Soaking the bones in Pagosa Hot Springs, about
4 hours SW of Denver.  Natural geothermal springs
have been mixed with cooler water to provide
a delightful sulphur soak overlooking the San Juan River.
There are 23 pools!  They take the temperature
of the pools once an hour, and post the temperature
info, so you can see if the pool you’re about to
step into is a warmish 98 degrees or a scalding
112.  It’s best at 5am, before the sun comes up,
or after dark when the stars come out.  At 8,000
ft. elevation, the constellations were amazing.
Pagosa (Native American for “boiling water”)
has done a good job of incorporating the natural
geothermal features into the city.   The sulphur
smell lingers pleasantly in the air all over town.
The fire department must put out their fires with
hot water here?  It shouldn’t make any difference,
even if the water was 150 degrees, it would still
be way cooler than a 2,000 degree fire.
This pool was bubbling hot.  The kids in the
neighborhood must have learned the hard way
not to play in this stuff.

       

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