2025-9-22 Taos N.M.

 Yesterday we chose to do the Enchanted Circle Byway out of Taos. I forgot to mention that we drove up from Santa Fe leaving the RVs at the Rodeo de Santa Fe. We checked out a possible BLM spot to camp at on our way up yesterday but it was the weekend and the campgrounds were all full. A Veterans gathering was going on. 

So we decided to drive up and stay overnight in a hotel for one night as being far more cost effective method than hauling up here for one night. If we had realized the Pueblo was closed today, we would have just driven up again for the day and done both the town and the Pueblo. Live and learn. By the way, we did our own tours.

These photos are from the downtown square which is not large.

There is an hourly charge for parking in the square so I'm assuming that the hotel must have parking for guests behind it somewhere.

There are shops with goods for sale all around the square.

The little alleyway was more interesting. We thought we would be more impressed by the square than we were so we didn't spend a lot of time there.

We had a lite lunch at the Bread Club......actually we were looking for a pastry and coffee but choices in that area were mostly sold out so we opeted for a breakfast burrito that came with a salad?? While we were waiting we saw several food trucks in the next parking lot that were really busy and had award signs on them so we probably missed a great opportunity, lol.

There were a couple of museum choices and we picked the Kit Carson house.

Honestly, it was a little disappointing. I think they are working on it but they have a ways to go.

We took a little drive and saw these signs on the way.

In the parking lot where the last two signs were located, we saw this tarantula which is also common in Texas and other states. They might look scary but won't hurt you unless you scare them.

 We were on our way to see the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge which is located 10 miles northwest of Taos.

This is a steel arch bridge that is the seventh-highest in the U.S. and was completed in 1966.

The bridge, which spans 1280 feet across a 600-foot deep gorge recently closed it's sidewalks to pedestrians due to a recent uptick in suicides, three in the week before they were closed!

There is a nice roadside park on the far side of the bridge that allows you to get a good view of it and the deep gorge below. It's fenced off from the gorge.

We looked up restaurants for dinner and found that La Cueva was a local favorite as well as for visitors and was reasonably priced. Parking was the biggest issue but after several drives around the block we lucked out and found a spot that was just vacated right in front of the restaurant. The building looked really small and we initially thought we were being escorted to the outside patio. It was cold and damp for those of us from Texas. Instead, we found that the restaurant is actually more than one building. the building we were in only held about 7 tables. We were quickly waited on. The menu is not huge.

An order of fajitas was served to the couple next to us and it didn't take us a minute to decide that we wanted to share an order of fajitas as well. Served with beans, rice, and tortillas as well as guacamole, sour cream, and pico de gallo, there was more than enough for two! It was delicious.

As I said it was cool out and getting colder by the minute but we definitely took advantage of the outdoor hot tub at the hotel. Another brave woman joined us just before we left. It felt wonderful and we weren't cold at all as we headed back to our room for the night at the El Pueblo Lodge. The place is old fashioned but really quite nice. The rooms are decent size and very clean. Each room has chairs and a small table in front to sit out at. They also have a fabulous breakfast buffet which included everything for great breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy, waffles, hard boiled eggs, cereal choices, pastries, juices, and great coffee. been a while since I've seen such a nice buffet at a hotel but then I'm an RV girl at heart and Elaine makes some fabulous breakfasts.