Taos, where we start, is three communities layered on the same ground, and it is worth being clear about them.
There is Taos Pueblo — a Native community that has been continuously inhabited for something like a thousand years, which makes it one of the oldest continuously occupied settlements anywhere in the United States. It is a sovereign nation, it is people's homes, and it is open to visitors on the Pueblo's own terms and at the Pueblo's own times. Go if it is open, pay the fee, follow the rules about photography, and understand you are a guest in a living village rather than a visitor to a monument.
There is the Hispano Taos — Spanish colonial from the sixteen hundreds onward, and the reason for the adobe, the plaza, the churches and a great deal of the food.
And there is the art colony, which arrived around nineteen hundred when two painters broke a wagon wheel nearby, looked around, and stayed. Taos has drawn artists and writers ever since.
The result is a small town with an unusual density of galleries, museums and very good food — and a set of cultural fault lines that locals will discuss with you frankly if you ask politely.
Photo: Ansel Adams · Public domain