We pulled into the spa/hotel/motel/RV site and it looked like something out of a Sam Peckenpaugh western. Not a lot of effort went into landscaping and fancy features. The place almost looked like an abandoned stagecoach stop. Anyway, we parked the RV and made our way into the hotel which was another trip back into the 19th century. The hotel was actually built in 1916 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. This should have been enough of a warning for us not to be surprised by the outward looks of the hotel.

At this point even Nancy was having doubts about staying here, but we decided to take a tour of the spas before hightailing it for the hills. The spa area was adjacent to the hotel/motel and we had to get a pass to enter. Once inside our attitudes began to change. This spa thing looked interesting, especially the mud bath. We headed back to the hotel and cecked in for a one night stay in the RV area. It wasn’t cheap at $45 a night, but that also included two spa fees for two days …. quite a bargain when you compute the daily fees at $16 a person.

After plugging in the RV we put on our swim suits and headed for the spas. There was a number options to choose from. You could soak in the steaming iron, soda, or arsenic pools, swim in the chilly mineral water swimming pool, get warmed up in the steam room or sauna, coat yourself with mud then dry in the sun, and drink from the healing Lithia water spring. For an extra fee you could get special treatments; the dry blanket wrap, massage therapy, aquatic massage, hot stone massage, paraffin treatments, moisturizing masks, eye zone treatment, hot oil hair treatment, dry body brush, and a myriad of other weird sounding herbal stuff. Frankly I don’t like anyone putting their hands all over me (except Nancy) and some of this stuff was a bit pricey, so we opted for the poor man’s visit and had a blast.

Our favorite was the mud patio. You dip your hands into a bowl of runny mud and apply to all parts of the body. Then sit in the sun and let the mud dry. You skin really tightens as the mud dries. Then take a dip in the cleansing pool to wash it all off. We of course tried all the spas and must say that it felt good. Don’t know about all those healing promises though. Guess you’d have to do this quite often to get the curative effects.

After a couple of hours of rejuvenating, we decided to take a cycle ride. We headed out on the KLRs on US 285 to Tres Piedras, some 40 miles distant. Nothing here but a straight desert road with gigantic, high speed whoop-dee-doos. At Tres Piedras we headed west on US 64 which immediately began to climb with high speed sweepers into the Tusas Mountains and Carson National Forest. We saw numerous forest service roads both left and right that were tempting to try, but we wanted to check out the paved road first. We took some pictures Brazos Peak, a huge rock face with a 2000 foot vertical drop. We then back-tracked east and rode through the Hopewell Lake Campground, an excellent facility with no hookups.

We headed south on the gravel Forest Road 91B and encountered several hapless elk hunters attempting to bag one with bow and arrow. FR 91B offered a wide variety of backwoods vistas ranging from long distance mountain views to thickly wooded hillsides. The road was rutted in spots but dry. In wet weather this road would definitely be tricky. We are using DOT combo knobbies (60 street/40 off) on the bikes which make these various types of road surfaces fairly easy to negotiate.

Along this route we encountered several groups of free ranging cows just standing in the middle of the road. We had to coax a few to move as we approached. Ron was a little concerned about a charging bull. The further south we traveled the more rocky the road became until it eventually intersected with FR 42. We did not see FR 712 which according to the map was supposed to intersect before FR 42. We followed FR 42 south past Canon Plaza to Vallecitos. Be warned, the maps show this stretch as paved and it is not. We then continued south on paved SR 111 to La Medera and finally Oja Caliente.

We passed several ranches out in the middle of no-where along these forest routes. The scenic ranches looked beautiful, but it was a long way to a place where you could even buy a cold drink.

After some pretty rough riding we were ready for the spas again. We drew several bottles of magical lithia water from the spring. Ron said the lithia water tasted like Alka Seltzer water, but he drank it hoping for some curative effects from the hot chilies we had been consuming. We first headed for the 107 degree arsenic pool believed to help relieve arthritis, stomach ulcers and skin conditions and then spent several hours jumping from bath to bath. Our other favorite was the iron spring with the warm water bubbling up with the pebbles lining the floor of the spring. We even had a late afternoon mud experience.

Our thoughts about NM: This looked like one of the poorest states we ever been in. Gas up when you can, it’s a long way between modern gas stations – same goes for groceries. We wonder where these people shop for food. Everybody was so friendly. There can be a language barrier if you do not know “un pequito” Spanish. Many ornately decorated catholic churches dot the roadsides. It seems that everyone here has a fence ranging from sticks tied together, to barbed wire, to welded medal pipe, to expense custom jobs. We have never seen so many fences. Even the RV area at Oja is fenced in. We wondered what kind of deadly animals these people are so worried about. Not much care in landscaping of homes here either. People tend to let nature take its course and “do” the yard for them. Not many lawnmowers sold in these parts. We really liked the varied rustic adobe structures which are predominate.