Monday, 22 March, Hot Springs & Bluebonnets

A gloriously hot sunny morning, we took a drive down to the Hot Springs on the Rio Grande. Back before the park existed and until the mid 1950’s, the Hot Springs had a store, as well as a tourist motel and people came from long distances to use the bathhouses over the Hot Springs.

The drive down to the hot springs is interesting, a little way down the dirt road there is a sign saying, no trailers, no RV’s no dual wheeled vehicles, beyond this point. There is a parking area so if your vehicle is to big or you are of a nervous disposition, you can walk down. I’d previously checked with the ranger who said our truck should be have no problems driving down.

From this point on the road divides into a one way system, and is narrow, very narrow, on one side is a jagged cliff on the other is a sheer drop down into a creek bed. We pulled in the mirrors and continued.

Oh I forgot to mention as well as being very narrow, it is full of S-curves as well. Mike watched his side and I watched mine, he trying to make sure we didn’t fall into the creek bed (it does happen!) me watching to make sure we didn’t scratch the truck on one of the rocks without getting my head knocked off. Have you ever tried looking out of the window to check the side of the road without actually sticking your head out? Trust me it's not easy! But we made it! Needless to say I didn’t take any photographs as I was more interested in keeping my head on my shoulders and us staying on the road!

The parking area is beside the remains of a house, with Tornillo Creek on one side, the store and Rio Grande in front. The house has some interesting fossils built into a window and door.
Unfortunately at it’s by the river this parking area also has a sign warning that frequent theft from vehicles does occur.

We walked down to the store which was once of huge importance and people from all over the area and from across the Rio Grande in Mexico came to buy goods and trade.

From there it was a short walk to the remains of the tourist motel, used by visitors to the hot springs.

The jagged cliffs that line the edge of the trail to the hot springs have some interesting Indian pictographs, but they have been vandalised and one section was completely cut out of the cliffs but I'm not sure when that happened.

The bath houses are no more as they were demolished by the park service some years ago, but the stone foundations remain on the edge of the Rio Grande.

The hot spring still gushes out of a corner of the bath house (if you look carefully at the right hand side of the photograph there is a small hole near the river) remains and is wonderfully warm and feels fabulous, the plan was to soak our feet for a while and enjoy the view, usually you are able to sit in the water up to your neck. Unfortunately all but a couple of inches of the remains were full of river mud which looked very uninviting so we didn’t bother.

On the way back to the truck we walked down to Tornillo Creek, which actually has some water in it, bluebonnets and other wild flowers were growing on the creek bed.

We followed the creek round to where it joins the Rio Grande and then climbed up the river bank to the store.

After that we had the nerve racking journey back out on the very narrow, curvey road, but hey we made it. Wish I’d remembered to walk back and take photographs of that road though!

Have fun, we are!