participant that allows for overnight stays when you join Harvest Hosts for an annual fee). The winery was hosting a 3 booth farmer’s market, local live music, petroglyphs on the property, a zen rock garden, and of course, wine and hard cider tasting (all outdoors) which made for a wonderful stop. The owners were incredibly friendly and although we parked quite near the highway things were quiet about an hour after the winery closed (as the locals had time to wander home).
From the winery we headed for El Malpais National Monument. We climbed around the sandstone bluffs and took in the views of a seemingly endless valley. We walked several small trails at pullouts on the road from the campground, including this one which has one of my favorite arches because of the way the sun highlights its features.
We passed the state line, reaching Arizona! The next few nights we camped near Greer in the Apache National Forrest. At least half the campsites were still closed but this made for great dog walking among the aspen which had started to drop their leaves leaving a crunchy yellowed blanket perfect for four-legged racing!
Admittedly, we didn’t see as much of New Mexico as I’d hoped as we were on a tight schedule to get to Arizona to meet up with Doug’s son and our friends in Phoenix, but I was most surprised by the variety in landscape – ski resorts, aspen trees, etc. We’re hoping to go back and spend more time in the state so if you have suggestions on places to visit, please pass them along.
