San Juan Skyway - Million Dollar Highway

Pagosa Riverside Campground, Pagosa Springs, CO

We stayed in the hot springs until midnight last night and then went back again at 5 to watch the sunrise. This place at night time is just magical.  Starry skies, bright moon, steam coming off the pools, lighted pathways and trees, and had the place almost to ourselves.  Pure Heaven.

We soaked until noon then headed off over the San Juan Skyway.  We’ve done this drive 2 or 3 times before, but never in the fall.  We now rate this as the number one best drive we’ve ever done.  After 15 years of road trips that is saying a lot! 

Every turn on the 79 miles drive was breathtaking.  The Aspen were in full display against the blue skies.  It was surprisingly warm for a fall day, close to 80!  We climbed over several passes, the highest 11075 ft.   Once again we were amazed at the lack of guardrails on some REALLY steep drop-offs - gulp.

Looking down on the town of Ouray.  Quaint little town, 1880’s buildings and a pretty awesome looking municipal hot spring.  Great place to bring the family.

 

There are several abandoned mining towns that hug the road. 

Silverton was founded in 1876 and spared the fires that wiped out old mining towns along the way.  Today it’s a tourist town catering to skiers, ATVs, mountain bikers and sportsmen. 

Loved stopping along the way and reading about all the history in the area. This is at one of the passes. Do we look relaxed and well hydrated?? 

For the next two nights we are staying at Pagosa Riverside Campground.  We nabbed a sweet spot right on the San Juan River.  Tomorrow our plans are to spend the day at Pagosa Resort and Spa.  

Orvis Hot Springs

Orvis Hot Springs, Ridgway, CO

We are spending the next two days at Orvis Hot Springs in Ridgway, Colorado.

Full disclosure, this picture is downloaded from the internet.  It’s a clothing optional place so they are pretty strict about not bringing in any electronic devices.  You’ll have to trust  me on the description.  

This place is gorgeous. About 9 different pools with varying water temperatures, beautiful grounds, lots of flower lined pathways and little nooks tucked away everywhere.  We are camping here, but it’s a dry campground - i.e. we’re in a dirt parking lot with no amenities. The plus is that we get 24 hr. access to the entire place. (That includes hot springs, pools, showers, bathrooms, bbq grills, sauna, etc.) 

The drive from Utah to Colorado, over mountains and thru valleys and farmland was so beautiful.  Fall is in the air!

We stopped in Moab on our way out of town this morning for some breakfast burritos. Moab has the best food trucks! 

The beauty of traveling with your home is that you’re always prepared with the hot sauce😉

We’ve been killing the meals on this trip! Last night we had roasted veggies and chicken apple sausage on the grill then added some Thai curry sauce, with naan bread, of course.  

Tonight, leftovers.  

Our little slice of heaven next to a meadow. 

View from our van this evening.  Having a late dinner and then going to hit the hot springs again later this evening.  Looking forward to seeing the stars while soaking.  

The Stunning Southwest

Dead Horse Point State Park, Moab, UT

Great horseshoe view of the Colorado River at Dead Horse Point State Park.

The drive from Sterling to Moab is really beautiful. There are hardly any services for miles and instead you are just greeted with awesome canyon and cliff views.  However, nothing compared to this breathtaking view from Dead Horse Point State Park.

We did the rim hike and every turn had epic views of the canyons, sheer rock walls, hoodoos and the river.  The deep red of the sandstone made it all the more dramatic.

Yes, the hike at times took us really close to the edge.  Dead Horse Point State Park is on par with any of the National Parks.  If you’re doing the National Parks tour in Utah, (Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef,) don’t skip this state park.  In my opinion it’s the best of the bunch. 

If you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle you can explore the 100 mile dirt road in the canyon floor.  It’s recommended to allow 2 days for this adventure. We asked Wolfgang and he politely declined.  We’ve put him thru his paces enough in the last couple of days. 

We also visited Canyonlands National Park, it’s on the same road as going into Dead Horse Point State Park.  The expansive vista of the canyons, hoodoos and mountains was spectacular, but you don’t get a real view of the Colorado River.  

We’re camped at Dead Horse Point SP and when I booked the reservations back in July there was only one campsite left.  We were so pleased to get it we didn’t really look at the details.  Turns out it’s a walk-in tent site. So we’ll be sleeping in the parking lot tonight, but preparing our dinner and hanging out our walk-in site.  It’s insane how all these campgrounds are booked up this late in the year.   At least I have this view permanently edged in my brain and will definitely call on it when I need to go to my happy place.  

Meadow Hot Springs

Palisades State Park, Sterling, Utah

Woke up to the most amazing sunrise at our secluded spot.  Slept 10 hours last night! I thought this was going to be the highlight of my day, little did I know what lay ahead. 

Meadow Hot Spring surpassed our expectations!  Two incredible swimming holes, that are more like cenotes but quite warm.  This little gem was about 10 feet or so deep, crystal clear water and perfect for a day swim.  The water was about 95 degrees.  We hung out and swam for several hours. 

Even though there were quite a few people camping there we managed to get this hot spring to ourselves for awhile.  Glad we arrived on Sunday morning and not Saturday night.  After talking to a few people seems like there was a party going on last night.   

I did rather enjoy the young Mormon gentlemen, wearing his white shirt and black slacks, and his girlfriend wearing a black dress.  They said they just came from church and wanted to go for a swim.  He very methodically took off his watch, shoes, socks, belts, shirt, and then proceeded to go swimming in his pants.  His girlfriend just got in with her dress.  Kinda a different vibe than we’re used to, heck half the time people are in the buff. 

This was the other hot spring.  It was much hotter, maybe 100 or so,  (a true hot spring) and also really deep, about 30 feet or so.  There’s a rope hanging across the middle so you can hold or sit. 

Don’t know if you can see me, but I’m on the far right - perched on a rock and doing my best to socially distance.  (My foot is just peaking out of the water).  Everyone was super chill and just enjoying the sunny day.   

We give this hot spring an A rating.  The water was super clear, deeper than any hot springs we’ve experienced, great temperature and easy to get to.  Will definitely plan on revisiting this for future trips, but would like to time it for a mid-week rather than a weekend.

The dirt road leading to Meadow Hot Spring was a lot easier!  About 5 miles down a well graded and nicely compacted dirt road.  

Tonight we are staying at Palisades State Park.  It’s a road stop along our journey, not really a destination place.  When I booked reservations I made sure to get a lakeside campsite.  One small issue...the lake has about disappeared.  The boat dock is on dry land, the swimming raft is listing rather forlornly on dirt lake bottom and it’s a good football field to reach the lake from our campsite.  

Fall Hot Spring Tour

Camping spot:  BLM Land, 14 miles into Utah. 

What a challenging year this has been with the pandemic, fires and all our lives being disrupted. We feel very fortunate in that everyone in our family has stayed healthy. The bright spots have been the newest edition to the family, little Theo, and playing with Maddy several days a week. We miss our friends, gathering with family and hitting the road. We decided to take Wolfgang out for a 3 week road trip. The goal is to do it safely so this time no visiting museums or tourist spots. Instead, we’ll explore natural hot springs while camping and getting in some hikes and bike rides.This is definitely going to be a more organic trip.  Spencer Hot Springs was the first stop on our tour. 

Located off Highway 50 in Nevada, also known as the loneliest road, Spencer Hot Springs is waaaay off the beaten path.  A few miles outside of Austin, NV (google it cuz it’s in the middle of nowhere) is a dirt road that will take you to the hot springs. It’s a good 10 miles down a washboard road so make sure you count all your teeth when you finally arrive at the springs. 

There are a couple of troughs and some watering holes where the hot spring water is piped in. Ned brought his thermometer and the first spring clocked in at a toasty 109. You can cool it down by removing the pipe that feeds hot water into it. We decided it was a good time to have lunch while we waited for it to cool down.  (Thanks Megan & Kevin for the manchego cheese, it is delicious!) 

We did some exploring and found another spring up the hill. It was a bit cooler (maybe by 2 degrees?) so it took a bit of moxie to get all the way in.  

You can’t beat the gorgeous desert location surrounded by beautiful mountains. 

Final verdict on this hot spring: Plus - would be a great place to boondock and hang out on a cool night.  Cons - not sure if the 10 miles down the washboard road is worth it.  Glad we experienced it, but don’t think we’ll come back. 

Extra bonus was watching all the wild burros hanging around. 

We pulled into Great Basin National Park at about 4:30 and all the campgrounds were full. We’ve camped here 3 times in the past and pretty much had the campground to ourselves. Wow - people really are anxious to hit the road and get out of their covid bubble.  (FYI - Great Basin is a first come-first serve campground.  It’s one of the least visited National Parks, go figure).  Onto Plan B.  We continued along Highway 50, crossing into Utah. It’s pretty open and bleak here, but we did manage to find a grove of pinion trees on BLM land.  We got ourselves a really sweet little spot for the night.  Yesterday Ned made some homemade beef barley stew.  All we had to do was heat it up.  Perfect.  After a long day driving it hit the spot.