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VISITING TAOS

El Monte Sagrado Living Resort and Spa is a true discovery; a spot of enchantment in an area already known for its life-altering beauty. While visiting El Monte Sagrado, you will benefit from the expertise of experienced hospitality professionals as they guide you through the many opportunities to connect to Taos and Northern New Mexico. We can help you customize your engagement with all Taos attractions: area maps, local guides with our partner Heritage Inspirations, and more; it is our pleasure to help you find and enjoy things to do in beautiful, engaging Taos, NM.

Every season brings new festivals, celebrations, concerts, lectures and museum exhibitions to Taos. From Pueblo ceremonies to film festivals, visitors will find a variety of attractions and activities.  Learn more below.

Only a short distance from El Monte Sagrado is the heart of Taos — our famed Plaza. El Monte Sagrado offers complimentary shuttle service to the Plaza where you can experience a wide array of shopping.

The Mabel Dodge Luhan House, the Harwood Museum of Art, the Kit Carson Home & Museum - these are just some of the fascinating destinations to explore fine and modern art, to dive into history and to understand Taos and the people who've shaped its artistic and cultural landscapes.  Learn more below.

Cordova, Truchas, and Ojo Sarco, small towns along the high-road to Taos, feature galleries sellings woodcarvings, pottery, rugs, and other local arts and crafts. In Las Trampas, an 18th-century mission church is one of New Mexico's best-preserved examples of Spanish Colonial architecture. Pick up NM 518 at Peñasco and wind your way through the Carson National Forest to US 68 at Ranchos de Taos, where you'll see the famous San Francisco de Assisi Church, photographed and painted by many artists.

Take off on lightweight snowshoes along the scenic back countrytails with our partner Heritage Inspirations for a day of fun in the snow like no other. Guide Angelisa Murray leads guests on a two-hour walk through the beautiful Amole Canyon in the Carson National Forest (at an elevation of 8,150 feet). Tours include snowshoe and pole rentals, a gourmet pack lunch and transportation to and from the trail. Learn more on the Heritage Inspirations website and book your room package by calling 575.779.5516.  Learn more below.

Offering Daily Half & Full Day Tours that invite you to experience the adventure, culture, art and wellness of Taos with our local guides. Visit our tour office located at El Monte Sagrado Resort & Spa.

Hours: 9:30am-4pm Tue-Sun
Phone: 1-888-344-TOUR (1-888-344-8687)
Email: info@heritageinspirations.com
HeritageInspirations.com

Learn more below.

Get a quick taste of Taos’s great outdoor surroundings with this active half-day tour. Journey to Taos’ outskirts to walk the seventh tallest bridge in the U.S., the Taos Gorge Bridge, and then take a nearby Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument hike on the La Vista Verde Trail. This 2 ½ mile, 6.400-foot round trip expedition offers breathtaking scenery and spectacular panoramic views of the raging waters within the plungingly steep walled gorge at your feet. Learn more below.

Go deeper than most visitors by learning and interacting with the Taos Puebloans through this horno bread baking tour. Learn about these adobe arched outdoor ovens and the best ways to shape and bake Puebloan bread, directly from a Taos tribal member. After making bread, walk through and explore Taos Pueblo, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for their continuously inhabited 1000 year+ adobe buildings, and then have lunch at a local grandmother’s café. Learn more below.

Explore Taos’ Puebloan culture and the land Puebloans have called home for 1000s of years with a visit to Taos Pueblo, Taos Gorge Bridge and the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument. This interpretive guided experience highlights prehistoric dwellings and the stunning geological background of the Rio Grande Rift Valley. After exploring the village’s historical and modern-day contexts, see how the river has carved out an 800-foot descent through the thick lava walls of basalt rock and hike within the canyon volcanic floor of this breathtaking landscape. Learn more below.

As the eternal promise of the rising sun marks a new day, we invite you to join our yoga instructors for a morning to remember. Upon arrival we will depart on a 1/2 mile moderate hike to a stunning overlook. There you will orient your mat and spirit to the cresting sun as you enjoy a private, hour long yoga practice.  Before returning to the trailhead we will take time for self-reflection as we absorb the canyon views, the distant sound of the Rio Grande, and the fresh scent of desert sage.  Learn more below.

We invite you to immerse in ancient traditions as we visit the Naranjo family at their home on the Ohkay Owingeh (formally the San Juan) Pueblo. In a familial setting, you will be invited to prepare food, share stories, feast, and bake with the traditional dome shaped adobe “Horno” ovens. Learn more below.

This three-day, two-night glamping experience features the best of Taos hiking in the Rio Grande Valley, stand-up paddle boarding on Lake Abiquiu within Tewa Country, farm-to-table dining and sleeping in a fusion of glamour and Taos camping. Journey With Us and read how we have cultivated this experience in our Travel Blog and our first Perseid Meteor Experience.  Learn more below.

Experience all the cultures of the Southwest under one roof. Twenty galleries and exhibition spaces exploring the heritage of the Hispanic, Native American, and Anglo arts of the Southwest, started with Millicent Rogers' distinguished collection of Native American silver and turquoise jewelry, and Navajo and Rio Grande weavings. Over the course of more than fifty years, the Museum's collections have grown to include traditional and contemporary Hispanic religious and domestic arts, pottery, paintings, photography, and graphics, and a wide range of arts and crafts from the many cultures of northern New Mexico. On permanent display is a unique collection of pottery by the famed Maria Martinez. The Hispanic collections feature religious sculpture and painting, Spanish Colonial furniture, and textiles. Visit MillicentRogers.org for more information.  Learn more below.

Half a mile north of Taos Plaza is the Taos Art Museum at the Fechin House, dedicated to the art of early twentieth century Taos. The museum is housed in the studio and home that artist Nicolai Fechin built for his family between 1927 and 1933. The heart of the museum is a collection of paintings by the masters of the Taos Society of Artists — a collection of approximately 600 paintings, drawings, prints and other artifacts of the Taos Society of Artists.  Learn more below.

From May through October, you can visit the homes and studios of E. I. Couse, one of the founding members of the Taos Society of Artists and its first President, and Joseph H. Sharp, also a founding member. It is the only surviving intact home and studio complex of a founder of the internationally-known Society and Art Colony that established Taos as the origin of today’s widely emulated Southwest art genre. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (2005), the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties (2004), and as a National Trust Historic Artist’s Studio (2002) – one of only 35 such properties nationwide.  Learn more below.

The E.L. Blumenschein Home and Museum is maintained much as it was when the artist and his family were alive. The home is filled with a superb collection of the Blumenschein family's art, a representative sampling of works by other famous Taos artists, fine European and Spanish Colonial style antiques, and the family's lifetime of personal possessions. The home beautifully illustrates the lifestyle of Taos artists in the first half of the twentieth century and commemorates the formation of the Taos Society of Artists (often credited to E.L. Blumenschein) and the establishing of Taos as a world-renowned art colony. The E.L. Blumenschein Home and Museum was registered as a National Historic Landmark in 1966.  Learn more below.