11 Mar Hot springs in the Rio Grande Gorge

Tuesday February 15

In anticipation of my parents’ visit the upcoming weekend, Aaron and I ventured out early to find the local hot springs. We grabbed our first of MANY breakfast burritos from Taos Cow (a juicy burrito filled with egg, buttery hash browns, sausage patties, cheese, and of course green chili) and loaded up our hiking packs to journey to the trailhead. 

I didn’t know much about the hot springs except that it was a short hike from a parking area, and they might not be overly hot, and were most comfortable in the sun. Knowing it was down in the gorge, and that the springs were on the west side of the river, I guessed the sun wouldn’t be on the springs very early — so we headed out from the farm around 8:30. 

We drove the windy back roads through Arroyo Hondo and up onto the mesa, the road turning narrow and dirt the higher we climbed. The recent snow was heavy and iced enough at the top of the road to warrant a pull over to check the condition of the road descending into the canyon. It shown in the morning sun and after 10 yds and at least 3 almost-slip-and-falls, we grabbed our stuff out of the van and left it parked about 1/2 mile away from the trailhead. 

The hike down into the canyon was beautiful and the road got closer and closer to the Rio Hondo. Soon we were at the bottom of the gorge, where the Hondo meets the Rio Grande at the John Dunn Bridge day use recreation area. We crossed the bridge and headed downstream up the road on the other side, keeping an eye out for foot paths leaving the road. Before climbing more than 50 yds, we took a very narrow trail down to the river’s edge. The trail wasn’t super well travelled but it was easy enough to follow, and being so close to the water made for a nice hike in. 

We checked our progress on the trail app gps and continued on for about 15-20 minutes. We spotted the steam coming out of a group of large black boulders in the distance and knew we had found our destination!

There was a single person using them so we said hello and put our packs down as we sat to eat our burritos in the sun, which had crested the eastern ridge of the gorge less than 10 minutes beforehand. Another group of 5 adults hiked in shortly after and all got in the main hot pool. We hadn’t planned on staying too long and opted to stick just our feet in a lower, less hot pool while we ate our breakfast and had some coffee. 

We chatted with the soakers and stayed for another half hour or so, before packing up and hiking back out. We found the other, main trail to the springs on our return, easily following it almost directly uphill to meet the road much higher in elevation than our hike in. The hike was lovely and the views of the river were so gorgeous as the water changed to more aqua green blue colors the higher the sun got in the sky. 

Definitely made the list of things to do next weekend with visitors!