A palpable sense of Wild West, enchanting history and red-hot chillis: Why New Mexico should be your next US trip

Ancient arrow heads are being sold by members of the Taos Pueblo Native American tribe on the banks of the Rio Grande gorge, New Mexico’s most dramatic beauty spot. The sheer drop is dizzying with the hidden ravine 800ft deep and slit-narrow as if the desert land has been slashed by a hunting knife. The desert landscape around Taos is mesmerising and the Native American trinkets and jewellery quietly indicate how Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque are still the beating heart of the once very Wild West, or to be precise, the Southwest.

This enthralling natural scenery with the Rocky Mountain snowy peaks glittering on the horizon