High Desert within 4 hours of Santa Clara? (casinos, living)

[tanksalot]

I'm writing this sitting by our RV in Taos, NM. We LOVE the high desert climate, with the bright sun, dry air and moderate summers, and watching the mountains while sitting in the warm sun is wonderful. We're expecting to be new grandparents in March, and don't want to be 3,000 miles away from our kids, who live in San Francisco and Santa Clara (we live in Connecticut).

I'm looking for suggestions on a living arrangement that provides proximity to the SF Bay area (within a 3 - 5 hour drive), affordability and approaches the beauty & culture of Taos. Taos is about 18 hours drive from the SF Bay area, which is simply too far, and, Taos is pricey.

We're at the tail end of an 8-week cross-country trip from CT to San Francisco and back, and aren't bored or tired of traveling. The idea of a "southern home" - an RV in Needles, CA for example, and a "northern home" (apt. in Reno ?) have crossed my mind, but I'd appreciate input from people who have more experience and knowledge than I.

Your comments and insights will be appreciated.

Tanksalot
Stan F.

[Deezus]

Well, you can make it to the high desert in 4 hours from the Bay Area(Reno and surrounding area can be reached in that long), but you won't really find a place like Taos, with that sort of cultural and artsy feel in any of the small towns. Reno is okay, but it's basically a medium sized suburban city with casinos. There's nice small towns in the Sierra close to the high desert, but some are expensive and others are hard to get to. The Eastern Sierra towns are cool with more of a focus on the mountains, though the problem with them is that they can be hard to get to the Bay Area in the winter when all the passes are closed and you have to drive up to Carson Pass.

Plumas County straddles the edge of the high desert and the Northern Sierra, and actually has some fairly nice areas. You're in the ponderosa pines of the Sierra, but the dry open desert starts just to the east of Portola. Quincy is a likeable town in some ways and the Graeeagle area has it's own charm, but you're not truly in the high desert. But it might be worth checking out.

[Inkpoe]

Why not look around the Napa Valley area? It's not high desert nor does it have the Taos culture (which quite frankly is quintessentially NM, you won't get it anywhere else), but it's got that Sun, dry air and moderate summers.