Pagosa Springs, Colorado - May 2015

The drive into Pagosa Springs

In May of 2015, Bryan and I wanted to take a road trip to one of many of the great places in Colorado. We quickly decided to check out the hot springs of Pagosa Springs, Colorado - a trip about five hours southwest of Denver. Because Bryan was still in school, we wanted to keep costs down as well, so we made the decision to drive halfway to Buena Vista, camp for one night, and then drive the remainder of the way and stay at the Pagosa Hot Springs Resort.

Buena Vista Views

We rolled into Buena Vista later than we expected, so the check-in counter at the KOA campgrounds was almost closed. But to our luck, because we were late, we had missed a storm. It was so cold that the check-in counter asked us if we wanted to upgrade to a yurt or cabin, but we had planned for the costs of the campsite, so stuck with that. We took our campfire wood, tent and car to our campsite and were 'pleased' to learn that since it was so cold, we pretty much had the entire campground to ourselves. That also meant, we went through our firewood QUICK. We had two bundles of wood and burned through them fast then went to bed. I like to joke that this is the only time I've gotten Bryan to snuggle, because we needed to so we wouldn't freeze. We sucked it up for one night, though, because our plan was to wake up first thing in the morning and keep on moving to Pagosa Springs.

When we arrived into Pagosa, we tried to check in and naturally, since we were there so
early, we couldn't. So we explored town a bit, stopping at the Riff Raff Brewing Company for a flight of beer and some food. By the time we were done there, we were able to check in to our hotel and take a shower - thank goodness! Since we were staying at the resort that hosts the hot springs, we were given 24 hour access to the springs. We thought this was so great and would be fun to go in the middle of the night when the crowd might be lesser! And least that was our plan....

The map of all of the hot springs

We made our way to the springs and bounced around to try as many as we could - there are 23 to choose from! We had a plan to soak in the hot springs for a few hours, do a later dinner in town, and then come back in the middle of the night to the springs...Mother Nature had a different plan. Shortly into our first round in the springs, a thunderstorm rolled into town. It rolled into town so quick no one saw it coming! 

Bridge to one of the springs

Really, out of nowhere, there was a bolt of lightning and everyone RAN to get out of the springs. We made a pit stop at the concession booth to pay our tab, but even they couldn't check us out because the lightning had zapped their computers. After we settled our tab, we got cleaned up, went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in town, and came back for a late night in the springs. By the time that was all said and done, we were exhausted. We took a shower (it was our 3rd of the day) and passed out. We never woke up to soak in the middle of the night, and just packed up and went back to Denver the next day. It was such a fun weekend excursion - one we keep trying to go back and do again! Someday soon it will happen.....