Southwest Super Soaker

Fun with Friends and Family in New Mexico and Colorado

August 15-25, 2008

In late August, we blended a family reunion in Colorado and a weekend with friends in New Mexico to create a delicious summer vacation, seasoned with stopovers at several spectacular hot springs.

Somehow we convinced our dear friends Kit and Ann H. and Tom and Ann C. to meet us at the Wilderness Lodge in Gila Hot Springs, NM. While we wound our way north from Silver City via route 15, they arrived from Albuquerque and Emory Pass, and we all got caught in the same raging monsoon thunderstorm. We made radio contact from Copperas Ridge while they were hesitating at one of many washouts along route 35, and arrived in time to photograph the "Amphiprius" in action.

Moe, the Innkeeper Cat at the Wilderness Lodge, knows how to welcome tired, wet travelers.

Her brother Opie is in charge of a pair of delightful soaking pools.

Besides soaking in the hot tubs, we also managed a tour of nearby Gila Cliff Dwellings.

Rene, our guide, did a great job of describing Mogollon life from the woman's point of view. Ann H. was particularly interested in the smokehouse, where polished rocks indicate that uric acid was used to tan hides and perhaps to produce indigo dye.

The monsoon has been especially generous this year, and the Gila Wilderness was even more lush than usual. Heavy dew clung to a carpet of summer wildflowers. The semi-tropical conditions also brought out toads and this odd one-eyed moth/butterfly larva.