Joyful Journeys Hot Spring, Colorado
(All photos taken with Fuji FinePix S8300 by myself or @fishyculture.)
Our second day on the road was a shorter drive. We wanted to allow time to relax at the next destination fishy had booked for us. Like Idaho, Colorado is dotted with hot springs but most of them have been developed. There are several little towns that have public pools available year around, which has to make winter more bearable in these mountains. We stopped for gas at one point and realized there was a hot spring right across the street in the little town of Salida that looked very inviting!
When we arrived at Joyful Journeys we found a fairly new and very comfortable room awaiting us.
The recently renovated resort is doing a good job of updating the facility. Fishy and I are irreverent to the core, so when we read the sign about not being allowed to smoke, drink or speak above a whisper in the "sacred water" we wondered why they were charging dirty money to get into such holy water... but we paid up. The room and soaks for two ran us about $160.
They advertised the business as "smoker friendly" with a picture of a 5-leaved plant next to the comment. I still enjoy a cigarette from time to time so I was happy about not being a social outcast here. We were rather amused to find they are more smoker tolerant than friendly. The room had a lovely patio out back:
No smoking in the pool I understand. No smoking on the patio behind my room I did not understand but that was the rule. I was not even trying to smoke weed, just good old tobacco! You know, the stuff the Native Americans consider sacred...? The smoking was all to be done in the butt-hut, across the parking lot. Weed or tobacco, you had to go to the little shed to smoke.
The view from the room and the soaking pools is just amazing. They have a labyrinth and a few other things on the grounds that we did not go check out.
We had other plans for our spare time here - to go meet @chrisroberts and @carrieallen! This was not far from where they live so we went and had a really nice visit with them! They were incredibly gracious hosts considering fishy told them the wrong day... We had not booked anything until two days before we left and she got a little confused in the last minute rush, but Chris and Carrie just rolled with it! THANK YOU both, it was delight to meet you!!! Chris was kind enough to tell us which hot spring he considered the best... more on that in an upcoming post, but let me say that it was a GREAT tip!
After our mini-steemit-meet-up, we went back to our room to enjoy a lovely sunset.
We were up in time to enjoy a gorgeous sunrise before getting back on the road.
No peacocks!!!! YAY!
Lol! No kidding!
It looked really clean and comfy, except for the smoke hut! Nice pool and beautiful views. Too bad they didn't serve breakfast out on the patio...They really know how to charge for their services. Can you pay for a soak, if you only want a soak.
You can get just a soak, $15 each. It was "free" with our room. It was sort of funny because in any other hotel, I can just step out ANY door but the front door and there will be an ashtray. I can stand right there and have a smoke. This "smoker friendly" hotel made me walk across the parking lot... I guess they are such good friends they want to make sure I get my exercise?
beautiful vistas, looks like insta zen
It is just stunning country. The Rockies on one side and the Sangre de Cristo mountains on the other. It was breathtaking, and I live in a place that looks like a postcard.