Gila Hot Springs - Day 2

Gila Hot Springs Campground, New Mexico

This place is simply amazing, and so far ranked as our #1 spot of the trip. The entire experience is incredible.  The river is about 68 degrees, so it feels refreshing to wade in it, especially after doing the pools.  Alan and Carla, the owners, are really hospitable and so fun to chat with. The campground itself has a super chill vibe and there are only 12 campsites here.  It reminds us a lot of our friends Chris and Vic’s place. 

Alan was raised on this ranch and also raised his two kids here.  Carla, his wife,  is a real character. She’s a genuine cowgirl, ranch hand and jack of all trades. She even did all the excavator work herself placing the boulders around the hot springs. We spent hours chatting with them and learning about life in this tiny 30 person town. Alan brought us a bushel of apples from his orchard and encouraged everyone to eat their fill. 

Alan is on the left and Carla is on the right.  They would wander down to the hot springs occasionally to shoot the breeze with us as we soaked.  I loved their stories! 

During the day the three pools varied in temperature.  I liked hanging out at the 100 degree pool.  At night they increase the flow of the springs coming in and the water gets to a toasty 104.  We had so much fun hanging out watching the stars, feeling the breeze and enjoying the evening.  We got up at 5 am and soaked until 7 when the sun came up. Ah, what a wonderful way to start the day. 

The water coming out the dragon has soaked down thru the aquifer and is about 800 years old according to a local geologist.  The water has zero bacteria and is about 135 degrees. Awesome for doing dishes and making the morning coffee!  There is also a cool spout for filling up water bottles. 

Basically all the viable businesses in the town are owned by the Campbell family.

The niece runs the general store (which she’ll give us 15 minutes of internet use for a purchase of ice cream) and the sister-in-law runs the horse ranch and does pack rides. The internet has been down the past two days, here’s hoping I can post these blogs.  In the meantime, I guess we’ll  just chill out. 

Gila Hot Springs, New Mexico

Gila Hot Spring Campground, New Mexico

Gila Hot Spring Campground is on a private ranch owned by the Campbell family since the 1940’s.  There are three different hot spring pools varying in temperature between 101 and 104.  This place is incredible. The campsites are nicely spaced out and we have 24 hr access to the hot springs.  As luck would have we are camped right next to this pool. If you look closely you can see Wolfgang in the background.  Hard to believe you get this amazing experience for $8 pp/per night.  We are going to be here for 2 days so more about that later. 

We are about 4 miles from the Gila Cliff Dwelling and used the opportunity to visit. Hard to believe these dwellings were last inhabited 700 years ago. 

It’s amazing that the park service lets you explore the dwellings on your own. It’s about a mile loop and up 18 flights of stairs.  We had so much fun going up and down the ladders, walking through the rooms and imaging life here in the 1300’s.  Again, we about had the place to ourselves.  

For those of you that are wondering, we did manage to find a campsite at a USFS campground the night before. We were at Iron Creek campground, which had about 8 sites. We grilled up some chicken and veggies, opened a bottle of wine and settled down to our home for the evening. 

This is our campsite tonight.  Ned put up the hammocks and the only thing we have on the agenda is relaxing in the hot springs, reading in the hammock and enjoying this super sweet campground.