SPAS, TRAINS, HIKING AND ANCIENT SITES IN CO, NM, UT 2014 day 4

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September 24 -25
Our first visit to Ojo Caliente was in 2008, a time when they were renovating the spa and its historic hotel. We are glad to have been able to return this year but after we arrived we thought, “why did we wait so long to come back?”.

Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs and Spa is located about 45 minutes west of Taos where we also stayed in 2008. This year we made Ojo Caliente our prime destination and although we did leave one day for lunch in Chimayo we stayed at the spa in the historic hotel, totally relaxed, soaking and resting for several days and nights. The hotel was peaceful and quiet but I heard people saying that the North Cottages were noisy in the morning when early workers rode by in their little carts and jeeps.

Unlike many other hot springs we have been to, at Ojo there are several different types of mineral springs in the various soaking pools: Iron Spring, beneficial to the immune system; the enclosed Soda Spring: helpful with digestion issues; Arsenic Spring: brings relief from arthritis, stomach ulcers and skin conditions; and the Lithia Spring: believed to relieve depression and aid digestion. There is a long lap pool and a mud bath for your skin as well. And of course, Ojo Caliente, being a true spa, has various services like massages, facials, skin therapies, and private baths. Some come just for the day to enjoy the restorative waters but I recommend spending at least one night to enjoy soaking in the waters under the stars.

We took a couple of breaks from our soaking and resting to hike the mile long trail to the historic Adobe Round Barn. The trail approaching the barn is not very attractive until you get closer but when we arrived the barn was locked up and we could barely peek through the windows to see inside. We continued back to the spa walking over a charming bridge and wooded walk but that walk was close to the main road which turned out to be not the relaxing getaway walk we had hoped for. If you want to explore I would recommend a hike (in the cool morning hours) up to the P’osi Pueblo Ruins. There are no structures left up there but you will find a meditation path and commanding views of the surrounding areas.

After our first day of soaking in the hot springs we wanted a casual meal so we ate in the bar at the Artesian Restaurant. Rik was our waiter and he seemed a bit put out to be smiling and accommodating. Sadly this was our first impression of Ojo’s dining experience and it wasn’t good. Things improved a bit after we got our meal, but it was just okay: I had the quinoa veggie burger with avocado on a tasteless gluten free bun. The burger fell apart and the bun might have tasted better if it had some sauce on it. My husband had a standard burger, not great, but not bad. Our salads were fresh but very heavily dressed and soggy salad does not appeal to us.

We enjoyed the next few meals in the Main Dining Hall: breakfast each morning with wonderful service and great presentation. On our last night we had a very special meal. I had grilled trout (very fresh) with a toasted pinon glaze and a five grain pilaf (and a very lightly dressed fresh salad). Delicious! Our waiter couldn’t have been more accommodating offering helpful tastings of wine pairings but his most appreciated effort was in recommending the most amazing coconut mango tres leches with a slice of fresh mango...my mouth is still watering!

Bottom line: if you want to get away from it all without a lot of commercialization, consider Ojo Caliente, the most peaceful spa in the hills of Northern New Mexico.

One afternoon we drove out to the Rancho de Chimayo Restaurante about a half hour away from Ojo Caliente in the hills of Northern New Mexico, south on Rt 68 and east on Rt 76. We passed through some very rural areas and quiet villages, checking our GPS as we went. The entrance to this restaurant is unassuming but the large parking area near the road was a dead giveaway.

Tucked back from the road, this tiny and very Mexican looking building gives the allusion of being small but once inside the restaurant spreads out into charming and spacious rooms including three outdoor terraces of garden seating nestled into the treed hill behind. We were entranced.

Our server was very sweet and dressed in traditional Mexican costume. We ordered guacamole with chips (amazingly good but we found not necessary because it came with my husband’s pork flautas) pork tamales with red chili sauce, red beans with lettuce and tomatoes. My husband’s two fried pork flautas with sour cream, refried beans and salsa, came with guacamole as I mentioned, but not as large a portion as the appetizer we ordered, and consumed! All the meals came with yummy sopaipilla and honey.

If you are in the market for a memento or some fine pottery or jewelry, there is a gift shop and high end art gallery adjacent to the restaurant.

After lunch we took a short drive to visit El Santuario de Chimayo, an historic, picturesque adobe Catholic church in the mountains of Chimayo. The rustic church is renowned as a pilgrimage site for miraculous cures, some would say the most important of its kind in the United States. I have visited this church many times over the past twenty years and was often moved by its unpretentious presence in this rural area. A few horses had grazed in a small paddock nearby and only a few old buildings surrounded this lovely church. Sadly, on this visit, I found the whole area changed. Many buildings and churches were brought in, gift shops and other buildings contaminated this pure site. For me it became another institution of commerce, not the simple spiritual site that had once so moved me. It is still charming with its slightly tilted bell towers and rose covered archways. Inside you can still find the holy dirt, purporting to have healing powers, but now this dirt is antiseptically sealed in plastic bags, another step away from the organic nature I had once felt here.

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