Late night relaxation.

This morning we headed to Mesa Verde to see the cliff dwellings of Ancestral Puebloans who live ther until about 1300. Since we were a little short on time, we drove the hour into the Mesa Verde national park to the best-preserved cliff dwellings called the Spruce Tree House. It was a short walk down into the cliff dwellings, and you could walk very close, but not into the dwellings since these were almost entirely originals. (other sites in the park have been restored and you can walk around in those)

The Spruce Tree House.

Me in front of the Spruce Tree House cliff dwellings.

I am reading the visitor's guide. I felt bad because we had NO cash, and the suggested donation was $1. So I turned the pages very carefully and put it back when I was done with it. :D

On my way into a kiva.

After Mesa Verde, our plan had been to head north to Ouray Hot Springs, then back south and east to Great Sand Dunes National Park, but I found another nicer set of hot springs on our way to Great Sand Dunes! We took a break from our cheap motel trend and stayed at The Springs Resort and Spa in Pagosa Springs. Rather than offering just one pool like Ouray Hot Springs, The Springs in Pagosa Springs offered 23 different temperature pools fed by the deepest geothermal hot spring in the world, and it was also on the banks of the San Juan River; you could enter the river from the resort, too! (Not like you would want to - it was below 60 degrees! I stepped one foot in and that was enough!)

Our room wasn't ready when we arrived, so we wandered around the town a bit. We noticed a little idiosyncrasy in that all the establishments seemed to allow dogs inside. I was quite surprised to see a large lab wagging its tail through a gift shop with lots of breakable things...

When our room was ready at around 5pm, we changed into our suits and began exploring the pools. The spa had an adult only area, so we started there since there were some children in the lower portion of the pools. We seemed to mostly have each pool we chose to ourselves, as there were enough pools and not too many people in them. We stayed in the pools until the sun set, and then even watched the starts come out! We had a couple drinks from the cantina while sitting in the pools, and the combination of alcohol and the long soaks in the pools relaxed us so much that we skipped dinner and went to bed slightly before 9pm!

Gavin in one of our favorite pools, overlooking the San Juan River.

Since we did go to bed so early, of course we both woke up at 2am. :) A big advantage of staying in the resort rather than just paying to use their hot springs is that the springs are open 24/7! So at 2am when we couldn't get back to sleep, we put our suits back on and sat in the hot springs! We had all 23 pools to ourselves! :) After yet another hour or so of soaking, it finally relaxed us enough to get back to sleep, and so we ended our much-needed restful day and relaxing day.

The Springs Resort, deserted except for us at 2am. :)

 

Posted with Blogsy