Taos Ski Valley, NM

Taos Ski Valley is a village and alpine ski resort in the southwestern United States, located in Taos County, New Mexico. The 2020 census counted 77 residents. Until March 19, 2008, it was one of four ski resorts in America to prohibit snowboarding. The Kachina lift, constructed in 2014, serves one of the highest elevations of any triple chair in North America, to a peak of 12,481 feet above sea level. Tourism is the village's main industry. Almost all of the CDP is within Taos Municipal Schools, with a very small remainder in Questa Independent Schools. The former operates Taos High School. That mix gives Taos Ski Valley a clear local shape within New Mexico, with older layers still visible in current places.

The local scoop is a place whose streets, landmarks, and institutions keep its earlier story close to the present. In the 1800s, present-day Taos Ski Valley was the site of a small copper mining town called Twining, New Mexico, which was later abandoned. In 1955, Ernie and Rhoda Blake founded the area as a ski mountain. Taos Ski Valley is one of the highest municipalities in the US, sited at an elevation of 9,321 feet; however, the village limits reach 12,581 feet and the highest residential dwelling is at 10,350 feet.