After visiting Chaco Canyon and Aztec Ruins, we drove to Taos. The drive from Aztec to Taos is gorgeous. You have to cross some part of the Rockies, and the high elevation meant there was still plenty of snow on the ground along the way. It was really really pretty. I was also excited to cross the continental divide. There is something so magical in crossing this invisible line where rain falling on one side will go to the Pacific and rain falling on the other will go to the Atlantic. There is very little to tell you that you crossed it, aside from the convenient sign. That we now know where it passes with great accuracy always makes me think about all the engineering achievements of the 20th century, and though today we look at some of them critically (Powell lake, anyone?), they are still inspiring to me. It also marks an important milestone in our trip. It is as if we are now starting to descend towards the south, though geographically speaking, this is not entirely true.

Continental Divide!

In Taos we stayed at a place Orit booked for us a long time ago called Hobbit House, one of the first Earthships ever built. It is a house designed to be vastly more sustainable than houses back in the 70s, when it was built, and is probably still more sustainable than many of today’s ordinary houses. It achieves this in several ways. First, it is partially dug into the ground (kind of like Puebloan pit-houses), so that its floor is below the frost depth, and does not get as cold as the air and ground outside. Second, its walls are made of discarded tires, tightly filled in with earth that make for a heavy thick wall that “… provide[s] thermal mass that naturally regulates the interior temperature during both cold and hot outside temperatures” (from the earthships wikipedia article). It also has a green house where plants grow in a hot and humid air, even as the temperature outside is much colder, and can warm up the house at the end of a cold day. Newer earthships also have water recycling systems, collecting rainwater and using each drop several times (to drink, clean, flush and finally grow plants). They also have solar panels and are generally self sustaining and off the grid.

The kitchen, standing at the entrance to the house

The main bed, social area and stairs to the second bed, standing at the entrance to the house

The fireplace, and a nice organic main support column

There were a lot of things I really enjoyed about Hobbit House. The greenhouse runs along the length of the house, and the shower and bathroom are in it. Taking a shower in an open stall in the middle of a lush greenhouse was quite fun. The toilet is also in the greenhouse - it is a normal toilet, just at the edge of the greenhouse. It is quite something to walk to it through the thick vegetation. Smells are much less of an issue in this setup!

Looking towards the bed from the kitchen. Notice the huge windows, which separate the living area from the greenhouse

Standing at the entrance looking towards the greenhouse section, with the door closed

Now with the door open, the first thing you see is the shower

The greenhouse, standing in the shower area. Notice the toilet at the other end

The look and feel of the house are very special and make it clear why it is called Hobbit House. I can’t say that I would like to live in a house that looks like that full time, but as a place to stay for one night it was really cool. Orit and I were both very inspired by the sustainability aspects though, and we kept dreaming of how we’ll take some of those concepts and apply them to our house in California.

The door to the house, and the roof above the living area

A look over the living area’s roof. Notice the mound of dirt acting as a thermal mass

A view from the greenhouse side, which faces south and gets tons of sun most days of the year

Taos itself was not incredibly interesting. This is still off season here, and there were not that many people in the touristy part of town, and the whole place felt a bit sleepy. We lucked out and got a spot at Doc Martin’s for dinner, and enjoyed really good food. It tasted even better considering that we’ve been traveling in rural and really small places for the past several weeks.

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