Taos, NM

Taos was not on my original list. It rates poorly for crime, employment, cost of living, housing availability, and schools. It's also quite far from a "major" airport (3 hours; Albuquerque, NM) and 1.5 hours to a "major" city, if you can call Santa Fe even a city. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but, it was the first place we've visited where I got a whisper of the "this is it" feeling I'm hoping to have when we find my just right.

On a whim, we detoured through Taos on our way between Las Cruces, NM and Gunnison, CO. Based on recommendations from friends, we spent the day near the Taos Junction Bridge and the evening at Black Rock Hot Springs. Based on my childhood memories, we ate breakfast at Michael's Kitchen and had a good laugh at the waitress' comment that "now's the time to rob a bank" (there were over a dozen sheriff office and police officers having a Thursday morning meal). We worked from Kit Carson Memorial Park and after work I went to the Taos Museum, Taos Food Co-Op, Reneux Consignment, and Made in New Mexico (family, expect some NM-based Christmas gifts this year). 

What was most inspiring about Taos was the nearby Earthship community. Cameron and I often dream about our hypothetical future commune and have had the term "Earthship" floating in the back of our minds. Seeing these beautiful and artistic "self-sufficient off-grid buildings that work in harmony with natural phenomena" (from the Earthship Biotecture pamphlet) helped solidify this dream. Not only does Taos offer a physical manifestation of my dream lifestyle, there are huge plots of land (dozens of acres) available at a reasonable price. It's still not cheap – to buy the 65-acre plot of land that's currently being advertised would prevent us from also immediately buying/building a house, but we could just continue to live out in the van until we could save up again.  

The Good

• It's well positioned between my parents and my sister, which is the main reason we stopped by for this impromptu visit. 
• It's a small town with a vibrant culture. "Taos is Art" is posted on the street-side flag banners, and the town lived it! As a nice pairing, there are lots of restaurants, including my childhood favorites: Michael's Kitchen and Taos Pizza Out Back. 
• The fact that those two restaurants are still around seems like a good sigh. The town survived the pandemic (I didn't notice any closed-up storefronts) and was self-sufficient enough to last without regular tourism funding. 
• Connecting to the last two points, there seems to be the right amount of tourism: enough to bring in funding and maintain high-end options, but not so overrun that it's not too expensive to live and it hasn't lost it's individual flair. Within two blocks of the main downtown there were Laundromats, cannabis shops, and a feed store; for those who don't want to depend on the co-op, there's a Smith's; and there are large agricultural plots across the street from next-to-downtown residential neighborhoods. 
• Housing prices span a wide range, and large desirable plots of land are available and affordable. 
• The climate is pleasant year-round and Taos Ski Valley is a world-class high-elevation resort. 
• It's a good location for commune living, and it would be nice to have "the world's largest self-sufficient residential development" nearby to learn from (or perhaps join). 

The Bad

• Taos is remote and not easy to get to. The regional airport only flys to four cities (in TX and CA) and it would be a shame to have to make a big hoopla every time we want to visit our Washington-based family. 
• While a population of almost-6,000 felt comfortable, it may feel too small given that there's nothing else nearby. I've gotten rather comfortable with living in or near a city. Maybe after living in an off-grid community, the less-than-6,000-people population of Taos would feel like a bigger town.

The Verdict

Yes! Taos may have jumped to the number one spot to-date (on my list; Cameron claims he's still leaving the top slot open). My childhood memories may be foggy, but I remember loving Taos in the winter, our fall visit has been beautiful, and from what I can research online, spring and summer are also quite pleasant. 

Did I like Taos so much that I bought a local artist's rendition of the Rio Grande Gorge in the hopes that I will someday hang it inside my future home along said gorge? Maybe. 

The Earthships are amazing – they are largely built out of recycled materials and are fully self-sufficient.

 

Glass bottles and tires are standard building materials. The irregular materials make them exceedingly unique and beautiful. 

Solar, wind, and water are all collected for energy and other household needs (like heating and cooling).

Based on their website, you can pay for an expert to build one for you, or you can buy the blueprints and build it yourself. If we get serious about this plan (and I think we might), we likely will attend some of their classes before setting out to build our own Earthship-inspired home. 

Taos is surrounded by interesting landscapes. We spent a day alongside the Rio Grande Gorge. Being from Las Cruces, I'm used to almost nonexistent mucky brown water being labeled as "the Rio Grande," but up here the river was full, blue, and beautiful. 

On the opposite side of the Gorge are the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which house Taos Ski Valley and Wheeler Peak, New Mexico's highest point (13,167').

Although largely shrub brush, there is a fair amount of vegetation diversity housed between the rocky cliffs and mountains. 

I really enjoyed breakfast at Michael's Kitchen, and I loved people watching. The older man at the front of this picture appeared to have brought his own McDonald's coffee and sugar-free syrup. He's clearly a regular, since the wait staff seemed to all know him personally, and he was quite chummy with the police officers who were sitting nearby. 

Parks, playgrounds, and recycled materials all bode well in my book. 

We were not the only van dwellers hunkered down at Kit Carson Memorial Park that day. I'm not sure how to interpret that, but I hope it means that Taos is welcoming to a diverse crowd. 

"Taos is Art" was boasted around town, and was reinforced by lots of galleries, museums, and odd-ball seemingly independent displays like this one.  

I spent a few hours in the Taos Museum, which highlighted the work of two artists. 

The main museum's interior preserved the layout and woodwork of Nicolai Fechin. It was gorgeously done, and expanded my wish list for my dream house interior. 

I liked that  downtown Taos was not just one main street. There seemed to be many alleys and plazas, some of them walking only, that housed the many one-of-a-kind shops and restaurants.  

If I had to label one area as the primary downtown hub, it would be Taos Plaza. It somehow managed to feel simultaneously lively and quaint. And being New Mexico, of course there were chilies hanging up as decoration. 

Another part of Taos' charm was the intermingling of business, residential, and agricultural spaces.