Taos has a reputation far beyond its size. You have to endure a long drive through strip malls that your screaming brain thinks will never end to reach the rather charming old core of the village.
Taos has a reputation as an arts community and if your taste runs to Art of the Old West or the occult, you will love it. If that sounds like damning with faint praise, so be it. I’ve never been enchanted by renderings of howling coyotes, sad Native Americans or herds of cattle.
So, you say, you really didn’t like Taos? Not at all. It’s quirky, has good restaurants, friendly folks and the Taos Inn is always fun. We discovered that the incredibly accomplished Kit Carson settled here and with his attractive and highly fecund wife Maria Josefa produced nine children. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Maria, known as Josephine, died at 40 of complications with childbirth.
Casting about for something to do that we didn’t do on our last visit, we hit upon the idea of a hike along the Rio Grande river. This turned out to be minutes of attractive views interspersed with hours of tedium, heat and thirst. We’ll chose a trail more wisely next time.
