Driving in Snowmobiles at Taos Ski Resort through the snow capped mountains was not only breathtakingly gorgeous, but so much fun!  Our family took a road trip to New Mexico over the Christmas holiday, and we had such a great time playing in the snow. You may have read about our Taos Ski Valley lodging and the beautiful home we rented for the week, and also the New Mexico Skiing we visited in Red River. On our 2nd day in town, we rented Snowmobiles at Taos Ski Resort, and once again, had a blast!  We love travel adventures, head on over to our travel section after you read this to see more family vacation ideas!
Snowmobiles at Taos Ski Resort
On day 2 of our Taos adventure, we drove up to the Taos Ski Resort, but not to ski! I had heard that this particular Ski Resort is a 4 letter word for STEEP! That’s why we opted not to ski there. It was definitely a bigger mountain, nicer resort for sure, but more expensive, and we were happy with Red River, and that adorable little town.
We met at the ski resort to meet our snowmobile group. Luckily with the 6 of us, we only had to pay to rent 1 snowmobile per pair, which was $100. So yeah…$300 for 3 snowmobiles. It was an interesting deal where we met, and they shoved us all into the back of a covered truck, and drove a few miles up a mountain. It was a weird situation. It was a SMALL truck, not a big truck, and the glass covering on the back was way bigger and taller than the cab, and looked like it could toppled over at any moment. But of course we squished right in along with a bunch of strangers, and just went for it!  (See my video at the end of this post)
I was actually pretty frustrated because we booked the 3-6:30 tour, and I knew it was dark at 5, but we didn’t actually get on our mobiles to start driving until 4:30. So by the time we got to the top of the mountain, it was pitch black. That was a bummer, I felt the person I booked with on the phone led me astray. But besides that, we had a lot of fun. I was bummed because I didn’t get a whole lot of pictures. Because of their lateness and the darkness and being in a group, and having to take off my thick gloves to fish my phone camera out from the inside of my jacket, it was TOUGH to take pictures! I managed to get a few though!
This image of our entire family, we had our entire group looking at us, my team Duke were such troopers! Sometimes, you gotta fight for the good pictures, my friends! We were going to be all split up in different mobiles, and I could foresee the future…I wasn’t going to get another chance, so I had to take it. Luckily my husband didn’t put up a fight (sometimes he sighs with “Kristen….{deep breath} do we need to?”) Â He now knows we just need to hurry and get it overwith.
Once we got instruction and hit the trails, I had my older daughter on the back with me, and there were some GORGEOUS, indescribable sites, I was in awe with the fresh snow topping gigantic super tall Christmas looking trees. Â {Imagine me digging my phone camera out of my coat and pulling off 2 sets of gloves for each shot, in between driving a snowmobile–of course I was stopped}
Our guide (a 50 year old mountain man) wanted the teen drivers up front, so my son and another kid was right behind him). He then was going to have my husband/youngest behind them, and us like FIVE mobiles back, and I felt that burning inside me just wanting to scream out at the audacity that he’s SPLIT UP MY FAMILY for this experience, and I just had to speak up….”Excuse me, is it ok if I ride next to my family??” He didn’t get it, that I wanted to be by them, and luckily I didn’t have to explain. I think he thought it was because I was worried about them, but oh no…I just needed to. Maybe for pictures, maybe just so I could see them enjoying the experience.
My youngest in her pink coat ahead of us.
THESE TREES!! WITH SNOW!!! Â It’s quite possible I was driving and photo-ing in this image, but you’ll never know. We could have been stopped??
It was actually quite tricky to drive the snowmobiles around because my hand kept cramping from squeezing the handlebar which made us go. Beside that, it was part frozen, and at one point, I tried to turn, and didn’t quite make the turn, and we ran into a snow bank. We were 5th in a line of 15 snowmobiles, and no one in front of us noticed (all the rest of my family and the tour guide) but luckily there was an assistant guide trailing that ran up to help us. We totally and completely slid off of the mobiles and fell in the snow and must have looked scary to the folks behind us, be we weren’t hurt at all, it was actually quite funny!  The mobile had killed, so he started it back up and we were good as new. Our was the only incident like that in our group.
I would HIGHLY recommend a snowmobile tour if you find yourself in the mountains in the winter, it was a lot of fun, even despite most of it in the dark.
There were a few harrowing moments with cliffs below that I had to chant in my head, “keep your eyes in front of you, don’t go too fast, hug the side of the mountain” but all was well. My 16 year old son drove his 14 year old brother, and my youngest was with my husband.
Here is a very short video of us in the truck and the dark view at the top of the mountain
Just for a reference, here is the Taos Ski Resort LIFT in the background
Don’t forget to check out our family travel posts to read other places we’ve been!
AND, if you are shopping for fun stuff (and not borrowing like we did) here are my warm clothing suggestions! I like bright colors, in case you didn’t know!
