But make sure your soaking experience includes the San Juan River. If you only do one thing in Pagosa Springs, soak. Photo by The Springs Resort, Pagosa Springs. What to Do Taking in snowy river views above the San Juan River. Treat yourself to the upgrade if you can. We’re fans of the Mountain Lodge and its spacious amenities, including its beautiful Phoenix Bar and Atrium Lounge. With 79 rooms and suites, you can choose from a range of Classic Rooms in the original Spring Inn Motel building, Deluxe Rooms near the Mother Spring or Luxury Suites in the newest Mountain Lodge. Don’t miss the Twilight and River Bend pools perched directly above the river. You also get unlimited robe and towel changes, complimentary spa and wellness activities, and access to the adults-only Relaxation Terrace. That gives you the best chances for a pool all to yourself as the early morning steam rises or the Milky Way traverses the night sky. With 24-hour access, you can soak before and after the day visitors come and go. Make things easy: Stay at the Springs Resort. Fall color and cooler air temperatures make it a perfect time for hot springs soaking. How to Plan Your Own Trip to Pagosa SpringsĪt about 4.5 hours from Colorado Springs, Pagosa Springs is a bit far for a day trip but perfect for a weekend or multiday getaway. No weekend getaway can deliver a cure, but this one in Pagosa provides a small healing that I’ll savor. I’m ready to submerge myself in them, and I’ll return home with a renewed gratitude and peace. More than needing to let things go, I recognize the need - no, the opportunity - to let things flow - as my journey continues, constantly ebbing, flowing, twisting and turning like the waters I’m surrounded by. This brief reverie has given me a reminder and a glimpse of clarity. Photo by The Springs Resort, Pagosa Springs.Īs we finish our Gratitude Ceremony, the ink and paper in our bottles has dissolved. The rising steam makes an ethereal scene. Each pool contains water from the Mother Spring. The center of the Springs Resort experience remains soaking in its 25 hot spring pools that cascade down to the river. The life-giving San Juan River flows through town. The rugged San Juan Mountains ring the horizon as a stunning backdrop around Pagosa Springs. And it’s an ideal destination for a spa and wellness retreat, promising - and delivering - the chance to explore, restore and connect. It has been named one of the Top 10 Best Hot Springs in the World by Travel + Leisure. Today, the Springs Resort is a full-service resort, luxe but accessible, upscale but not pretentious. Bath houses and inns have come and gone as travel has evolved from horses and trains to cars and planes. Since the 1860s, surveyors, doctors and visitors have praised Pagosa’s natural beauty and health-giving, mineral-rich waters. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe, known as the “mountain people,” are credited with discovering the spring, and the name Pagosa is derived from the Ute words meaning “healing waters.” When European explorers encountered the Mother Spring about 150 years ago, they found human footprints and pathways leading to and from the pool in every direction. What is known is that this hot spring has been drawing people to its waters for generations. It holds the Guinness World Record for the deepest geothermal hot spring with a measurement of 1,002 feet, but every time it has been measured, its depths exceed the plumb lines. No one knows how deep the Mother Spring reaches. From above, it looks like an eye to the earth, reminiscent of geysers I’ve seen at Yellowstone National Park. There’s a glimmer of the sacred in this moment and in the unknown depths of this milky turquoise pool beside me. Photo by the Springs Resort, Pagosa Springs. Peering into the Mother Spring from above. I need this pause as our host invites us to breathe deeply and listen to the bubbling water and chirping birds around us rather than the inner chatter of our busy lives. Life has felt fragile - uncertain, fleeting and precious all at once. It’s been an emotional summer as my father battles an aggressive cancer and my oldest daughter prepares to leave home for college 900 miles away. “What stresses or burdens have you been carrying?” our host asked before we sealed our answers inside. Inside my bottle floats a tiny square of paper with three handwritten words. This is the source of all waters at the Springs Resort in Pagosa Springs, and I’m taking part in a Gratitude Ceremony to start my stay. This optional gathering is a brief welcome, and our host invites us to take a few mindful moments to consider the journey that’s brought us here to these healing waters. I’m standing beside the Mother Spring, holding a small glass bottle filled with its 131-degree water.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |