Taos, New Mexico Is a Great Snow Getaway Less Than Six Hours from Lubbock

Last weekend, the family and I went on adventure in search of snow, and all I can say is it was EPIC!

We decided to venture up north to New Mexico. Having been to Santa Fe, we knew we wanted to be close to that paradise, but also close to the biggest mountain ski resort the state has which is Taos Ski Valley, just north of Taos, NM.

Now that our destination was identified, the next move was finding a place to stay for a few nights. Hotels really aren't our thing, especially when having a teenager in the mix. Therefore we decided to try and find a quaint (at least two room) home, condo or apartment to rent. We've tried VRBO with some luck in the past, but the prices there came in a bit over budget.

About a year ago, a friend tipped us off to a new app/site called Airbnb (stands for bed and breakfast), a site that specalizes in rentals typically in a resort/tourist destination. Unlike VRBO, where listings are typically geared toward much larger family gatherings, Airbnb caters to couples who like the idea of a bed and breakfast, but don't always have the budget. Many Airbnb listings are owner occupied homes, where you rent a few rooms in the owners home, or perhaps they have a separate "in-laws" quarters on their property that they rent out.

Much to our surprise, we found an amazing two-story condo in the center of Taos that slept 6 and included parking, two fireplaces and a wonderful rooftop hot tub for the price of a nice hotel; about $160 a night! The constant snowfall really made sitting in the hot tub a bit of paradise, especially after a day of slaying the freshies on the mountain!

And about that mountain. Taos is intimidating from the base, with very few "green" runs in view from the main lodge. It started snowing early Friday morning, and continued through our visit all day on Saturday, so it wasn't hard to find run after challenging run of fresh stashes.

While there were a few spiny places where a rock creeped out from under a tree, all in all the blue, black and double black runs were unbelievable, and the tree runs absolutely killer! Unfortunately, the legendary Kachina Peak was closed during our visit, however for very good measure.

Listen, I come from the land of big mountain skiing, and often had my pick of storm or powder days. With big storms comes big powder and big avalanche danger. Not in 16 years of skiing have I ever heard avalanche blasting done like this, with many large explosions heard throughout the day, and the subsequent rumble of the heavy, wet snow careening down the mountain side; certainly a sound to behold!

There's a lot of powder up there now, and plenty of time to get in some runs at a bevvy of great New Mexico resorts. Good luck, and GET SOME!