In case the weather prevents sightseeing the rest of the week, which it might as the forecast calls for rain every day and a snow mixture on Thursday, we decided to do some local sightseeing yesterday. We visited the Mother Spring.
Pagosa Springs gets its name from the Ute Indians who named the springs in the area "healing springs", or "Pah gosah". As far back as 10,000 years ago the natives to the area visited the hot springs. There are currently 3 main hotels/spas that take advantage of the hot springs but the Mother Spring is located at the Springs Hotel and Spa and is shown here with 145 degree water.
We like learning new stuff and we did not know that the Mother Spring is the deepest hot springs in the world. The gal at the town Visitors Center told us a couple of fun facts. When the water level of the San Juan River gets lower later in the year they block off part of the water and since it is warmed by the hot springs they have there own spa at no cost. Here is the San Juan River yesterday, too much current to do that now.
The other fun fact is that they were trying to measure the actual depth of the hot springs and got their equipment down to 1000' and the equipment quit sending data back. They tried it a couple of times with the same results so they don't know the exact depth but no other hot springs reach 1000' so they are certain of their statement.
Pagosa Springs is a neat town in a neat area that we hope to explore more if the weather cooperates. We showed a picture of shopping at Walmart in Alamosa with the mountains in the distance so we thought we would do the same from our grocery shopping at Hometown Market in Pagosa Springs.
The Mother Spring is in downtown Pagaso Springs and we'll leave you with a pop culture reference to Pagosa Springs. "Downtown Pagosa Springs" was the final destination for a duo of truckers in the 1975 country song "Wolf Creek Pass" by C. W. McCall (best known for "Convoy"). We went over Wolf Creek Pass yesterday and the vertical drop of around 5,000 feet described in the song as "hairpin county and switchback city" aptly described the descent, although we never felt out of control. Here is one such road sign.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Very nice post. Full of info we didn't know. Mother Spring Looks really cool. I never would have guessed that a hot spring could go down more than a 1000 feet. I hate hair pin turns!!!
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