🌿 RelaxedLong weekend · from Albuquerque, NM
Taos & the High Road: Northern New Mexico's Art & Adobe Country
Northern New Mexico between Albuquerque and Taos is the most concentrated collection of adobe architecture, Native American pueblo culture, and working artist communities in the United States. The High Road to Taos — a 65-mile route through the Sangre de Cristo foothills on state roads — passes through Chimayó (home of the most-visited pilgrimage site in North America and the best chile in New Mexico), Córdova (a village where wood carving has been practiced by the same families for seven generations), Truchas (the setting for Robert Redford's 1988 film 'The Milagro Beanfield War'), and Las Trampas (a National Historic Landmark plaza village from 1751). Taos itself — a small city of 6,000 people with 80+ galleries, Taos Pueblo (a 1,000-year-old adobe village and UNESCO World Heritage Site), and a High Desert landscape that inspired Georgia O'Keeffe — is the destination.
Day 1 — Chimayó and the High Road to TaosDay 2 — Taos: the plaza, Taos Pueblo, and the Rio Grande GorgeDay 3 — Millicent Rogers Museum and the Low Road home through the Rio Grande canyon
Day 1 — Chimayó & High Road
Day 1 — Chimayó & High Road
🚗 1 hr driving📍 5 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Albuquerque, NM → Chimayó, NM
1 hr8:00 AM → 9:00 AM
El Santuario de Chimayó
★ 4.8The most visited pilgrimage site in North America — a 1816 adobe church on the High Road to Taos that draws 300,000 visitors per year, including 30,000 who walk the pilgrimage on Good Friday. The church is known for the 'holy dirt' in the pocito (a small hole in the sacristy floor) which pilgrims take home as a healing remedy; the room adjacent to the sacristy is filled with discarded crutches, wheelchairs, and hospital wristbands left by those who believe they were healed here. The church's twin bell towers and its setting in a cottonwood grove along the Santa Cruz River make it photographically one of the most beautiful buildings in New Mexico.
9:00 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
Rancho de Chimayó
★ 4.5The most famous New Mexican restaurant outside Santa Fe — an 1880s hacienda converted into a restaurant by the Jaramillo family in 1965, serving the Chimayó red chile (the most complex and smoky of New Mexico's regional varieties, grown in this specific valley and dried in the fall sun) in traditional New Mexican dishes. The posole, the tamales, and the enchiladas with Chimayó red are the essential plates; the sopapillas with honey close the meal. Lunch here is essential on the High Road.
10:00 AM📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
Las Trampas — San José de Gracia Church
A National Historic Landmark plaza village on the High Road — Las Trampas was established in 1751 by 12 families as a frontier outpost against Apache raids. The San José de Gracia church (1760), with its massive adobe walls, buttresses, and twin bell towers, is considered the finest surviving example of Spanish Colonial religious architecture in the United States; the interior retablo paintings and santos are original 18th-century works.
12:00 PM📍 See location
Truchas Overlook
★ 4.6The overlook above Truchas (population 1,200) with views east to Truchas Peak (13,102 feet, the second highest peak in New Mexico) and west over the Rio Grande valley — the most dramatic High Road viewpoint. The village of Truchas itself, perched on a ridge at 8,000 feet with unobstructed views in three directions, is the most isolated and most artistically active village on the High Road.
1:00 PM📍 See location
🌙
Evening
El Monte Sagrado, Taos
★ 4.3The most luxurious resort in Taos — an eco-resort on the acequia (historic irrigation ditch) in the center of Taos, with rooms designed around a central Sacred Circle garden and a spa using traditional New Mexican healing plants. The De La Tierra restaurant is the most sophisticated dinner in Taos. Alternative: the Inn on the Rio (a smaller adobe B&B on the Rio Pueblo).
5:00 PM📍 See location
Day 2 — Taos
Day 2 — Taos
📍 5 stops
🌅
Morning
Taos Pueblo
A UNESCO World Heritage Site and National Historic Landmark — a 1,000-year-old adobe pueblo of two multi-story residential blocks (North House and South House) still inhabited by approximately 150 permanent residents without electricity or running water. The pueblo is the largest existing multi-storied pueblo structure in the United States; the Taos people have occupied this site continuously since approximately 1000 CE. Guided tours depart from the admission gate; the Hlauuma (North House) and Hlaukwima (South House) are five stories tall with the original 13th-century core rooms still intact.
8:00 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
Taos Plaza & Gallery District
★ 4.5The central plaza and surrounding gallery district — Taos has 80+ galleries in a walkable 6-block area around the historic plaza, covering the full range of Southwest landscape painting, bronze sculpture, contemporary art, and traditional Native American work. The Taos Society of Artists (established 1915) created the artistic identity of the town; the Harwood Museum of Art on Ledoux Street is the best single institution for understanding Taos art history from the founding painters through contemporary artists.
9:00 AM📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
Rio Grande Gorge Bridge
★ 4.8The second highest suspension bridge in the federal highway system — a 1965 steel bridge spanning the Rio Grande 650 feet above the gorge floor, 10 miles west of Taos. The gorge cut 800 feet into the Taos Plateau; the view from the bridge walkway shows the river and the basalt canyon walls below and the open plateau stretching to the horizon above. The Taos Gorge is a year-round whitewater kayaking destination; the Class IV rapids in the Box Canyon section below the bridge are visible from the west rim trail.
12:00 PM📍 See location
🌙
Evening
Orlando's New Mexican Café
★ 4.6The most beloved local restaurant in Taos — a family-run café on Don Juan Valdez Lane serving traditional New Mexican cooking in the most genuine local setting in town. The blue corn enchiladas with Taos-grown green chile and the house-made posole are the reason to line up (no reservations; arrive early). The Orlando family has operated the restaurant for three generations.
5:00 PM📍 See location
Taos Inn
★ 4.4Night 2 in Taos — the Historic Taos Inn (1936, constructed around a 19th-century hacienda on Taos Plaza) is the most centrally located and atmospheric overnight in Taos, with the Adobe Bar live music room downstairs.
6:00 PM📍 See location
Day 3 — Taos & Low Road South
Day 3 — Taos & Low Road South
🚗 2 hr 10 min driving📍 1 stop
🌅
Morning
Millicent Rogers Museum
★ 4.8The most significant collection of Southwestern Native American and Spanish Colonial art in the region — assembled by Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers during her Taos years (1947–1953) before her death at 50. The collection includes 700 pieces of Pueblo pottery (the most important Rio Grande Pueblo pottery collection anywhere), 300 pieces of Navajo and Rio Grande weaving, and 600 pieces of jewelry spanning 1,200 years of Southwestern metalwork. The Maria Martinez polychrome pottery gallery is the most important collection of one potter's work in any museum.
8:00 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
🚗
Drive
Taos → Albuquerque, NM
2 hr 10 min9:00 AM → 11:10 AM
Plan your own escapeExplore more trips →