Uncovering Taos Through Ecotourism

Some people lead wilderness adventures designed to create a little adrenaline cocktail of nature as part of a tourism experience.Stuart Wilde and Steve Harris aren’t those kinds of guides. Wilde and Harris are part of a group of Taos-area guides and business owners who’ve created wilderness experiences with big goals in mind: They want people to fall in love with Northern New Mexico; to be impassioned about protecting wilderness; to be transformed personally. And they want it to be fun. They call themselves ecotourism guides — guides whose tourist-leading activities somehow end up benefiting the environment. More

New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon Filled with Mystery

The drive from Taos, in north-central New Mexico, to Chaco Canyon in the northwest corner of the state is so beautiful it could make you cry. There were azure skies, red and gold mountains, giant Wild West cliffs of pastel strata, all the improbable hues you see in New Mexico paintings that make you think the artists must all be constantly munching peyote. More

Feel the Whitewater’s Rush

Whitewater rafting is cool.

There’s just something about riding the current, learning to shift your body weight, to calculate the smoothest passage and how to reach it; to accept being tossed and lifted with the changing personality of a river that’s gone on like this for thousands of years. More

Guide to Locals Eateries in Taos

In Taos, it’s pretty easy to spot a locals’ hangout. If people stop, greet others warmly, ask about the baby, the truck or how the firewood is holding up, it’s a locals’ joint. There are locals who try each new place the minute it opens. They can tell you where the good places used to be. There are other locals who rarely eat out, but when they do, it’s always at the same place. But on an unscientific level, here are a few places where you can catch the community vibe. More

The Great Cocoa Search

Disclaimer: You can’t really write about hot cocoa fairly when the ski places are closed. Their cocoa may be out of this world. But you’ll have to find out for yourself — they’re not open at press time. That said, hot chocolate is to winter as lemonade is to summer. And most of the coffee places in the Enchanted Circle have their own special spin on it. More

The Historic Taos Inn Adobe Bar

The crowd at the Adobe Bar shifts like sand, like leaves on pavement. Taoseños—hippies, artists, business owners—drift in and move from table to bar to fireplace, sharing village talk. Skiers slide in off the slopes, ruddy and wired. The music—on this Saturday night a funky, rhythm and blues band from Santa Fe—weaves everything together: the eclectic crowd, the fountain, the battered wooden floors, and the vigas and latillas of traditional adobe construction. From the leather loveseat to the roaring fire to the tile-topped tables a few feet from the musicians, everything at the Adobe is intimate. More