Taos is a beautiful mountain town in northern New Mexico. It is well known for its awesome ski valley, but there are plenty of fun things to do in this town when spring and summer roll around. This is how we were able to do a pretty solid tour in one weekend:
We drove up right after work on Friday and didn’t get to Taos until about 10:00 p.m. (~five hour drive from Las Cruces), so we were looking for a campground in the dark. We were planning to stay at the Rio Bravo Campground, but it was full when we got there, so we got lucky that we stumbled upon the Pilar Campground that we passed first on the same the road. There are only three tent campsites at this campground and a large group of biker dudes had overtaken all of them, but they were kind enough to share with us when they saw us wandering around with a flashlight…it’s a good thing campers are usually nice 🙂
Map of the campgrounds near the Rio Grande Gorge Visitor Center
Most of the campgrounds in this area are first come first serve which can be difficult for planning, but the good thing is that there are several right along 570, so hopefully you can find something along this road. Pilar Campground happens to be the closest campground to the Rio Grande Gorge Visitor Center (which is where the meeting spot is for the company we went white water rafting with).
There are about eight companies in this area that offer guides for Rio Grande white water rafting, funyaking, etc. We chose Cottam’s Rio Grande Rafting which we were very pleased with! Our guide, Rob, was awesome (very knowledgeable and made the day fun). His wife and dogs joined us for the trip because it was only Adam and me who were signed up. We went at the end of April which is a little early in the season for white water rafting. Unfortunately, the water was quite low (about 230 cubic feet/second) due to there not being much snow this year. Our guide explained that the best white-water rafting conditions are usually when the water is at least 600 cubic feet/second. He suggested to check this website for water levels before signing up for a trip: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=08276500.
White water rafting the Rio Grande!
The water being low just meant that the rafting was more technical, meaning we had to dodge more rocks and take specific routes, but it was still a blast and we encountered up to class 3 rapids. We even got some raft surfing in which was fun! We did the afternoon racecourse portion of the Rio Grande for rafting, which set off at ~1:00 p.m. after they provided us lunch. We had tried to sign up for the Taos Box tour, but it isn’t running in 2018 right now due to the low water levels. We also did some funyaking (basically a blow-up kayak that is more forgiving on rocks) on a calmer portion of the river in the morning starting ~9:00 a.m.
Funyaking the Rio Grande!
After paddling all day, we were ready for some food and beer! Our first stop was Taos Mesa Brewing Taos Taproom which is in downtown Taos. They have good beer and woodfired pizza. Our next stop was Eske’s (a German-style brew pub with an adobe facade). It claims to be the oldest brewery in New Mexico. They have a pretty big beer garden for when it’s nice out. Our last stop (and favorite) of the night was the Taos Mesa Brewing Mothership! This is located just outside of town toward the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. It is one of the hippest places we’ve been, but man was it an enjoyable time! Favorite part – there were free drum lessons in the outdoor amphitheater; the instructor provided drums for all and did an impressive job bringing together drummers of all levels. We’re pretty sure this happens every spring/summer Saturday night. They also had a live band playing upbeat music inside where the bar was and there was a fire pit area outside to hang out at. Oh, and by the way, they had good beer too!
Drum lessons at Taos Mesa Brewing!
The Taos Mesa Brewing Mothership
Drum lessons at Taos Mesa Brewing!
The Taos Mesa Brewing Mothership
After this fun night in town, it was time to find another campsite. We knew we were going to hike Wheeler Peak the next morning, so we started heading that way. On 150, the road up to Taos Ski Valley, there are several small campgrounds right along the road just like road 570. We found Cuchillo de Medio campground right by a running creek, so the water sang us a lullaby all night.
Our roadside campsite by a creek on the road up to Taos Ski Valley
We got up at ~7:00 a.m. to head right to the Wheeler Peak trailhead, as the weather can change quickly at this high elevation, so it was recommended to us to start the hike early. We chose to do the Wheeler Peak via Williams Lake Trail route. Take plenty of food and water with you. From our campsite it was about a 20-25-minute drive. This hike is about 8.5 miles round trip. It took us three hours to get to the peak and two hours to come back down. There is a specific hiking parking lot in the Taos Ski Valley area for the Williams Lake Trail, so follow the signs to “The Bavarian” lodge up the mountain until you run into the hikers parking lot.
When you are following the Williams Lake Trail, you will run into a sign on your left about two miles in that says Wheeler Peak with an arrow. Keep going straight at this sign and you’ll run into the beautiful William’s Lake.
William’s Lake on our way up to Wheeler Park
Once you see the lake, backtrack to the Wheeler Peak sign and follow the trail up the mountain. This is when the hike gets more intense, but also more beautiful! Pay attention to the blue marks on the trees to keep you on the trail. We failed to do that a couple times on this hike. On the way up, we somehow got to climbing straight up the mountain (off trail) in knee deep snow for a while and on the way down, I slipped and ended up sledding down on my butt (not on purpose) several hundred feet (which ended up being a blast). Adam and our new hiking buddy from Sweden ended up following my accidental sledding lead and we ended up finding the trail further down the mountain via blue marks on the trees.
Accidentally sledding down the mountain 🙂
Wheeler Peak is the highest point in New Mexico at 13,159 ft and it is extremely windy at the top, so be sure to pack warm clothes. The views are totally worth the weather though; you can see to Colorado and the mountains seem to go on forever in all directions! We also encountered some wildlife on this hike!
Wheeler Peak (the highest point of New Mexico)
Found a longhorn sheep on our way down!
Wheeler Peak (the highest point of New Mexico)
Found a longhorn sheep on our way down!
After a long hike, we were starving, so we found a place in downtown Taos to get some grub. We ended up going with The Burger Stand at Taos Ale House. It was the perfect post-hike food: gourmet burgers, fatty fries, and delicious shakes! Sabrosa had been recommended to us, as this restaurant is in a village on the way down from Taos Ski Valley, but they don’t open until 4:00 p.m., so the timing didn’t work out. Another place we tried to go where the timing didn’t work out was the Taos Pueblo. We tried going there at around 4:30 p.m., but a lady literally ran us away as if we were about to enter a bomb site. This is a cool historical site that we will probably try to visit on another trip up there. There are a lot of other cool hikes to do in this area and there’s a nice Taos Downtown Plaza that we couldn’t spend much time in, but we squeezed in as much as we could in a weekend!
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