Dixon, New Mexico The Funnel of the Mountains

Around Town

1. Embudo Valley Library and Community Center

   In Dixon, on the library's 1.5-acre grounds with the community center, orchard, and park

   Founded in 1992 by volunteers, the library bought this property in 2002 and opened its current 3,000-square-foot building in 2014. It serves communities from Velarde to Vadito and received the 2015 National Medal for Museum and Library Service.^{10, 11}

2. Dixon Cooperative Market

   On the library grounds in Dixon, in the original Zeller's/Lebeo's store building

   The co-op market opened in 2005 and has since expanded to a full-service grocery store and deli. The Dixon Studio Tour notes that there is an ATM at the market.^{10, 12}

3. La Chiripada Winery

   In the Rio Embudo Valley at Dixon

   Michael and Patrick Johnson established La Chiripada in 1977 and built the winery in 1981 in traditional southwestern style, with adobe bricks, vigas, and latillas, harvesting their first commercial vintage that same year. The winery describes itself as New Mexico's oldest winery; at 6,100 feet, it also calls itself one of the highest commercial grape-growing ventures in the world.¹³

4. Embudo Presbyterian Church

   Dixon (view the exterior from public ground)

   The congregation organized in 1889 and dedicated its first church building in 1899. After that building burned, a second church designed by the Reverend Tomas Atencio was erected in 1922, and the mission school the community built beside it taught local children for decades.⁶

5. Embudo Historic District and the first USGS streamgage site

   At Embudo (Embudo Station) on NM 68 at the Rio Grande, downstream from Dixon — a neighboring community, not Dixon proper

   The railroad station community that once shared the name Embudo with Dixon. Its historic district, listed on the National Register in 1979, covers the 1875–1899 period, and beside the station the USGS ran its first hydrographer training camp in the winter of 1888–89 and established its first streamgage in January 1889.^{7, 2, 6}

6. Dixon Studio Tour stops

   Studios and workplaces in Dixon, Embudo, Rinconada, Apodaca, Cañoncito, and Cuestacitas

   Once a year, painters, sculptors, ceramicists, weavers, glass artists, photographers, farms, vineyards, and other local workplaces across the Embudo Valley open their doors for the self-guided tour first held in 1982.^{8, 12, 9}

If You Go

• Dixon is on New Mexico State Road 75, just east of State Road 68. The Studio Tour describes the drive as about an hour north of Santa Fe and 30 minutes south of Taos on Route 68.^{1, 12}
• The Dixon Studio Tour is free and runs the first full weekend of November. In 2026 it is Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with an artists' preview reception Friday, November 6, from 5 to 7 p.m.^{12, 8}
• Some artists on the tour prefer cash. The tour notes an ATM at the Dixon Cooperative Market.¹²
• The Embudo Valley Library serves communities from Velarde to Vadito in Rio Arriba and Taos Counties. Check its current hours and events before you go.¹⁰
• La Chiripada posts seasonal tasting-room hours and winter closures on its website, including a mid-January break. Check before you go.¹⁴
• For the Rio Grande itself, the Bureau of Land Management's Orilla Verde Recreation Area, within the Río Grande del Norte National Monument, has its visitor center up NM 68 at Pilar, at NM 570. From mid-April through October the visitor center is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., seven days a week, and campgrounds in the recreation area are first-come, first-served.¹⁵
• Acequias, orchards, fields, churches, and the Embudo Station buildings are working and private places. Enjoy them from public roads and invited spaces, and follow Studio Tour parking and studio signs in November.^{12, 7}