Off to your west, out across the sagebrush plain, the ground simply opens up — that is the Rio Grande Gorge, and it is one of the more dramatic things in the state.
The river has cut a slot six or seven hundred feet deep into the basalt of the plain, and from a distance you cannot see it at all; the land looks flat right up until the edge. The bridge west of Taos crosses it, and standing on that bridge looking down is a genuinely vertiginous experience.
The gorge exists because of the rift. The continent pulling apart dropped this whole basin, lava flowed across it, and then the river spent a couple of million years sawing down through the lava.
Down in the bottom there are hot springs, and world-class whitewater in the season, and bighorn sheep on the walls.
It is a short detour west from Taos rather than on our loop, but if you have an extra hour either before or after this drive, the bridge is worth it. Go at sunrise; the light comes down the gorge walls and it is spectacular.
For now we run north, with the mountains on our right and the plain falling away left.
Photo: Daniel Schwen · CC BY-SA 4.0