I headed to Taos, NM again in November to teach another tapestry retreat at Mabel Dodge Luhan House. This time around I’ve made a video of that trip showing you some of my adventures in search of Mabel Dodge Luhan herself and the fun we had in the workshop.
You can watch the video below or if you get the blog via email, you can watch it on YouTube HERE.
Taos adventures
One of the adventures in the video is my search for the old road to Taos from the Rio Grande up the side of the canyon to the Taos plateau.
The Slide trail is now a hiking trail that goes from Taos Junction on the Rio Grande River just north of Pilar to the rim of the canyon. This would have been the route Mabel Dodge Luhan took in 1917 to get to Taos the first time.
View of the Rio Grande gorge as seen from the top of The Slide trail where the old road tops out on the way to Taos.
I spent some time looking for the old road to Taos. I first stopped at the overlook trailhead south of town and realized I was not going to have time to hike all the way to the canyon where the old road comes up from Taos Junction and the Rio Grande river. I noticed another trailhead I didn’t know about and was able to drive to the edge of the canyon to the point where the old road emerges.
I did this because I was imagining Mabel Dodge Luhan coming up to Taos in 1917 in a Ford car from Santa Fe and how that journey was such a long way to go over a rough road back then. You can’t drive on the old road any more and much of it is obscured with rockfall, but you can hike down it. And so I took a little time to hike down The Slide trail. In the video I read a short portion of Mabel’s book, Edge of Taos Desert and her observations about this drive. If you want to read one of Mabel’s many memoirs, this is the one I recommend!
The Slide trail with cholla cactus in November 2024
Teaching tapestry in Taos
I was in Taos to teach a retreat at Mabel Dodge Luhan House. It was a design retreat and we spent the week working through tapestry problems brought by the students. I challenged everyone to bring their own ideas and the result was we had 12 very different projects happening at the same time. This is a wonderful way to share learning especially among a group of people who have come together to weave like this every year for many years now.
November 2024 Taos tapestry retreat L → R: Jon, Karen A, Lisa, Kathy, Gwen, Rebecca, Karen M, Anna, Beth, Victoria, Ercil, Robin, and Cindy
The video linked above has more images from the retreat.
Taos Wools and Ski Valley hiking
Rebecca Mezoff, Emergence I, 48 × 48 inches, hand-dyed wool tapestry
We headed to Taos Wools one afternoon for some yarn browsing, purchasing, and laughing. We also had a look at my Emergence I tapestry which is for sale there.
While Soos the dog was not present this year, we still had a lot of laughs. Some people (ahem!) bought lots of yarn, some people bought just a skein or two. But I think everyone went away happy with their yarn and tapestry experience.
I stopped for Taos Cow ice cream and took a hike on one of the Taos Ski Valley trails before heading back to Mabel Dodge Luhan House for dinner. You can see images of the hike in the video above.
Yarn discussions happening at Taos Wools. I think you had to be there…
The video has images of what we worked on, what we ate, and my other adventures of the week.