12 Jul living summer camp life at Gila Hot Springs
Tuesday May 28 – Thursday June 20 2024
Our beloved host from Kauai, Jiva, coincidentally retired to our favorite neighborhood of Western New Mexico: Gila Hot Springs. We were graciously allowed to camp out on his new 3-acre property for several weeks, helping out with planting, propagating and cleanup from his home renovation. The irrigation system was still mid-installation and thus we mostly had ample time to relax, recharge and reflect.
The temperature within the canyon typically fluxed almost 40 degrees between overnight lows in the low 50’s (or mid 40’s when we arrived!) to the upper 90’s on the hottest days. With the steep canyon walls to the east, the mornings were cool enough to wear pants and sweatshirts until 9am every day. We settled into camp life with a two-room van plus tent plus tarp canopy set up so we could shade ourselves and spread out a bit! Our set up proved so comfortable it was difficult to be motivated to pack up and go after 3 weeks in summer camp paradise!
The West Fork of the Gila River was less than 100ft away, and featured numerous natural hot springs filtering down into the river from the opposite hillside. Nearly every afternoon we strolled to the river for a dip and/or a soak. Aaron even took the time to rearrange rocks so we could tube down the stretch of river we liked best!
Gila Hot Springs is a lovely neighborhood with farmers raising animals, Doc Campbell’s General store, and numerous campgrounds. The remoteness of the place weeds out any further commercial development and we got to sharpen our creative cooking skills working through our van pantry. We came fully stocked with rice, lentils, mung beans, dried mushrooms, pasta, sourdough starter and flour, and more spices than we’ll probably ever use!
We did our best to find fresh forgeables around the area. Aaron hiked upriver one day and came across a huge field of nettle and harvested a backpack full. We dried the nettle and were able to add it into our meals for some fabulous green nutrients and a very specific flavor note that went perfectly with asian spice blends.
We often cooked large pots of rice and lentils loaded with spices and then used flour and egg to make lentil cakes for the following days. It was fun attempting some level of gourmet in the backcountry!
We strolled through the neighborhood in the evenings to see our local fauna and sunset river views. A large herd of over a dozen deer were frequent dawn and dusk visitors. We absolutely loved hearing the sounds of animals all around, the brilliant stargazing every night, and hot afternoons with hours of river time. It was the perfect place to let our creativity reset, our bodies cleanse, and our minds find peace. After three weeks, we bid our goodbye once again to the Gila, and look forward to our next visit!
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