Taos is a historic village located in the north central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de
Cristo mountains with a population of just under 6 000 people. This town has a very rich history
I spent a few days here in taos this past october and in this video
I'm going to share with you 10 things to do when visiting Taos, New Mexico
On the southern side of town you can find san francisco de asis church. This church
has been around for 200 years. This is a historical gem here in the Taos area.
It is hidden- kind of facing the back side of it is facing the main road- very close to where the
high road of Taos.... the high road two Taos connects to the low road to Taos right on the southern end
of town so be sure and stop here. They say there is a historical painting inside that used to be
somewhat mysterious that when it was dark in the church that it would um light up naturally
and it has since been protected and it's not out for general display i'm going to go in and
see if i can take a look but i bet you they're not gonna let me film it this church is real
authentic adobe on the outside you can actually see the straw in the mud on the
outside and what I was reading is that once a year volunteers come and help redo the adobe so
inside commercial photography isn't allowed and they do ask that you wear your masks so I was
respectful but this is a true gem of the historic architecture as well in the area
look what a beautiful morning we have I just finished my breakfast here at the coffee shop at
the taos valley lodge and I'm gonna head into the plaza for the day this is one of the top things
of course you have to see when visiting Taos the Taos plaza once was a spanish fortified wall plaza
with houses and businesses and now it has a park with shady trees benches and a gazebo
in 1861 during the civil war southern sympathizers repeatedly tore down the us flag
captain Smith Simpson with the help of Kit Carson guarded the flag 24 hours a day
US Congress has permitted taos to fly this flag 24 7 to commemorate this event
surrounding the plaza park are plenty of shops to choose from and again come early
I was surprised with the plethora of tour buses that came here later in the afternoon
house does have several free parking lots so just keep an eye out for them I'll try to attach a map
right here and show you where they're at during high touristy season times
I'd recommend coming early if you want to try to find free parking be sure and explore some
of the back streets behind the plaza with many other shops galleries and museums in the area
and please note clean free restrooms are just behind the plaza to the north
next up is bent street which is just a couple streets north of the plaza
this is a historic residential street with beautiful shops and galleries named after
Charles Bent who was New Mexico's first territorial governor in 1846
so here's the governor bent museum
folks at the museum and gift shop have stepped out just for a few
minutes so I'm going to skip that attraction today
this place behind me the earth spirit gallery they have 3d paintings you go in they give
you 3d glasses and they are really really cool so this is at the end of bent street
not at the end of bent street but you kind of come down to where it looks like a dead end that's
where you're going to find this gallery and then there's a chocolate and cashmere place right next
door I've never seen that combination of goods and now we're going to explore the john dunn shops
this cute little area links the Taos plaza to bent street and has 18 unique shops and restaurants
it is 12 30 and the parking lot is now full so keep in mind get here early now we're going to
explore some of the history of Taos starting on Kit Carson road at the Kit Carson museum
Kit Carson was a fur trapper wilderness guide native american agent and us army officer
it's ten dollars to tour the property we're gonna start with a 20-minute video
and then you can go over to the house
his fearlessness combat skills and tenacity had a
profound effect on the westward expansion of the United States
he established his permanent residence in Taos in the early 1840s and this is where he lived
so the original Kit Carson home was these three rooms of this portion of the home that faces the
main street and Kit Carson his wife josefina and his seven children lived in that three-room house
I highly recommend the book blood and thunder by Hampton Sides for someone who is not a history
buff and not very well read this was the most fascinating story of Kit Carson I am looking to
find the Kit Carson historical cemetery so I came into Kit Carson park and I followed google maps to
the cemetery and it took me down a one-way road uh with a dead end with no place to park so instead
I came in the entrance to Kit Carson park it's a beautiful sprawling park there's baseball fields
in fact there was a concert I went to years ago at this park so it's kind of a main center here for
community activities and I'm gonna see if I can find a back way into this historical cemetery now
this is the little road I tried to come up to park here for the cemetery but there was no parking
so to get here you're gonna have to park at the kit carson park
this is considered kit carson memorial state park dogs are allowed clean up after your pet
he was only 59 years old when he died and what a life he led up until that point
i see somebody has opened up and come inside here it's his family his mother
here's a summary of the battle at turley
mill but a lot of notable people
in the history and the making of the area of taos can be found here in this cemetery
Antonio Jose Martinez was one of the major religious leaders in Taos in Northern new mexico
Mabel Dodge Lujan is buried here now she has a historic property here in town that's supposed
to be haunted this is where she's buried . Mabel is famous for bringing the art community to life here
in Taos and Taos is a huge art community with art galleries and a lot of notable artists in the area
and it remains to this day an art mecca in the southwest
hacienda de los martinez museum what an absolutely beautiful property this museum is one of the last
remaining houses that is the late spanish colonial period still preserved here in the taos area
this was a massive trade center for the northern
boundary of the spanish empire it was built in 1804
this hacienda has 21 rooms and it takes you back in time to the rugged frontiers of the early 1800s
the adobe insulates quite well it's pretty cold out and it's comfortable temperature inside
and this room gives an idea of some of the things that they used to trade
so this is interesting they would have a fire pit in the corner and then they would
take their coals and they would spread it out underneath their pots on this lower level shelf
then this upper level was a nice warm place to sleep heated by the coals from the cooking food
it's ingenious
so my next favorite place to stop is the rio grande gorge bridge
the rio grande gorge bridge is just 11 miles northwest of taos this is an absolute must-see
i recently did a full-length video on this location for
more information check out the link in the description below
so i got my second wind after that amazing coffee at the coffee shop at the tales valley lodge and
i've decided since the weather is so beautiful and the leaves are so beautiful that i'm going to go
ahead and drive the enchanted circle now this is one of the top activities to do up here in
this area you can make a circle from taos going through the beautiful carson national forest
through eagle's nest and near angel fire and then up to red river and back around through cuesta and
back to taos should take me a couple of hours and i grabbed a little bite to eat from the grocery
store because it's late afternoon but the lighting and the leaves are so incredibly beautiful
i couldn't pass it up i didn't think i had enough time for it but i'm going to try to
squeeze it in this evening now i've made this drive before and i don't remember seeing this
eagle rock lake it is gorgeous this is a day use area um it'd be great if you were
like camping in the area to come down here and do some fishing during the day but it is so beautiful
most notably taos is home to the taos pueblo which is a living native american community
the multi-storied adobe buildings in the taos pueblo have been continuously
inhabited for over 1 000 years and this is designated a unesco world heritage site
this is the oldest continuously inhabited community in the united states in order to protect
their people the pueblo is currently closed to visitors until further notice due to the pandemic
as an alternate why don't you check out taos ski valley for either skiing or hiking
let me know what your favorite thing is to do in taos thanks for watching