6/24/2023 0 Comments Electric sheep taos![]() ![]() It turned out to be one of the most beautiful roads in the state. Time to adjust and improvise.A patrolman said the only pass open that fall morning was Buffalo Pass on Highway 114, a road we had never traveled that dropped us into the San Luis Valley. When we awoke in Ridgway, heads foggy from the previous evening’s margaritas – a Taos trip tradition – we found that it had snowed 9-plus inches on the high passes. The high mountain scenery, coupled with the decompression that comes naturally as the wheels roll down the road, would be well worth the extra time.But this year, weather forced a serendipitous change of plans. In all, we’d count eight to 10 hours of drive time, about five-plus hours longer than the direct route over Independence Pass. Our chosen path would take us over McClure Pass to Ridgway, where we would spend the night, and then over Red Mountain and Molas Passes on the incomparably beautiful Highway 550, down through Pagosa Springs and finally to the high desert straightaway that leads to the Rio Grande Gorge and Taos. We had opted for what we call “the high road” to Taos (the actual “High Road To Taos” runs from Santa Fe through Truchas to Taos). Oh, and there’s one of the best ski hills in all the West. No one knows us, the hotels are funky, the art inspiring and the restaurants exceptional. It was the end of an October day that had started in the gloom of a mountain snowstorm and ended with fresh autumn air in Taos, N.M., one of my favorite places on earth.My wife and I have made the trek to Taos for periodic rejuvenation for a number of years from our home here in Aspen. A face full of wind.Looking into the western sky as the sun set over the mesa, a rush of warm wind caught me jaw high.
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