Photograph: Taos, New Mexico by MARELBU, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Taos is a town of about 6,500 people in Taos County, north-central New Mexico, set between the Rio Grande Gorge and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains at an elevation of 6,969 feet, roughly 2,100 metres, and it sits beside Taos Pueblo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the town's namesake. Its name comes from the Taos language and means, in the English encyclopaedia's words, place of red willows. Packing for Taos means packing for altitude, strong sun, nights that run far colder than the days, winter snow and summer lightning, and for a living community at the Pueblo that sets its own rules for visitors.
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The photograph above shows a short brick lane in the town between low adobe buildings with rounded walls in tan plaster, green market umbrellas, a lamp post hung with a basket of flowers and a stone planter of red and white flowers, under a pale cloudy sky, with a street sign reading Juan Largo at the right. It cannot show the things that make Taos. There is no Taos Pueblo in it, no Plaza, no mountains, no gorge and no bridge, no snow and no people. It is a quiet corner of the adobe town and should be read as nothing more than that.
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What Is Here
Taos is three places with one name, and the travel guide Wikivoyage says to know which one you are going to. There is the town itself; Taos Pueblo, just north of it; and Ranchos de Taos, a small village to the south that the guide calls notable for its much-photographed church. Taos Ski Valley lies about 20 miles north in the mountains, and the Taos Box is a stretch of the Rio Grande the guide calls known for its whitewater.
The town's history is layered. The English encyclopaedia says Spanish colonists first founded it in 1615 as Don Fernando de Taos, that it was only intermittently occupied until the late eighteenth century, and that it became a permanent settlement in 1795, a fortified plaza and trading outpost. During the Mexican-American War the region was occupied by the United States, which triggered the rebellion known as the Taos Revolt, in which, Wikivoyage records, the newly appointed governor Charles Bent was killed.
Painters arrived at the end of the nineteenth century, and the encyclopaedia names Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips among the first, with six artists forming the Taos Society of Artists in 1915. Georgia O'Keeffe, D. H. Lawrence and Dennis Hopper followed, and the town gained a reputation, in the encyclopaedia's quoted phrases, as a counterculture mecca and a beacon for artists. Wikivoyage describes Taos Plaza as a shady square surrounded by adobe architecture that gets clogged with tourists in summer, with restaurants, hotels and former homes of art colony founders, now museums and galleries, around it.
Taos Pueblo
Taos Pueblo is a living community, not a museum. The encyclopaedia says it borders the north of the town, has been occupied for nearly a millennium and is estimated to have been built between 1000 and 1450 AD, and it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1992. The Pueblo is one of the federally recognised Native American tribal governments of the United States, and it decides on what terms visitors come in.
Wikivoyage describes it as open to visitors under controlled conditions, notes an additional fee for photography, and says it closes occasionally for religious ceremonies, including an extended closure in early spring, usually around Easter. Our advice is to check opening on the Pueblo's own website on the day, to ask before you photograph any person, to stay out of any area that is marked closed, and to buy pottery or jewellery at the Pueblo itself if you want to buy any. Wikivoyage says good Taos pottery has a sparkle from tiny flecks of mica. The guide also lists the Taos Pueblo Pow Wow in July, the feast day of San Geronimo on 30 September and a Christmas Eve procession with bonfires; confirm any date on the Pueblo's site before you plan around it.
The Gorge and the Mountains
West of town, the Rio Grande has cut a gorge through basalt, and the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge crosses it about ten miles northwest of Taos on US Route 64, high above the river. Wikivoyage notes observation platforms at each end. Our advice: wear shoes with grip, keep well back from any unfenced edge, and hold onto your phone over the rail.
North of the town, Wheeler Peak, at 13,161 feet, is the highest point in New Mexico, the encyclopaedia says, and the ski valley sits in the same mountains. Wikivoyage calls Taos Ski Valley notoriously challenging. The FCDO advises taking advice on weather and avalanche conditions before you travel and says off-piste skiing is very dangerous and can invalidate your travel insurance.
When to Go
Taos has a warm-summer humid continental climate that borders on semi-arid, and the encyclopaedia says it is characterised by extreme swings between day and night temperatures: even when summer days get extremely hot, nights cool off considerably. Wikivoyage says winter visitors should be prepared for very cold temperatures. We do not print temperatures, because our two sources give different figures.
Each season has its hazard. Wikivoyage says winter road conditions call for snow tyres and chains or four wheel drive from November through March, that avalanche conditions are frequent in the mountains, and that in summer the Sangre de Cristos generate thunderstorms with frequent lightning strikes, so hikers should be off the high summits by 1pm at the latest. The FCDO adds that wildfires are a danger in many dry areas, particularly in canyons, hills and forests, and that high winds can spread them rapidly.
Getting There
Wikivoyage puts Taos about two hours' drive north of Santa Fe and gives the Albuquerque airport as about three hours' driving time. It describes two routes up from Santa Fe: New Mexico 68 along the banks of the Rio Grande, and the slower, higher High Road to Taos through Chimayo. It warns that the passes through the mountains are few and may close in winter for snow, that rock slides are a danger mainly on New Mexico 68 between Espanola and Taos, and that northern New Mexico has severe problems with drunk driving, so be vigilant on the highways after dark.
The FCDO's driving advice fits this country: check the weather before a long journey, particularly in mountainous, isolated or desert areas where services may be limited, do not sleep in your car by the road or in rest areas, leave nothing on display in the car, and never leave a passport in a rental car. Wikivoyage also recommends keeping warm clothing and an emergency kit in the car in winter.
Is Taos Safe for Women Travelers
The FCDO names no area of the United States to avoid, read on 10 November 2026, but it does carry a national warning. It says terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in the US, that violent crime and gun crime rarely affect tourists, and that you should take care in unfamiliar areas and try not to walk through quieter areas alone, especially at night. Wikivoyage says the parts of Taos that interest travellers generally have little crime, though theft from unlocked cars is possible, particularly at trailheads in the national forest.
The FCDO adds that you must always carry a passport showing you may be in the US, that the legal age for buying and drinking alcohol is 21, and that illegal drugs, including cannabis, carry severe penalties, telling you to check state law on controlled substances. For walking, it says to check forecasts, carry a map, compass, GPS and a way to call for help, and to leave your itinerary with someone, noting that risks are greater if you go alone. Our advice for a woman hiking alone here: tell someone your route and return time, start early, and turn back at the first sign of a building storm.
The Taos Packing List
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and in our view a lightweight long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the most useful single piece for Taos. It covers your arms under a strong high altitude sun, and it is the first layer you add when the sun goes down and the temperature drops.
For the Swing from Day to Night
Our suggestion is to dress in layers you can add and remove. A fleece mid layer goes over the merino on any evening, and from late autumn to spring an insulated hooded jacket and a merino beanie earn their space. In summer, a packable rain jacket covers the afternoon storms.
For Sun and Trails
At this altitude a wide brim sun hat is our first pick. Our affiliate register carries no sunscreen and no eyewear, so bring high factor sun cream and sunglasses of your own. For the gorge rim, the Plaza's brick and any mountain trail, hiking shoes with real grip are what we would pack. That is our sixth affiliate link, which is our limit per post, so we have not linked a water bottle; carry one anyway, because the FCDO lists altitude sickness as a risk in parts of the US, and our advice is to drink plenty and take the first day slowly.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Taos
Emergency number: 911 for ambulance, fire and police, according to the FCDO's getting help page; its health page says to dial 911 and ask for an ambulance.
Medical care: Holy Cross Hospital is the hospital listed for Taos in the English encyclopaedia's list of New Mexico hospitals. The FCDO says medical treatment in the US is expensive, that there are no special arrangements for British visitors, that some hospitals ask non-US residents for a deposit on admission, which you should send to your travel insurer first, and that UK prescriptions are not valid in the US, so bring enough of your medication. Check vaccines and health risks on TravelHealthPro's USA page.
US State Department travel advisory: there is none, and this is not an omission. The State Department issues travel advisories for other countries, not for the United States itself, so no US advisory for this destination exists to link. In its place, the Government of Canada advice for the United States gives an equivalent third-country assessment.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/usa, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits. The FCDO names no advised-against areas anywhere in the United States. The same advice also covers Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Official health authority: the CDC travellers' health pages, the US federal health authority for visitors.
Embassy contact: the United States is the host country, so there is no US embassy to contact. Your own country's embassy is in Washington DC, with consulates in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Miami and Boston. Find yours before you travel and save the number.
Official tourism authority: Brand USA, the national tourism marketing body, covers the whole country; for the Pueblo, use the Pueblo's own website.
Solo women safety assessment: Wikivoyage describes the parts of Taos that travellers visit as having little crime, and the FCDO says violent crime rarely affects tourists, so the main risks here are the land and the roads. Altitude, strong sun, sudden cold at night, winter snow and summer lightning are the hazards to plan for, along with drunk drivers on the highways after dark. Our advice: tell someone your plans when you hike, be off high ground by early afternoon in summer, drive the mountain roads by day, keep nothing on display in the car, and respect the Pueblo's rules on entry and photography. Emergency 911.
Takeaways
Taos is an adobe town at altitude beside a thousand-year-old Pueblo, with a gorge to the west and high mountains to the north. Our advice: pack layers for a big drop at night, sun cover, grippy shoes and winter warmth from late autumn, check the Pueblo's website before you go, and treat the roads, the snow and the summer storms with respect.
Reading On
The Santa Fe packing list covers the capital two hours south and the High Road that links it to Taos, and the Albuquerque packing list the city whose airport Wikivoyage lists as one of the nearest with extensive commercial service. North across the Colorado border, read the Denver packing list and the Colorado Springs packing list, and for Arizona's red rock, the Sedona packing list. The USA travel guide for women covers the whole country. For why one wool layer works from a hot afternoon to a freezing night, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women, and every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women. The base layers themselves are in the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
