Southwest Hiking Adventure

Santa Fe & Taos, New Mexico

Resources

Weather
sun Santa Fe and Taos are in the high desert of New Mexico, where the sun shines 300 days a year. Santa Fe only gets 10 inches of precipitation per year (compared to 47 in New York City). The rainiest months are July and August, when monsoon season brings thunderstorms.

Due to the elevation (about 7,000 ft), it does get cold, with snow in the winter. Even in the summer, it can be chilly at night, so plan for a wide range of temperatures. Our trips are in spring and fall, which are generally the most comfortable seasons.

    Santa Fe weather averages
    Taos weather averages
         Santa Fe current forecast
       Taos current forecast

Trip goodies
Find assorted goodies related to your trip in our

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Whenever we run across an interesting tidbit related to our Santa Fe & Taos trips, we post it on the blog.

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Reading list
Recommended reading for your Santa Fe trip - read about Santa Fe, Taos, desert life, Anasazi ruins, and adventurous wenches of the area.

cover The Spell of New Mexico - Tony Hillerman,
105 pp. A rich gathering of essays
that evoke the unique and mysterious
appeal New Mexico has had for some of the 20th century's best-known writers.

cover Compass American Guides: Santa Fe, 4th edition - Lawrence Cheek, 268 pp. In depth coverage of the history, culture & character of Santa Fe. Lushly illustrated and intelligently written.

cover In Search of the Old Ones - David Roberts, 272 pp. The author weaves his real-life adventure with one of America's great mysteries: who were the Anasazi, and what caused them to abandon their homeland in 1300 AD? * A personal favorite - fascinating!

cover Desert Solitaire - Edward Abbey, 352 pp. Colorful, prickly, and laugh-out-loud funny, Cactus Ed captures the heat, mystery & surprising bounty of desert life. Written about his time near Moab, but has broad desert appeal.

cover Death Comes for the Archbishop (Vintage Classics) - Willa Cather, 304 pp. This historical novel is based on the life of Bishop Jean Baptiste L'Amy and his efforts to organize the Catholic diocese of New Mexico.

cover Georgia O'Keeffe (World of Art) - Lisa Mintz Messinger, 192 pp. Supervised by the artist herself, with color plates of her work, descriptive text, and pictures of Georgia from different times in her life.

cover The Great Taos Bank Robbery: And Other True Stories of the Southwest - Tony Hillerman, 192 pp. The master storyteller relates amusing and riveting true stories about life in New Mexico.

cover Edge of Taos Desert: An Escape to Reality - Mabel Dodge Luhan, 338 pp. Autobiography of a New York socialite who moved to Taos (1917), fell in love with a Taos Indian, and changed herself and the town forever. * Personal favorite - a unique view.

cover The Lethal Partner - Jake Page, 246 pp. A murder mystery set in Santa Fe, with fake (?) O'Keeffe paintings, twists and turns, memorable characters, and lots of local color.

cover The Delight Makers - Adolph Bandelier, 528 pp. The famous Swiss-American archaeologist (Bandelier National Monument was named for him) wrote this fictional reconstruction of ancient Anasazi life.

cover Spider Woman's Web: Traditional Native American Tales About Women's Power - Susan Hazen-Hammond, 242 pp. Collection of native stories celebrating women's power, and meditations to relate these to life today.

cover Turn Left at the Sleeping Dog: Scripting the Santa Fe Legend, 1920-1955 - John Pen La Farge, 396 pp. Oral histories from a wide variety of Santa Fe residents, who tell what life here was like in the "good old days".

People of Chaco: A Canyon and Its Culture, Updated and Expanded Edition - Kendrick Frazier, 320 pp. This is the essential book on the spectacular and puzzling Anasazi ruins of Chaco Canyon, where the culture reached a peak.

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