Ojo Caliente Hot Springs

Time to check out of Albuquerque and head to Santa Fe for lunch!  It's only about an hour and the drive was great!!  I had put in my navigation a parking lot very close to The Plaza in Santa Fe as I figured the parking would be hard - but somehow we must have missed it!!  The streets are narrow and a little hard to navigate but there was a public parking lot right close by so we pulled into that!

We found a coffee spot as soon as we walked into the plaza - excellent coffee once again and we enjoyed it sitting in the beautiful square.

The flowers were gorgeous!

We strolled around the plaza and stopped in at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi - the church is open to the public and is gorgeous inside!

It was much busier than we expected in the plaza - we ate lunch at a Mexican place which was good but nothing topped that first night in Albuquerque!!   Then we headed over to a chocolate factory and picked out some goodies to bring home!

Next on the list was the hot springs at Ojo Caliente!!  It was only about an hour from Santa Fe, but there isn't much around for towns!!  I had planned on getting gas in the town of Ojo but there wasn't even a gas station there - if you blinked you would miss it!

But there was good signage to the hot springs and we were again surprised at how many cars were in the parking lot when we pulled in!!  We walked into the reception area and a nice fire was going - immediately a relaxing effect!

Our cabin was ready and was just perfect!!  It had a small kitchen and a back deck you could sit on along with a front deck with chairs also!  Just perfect!!  We wished we would have brought our own food!!

The grounds were beautiful and although there were quite a few people there, they were spread out enough that it didn't seem crowded at all!  And of course a lot of the people were just there for the day!

We changed and headed out to soak - ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

There is a restaurant on the premises since there is no place to eat in the tiny town and you actually make reservations for dinner!!  We picked an early time so we would have plenty of time to soak after we ate.  Dinner was very good but very pricey!  Next time we'll know to bring wine, snacks, and meals to heat up since there's a microwave and a frig in the cabins.

After dinner we soaked in the moonlight and the water was amazing!  Each pool had different mineral content and it listed what the pool was known for.  There were a couple of fire pits going outside and the wood smell reminded me so much of Sedona when we used to live there!

Almost all of the pictures I took were the next morning - Joleen went to order breakfast so we could take it back to our cabin to eat and I went in and took photos when there was no one around.

I did forget to mention that at night, there are subtle lights shining at the base of these cliffs - sure looked neat!

The plants and flowers were very well done all throughout the complex.  There are also hiking trails you can use and an RV park if you bring your trailer.

Joleen and I decided this is a place we will definitely go back to!!

And then we were homeward bound to the mountains!  It seemed like we drove a LONG time before I found a gas station - note to self - fill up with gas when you have the chance!   What a great trip!