Ojo Caliente, NM
Ned here. We started out today with nice sunny weather in Green River, Utah. Debi. however, checked the weather online in Gunnison, Colorado (along with several other possible destinations in the Rockies), and we were looking at 3-5 inches of snow and night time temps in the teens. Therefore, we decided to head as far south as possible today, in search of better weather. To get ahead of the storm, we finally decided to head south at Durango, Colorado, passing by Mesa Verde, which looked beautiful. Soon after that, the weather went to hell. Nothing ever actually stuck, but there were several hours today wherheaded into driving snow. Our initial plan was to stop at Pagosa Hot Springs, but when we got there it was still snowing, so we looked at each other and decided to drive another 2 hours to Debi's favorite place on earth, Ojo Caliente! On the way there, Debi devised a typical back road strategy, which took us past a little town called El Rito. The road was very narrow and the stucco houses were very close to the road, giving the place the feel of a very old Mexican village. It looked like either an artists colony, or a location for people who want to definitely stay under the radar. We finally arrived at Ojo Caliente, which we were thrilled to return to, after we had originally fallen in love with the place on our Hot Springs Tour in October 2012. The clouds had parted, the afternoon light was perfect, and the place looked even more beautiful than we remembered it. We immediately got on our swim suits and began a luxurious tour of all the six hot springs pools which were open. My favorite is still the one which has a ceramic pot with hot water pouring out of it which you can soak your head and neck under. Debi loved alternating between soaking in the "arsenic pool" which is at about 104 degrees, and then swimming and stretching out in the large round kiva pool, which is at 89 degrees. After more than 2 hours of this luxurious behavior, we headed to the restaurant where we gorged ourselves on delicious chicken fajitas, washed down with an excellent Zin. For this reason, we both now feel like wet noodles, and I offered to write Debi's blog tonight, as she was in no shape to get it done. The final photo below is of Debi, sitting contentedly next to the fireplace in the restaurant after a couple of hours of hot springs and an excellent dinner. I think the photo speaks for itself.
