Where is Taos Ski Valley?
Taos Ski Valley is located in northern New Mexico within the southern end of the Rocky Mountains.
Taos Ski Valley is 20 miles (32km) away from the town of Taos. Albuquerque is 2:15hours southwest of Taos, and Durango in Colorado is 3:15 hours away. Taos New Mexico is 72 miles (116km) from the town of Santa Fe.
Other Ski Resorts Nearby
Ski resorts near Taos New Mexico include Red River (35 minutes away) and Angel Fire (1 hour away).
Or further afield, you could include a few of the SW Colorado ski resorts on a road trip such as
Wolf Creek,
Purgatory,
Silverton and
Telluride.
Flying
Taos Regional Airport is a small airport predominantly for charter flights, and Santa Fe airport has daily flights from Dallas/Fort Worth and LAX.
The major gateway airport is in Albuquerque. There are shuttles from Albuquerque airport (and Taos and Sante Fe airports) to the ski area with Taos Ski Valley Airport Shuttle, but they are not very regular. Taos Transportation provides private on-demand transportation from any of the airports to Taos or Taos Ski Valley.
Driving to Taos New Mexico
You’ll probably want to
rent a car to get to Taos because the shuttle services between the town of Taos and the ski area are OK but not amazing. There are a large range of car rental agencies at the Albuquerque airport.
In this day and age of GPS car navigation systems and phones, you probably don’t need driving directions to Taos, but just in case here’s a rough outline. From Albuquerque take the I-25 north to Santa Fe, then highways 285, 84 and 68 to Taos. From Durango in Colorado take highway 160 to Pagosa Springs, highway 84 to Charma, highway 17 to Antonito, 285 to Tres Piedres and highway 64 to Taos. From West Texas, take the I-40 to Clines Corners, highway 285 to I-25 to Santa Fe, highway 285 to highway 68 to Taos.
Touristy Things Along the Way
If coming from Santa Fe, stop for a quick photo opportunity at the
camel rock monument. It’s essentially a big rock formation that looks like a camel sitting down. It’s located at the Tesque Pueblo between Santa Fe and Espanola, and not surprisingly across from a casino, the Camel Rock Casino.
If coming along route 64 (from the northwest) you’ll cross the
Rio Grande Gorge Bridge which is 10 miles (16km) from Taos town, and 7 miles from the turn off to Taos Ski Valley. This is one big mother of a gorge and is definitely worthy of a photo stop. It will leave you wondering how the hell the pioneers got their wagons across the river. The Texans wouldn’t have had “happy trails” on that particular day!
Driving from Taos to Taos Ski Valley
The drive to Taos Ski Valley from town takes about 25 minutes. Head north on the main road out of town, and take a right onto 150 at the traffic lights. This road continues, passing through the cute little town of Arroyo Seco, and finishes at Taos Ski Valley. The drive up to the ski area is very easy as the road meanders through the valley with no steep pitches. The road is very well ploughed so it almost never closes and is easy negotiated in a 2WD car, although you’ll look out of place amongst the Texans if you don’t have a big 4WD truck!
At the ski resort there are lots of parking lots for the day-trippers, all named after animals. These are serviced by frequent shuttle trucks to get you to the base areas. For overnight guests, most of the hotels have their own parking and a valet service.
Buses between Taos and Taos Ski Valley
A free bus is provided between the town of Taos and Taos Ski Valley (from the 3rd Saturday in December to the 4th Sunday in March). The Green Route bus stops at various hotels in town and at Arroyo Seco on its way to TSV. There are about 6-8 schedules per day. Taos hotels on the bus route include:
On Friday and Saturday nights there are also a couple of bus schedules for both the south-bound and north-bound routes.
A more flexible but more expensive option if you don’t have a car is to use taxi services to get between town and the ski area.
Getting Around TSV
The village at Taos Ski Village is compact and it’s easy to negotiate around the various buildings and areas on foot. The exception to this is to get to the Bavarian Lodge & Restaurant which is not at the main base area. The road to the Bavarian requires a 4WD, or there are shuttles for overnight guests or dinner guests. Alternatively during the day it is easily accessible via the slopes because it sits at the base of the #4 lift.
There is a collection of accommodations a couple of miles down the road from the Taos Ski Valley base area. Most of these provide a shuttle service to the TSV base area.