Taking the Waters at Ojo Caliente

Taking the waters at Ojo Caliente can heal your body, calm your mind and restore your soul.

We checked in at Ojo Caliente on January 2, 2019, with a little snow on the ground. We didn’t expect there would be many people there as crazy as we were to “take the waters” when the high temp was supposed to be 25 degrees. Boy, were we wrong about that? There were dozens of visitors soaking in the peaceful pools. The pools were full well past sunset even as it got colder. January 5th was the best day of our trip, with 5″ of snow and 5-degrees at sunset. By then, I left my camera in the historic hotel, and we simply enjoyed the sunset soak. By the time we left Ojo on January 6th, the waters had changed us. We were at peace. We were ready to take on the new year.

Our favorite pool was the arsenic pool. The water from the arsenic spring is said to be beneficial for relief of arthritis pain and heals a variety of skin conditions. We are both approaching 50, it was January, snowy weather and we had been on the road for 5 hours. We also enjoyed soaking in the iron pool and the lithia pool. The lobster pot is a large copper kettle that is consistently 108 degrees. That was a little hot for us, but we gave it a try for a few minutes.

At one point, after going from pool to pool, we hung our wet towels on a chair, they were frozen stiff when we came back to claim them. We rushed back to the warmth of the healing waters. We thawed our towels and dried our bathing suits in the shower overnight. The next day we chose to use the towels that were provided. There were many frozen towel sculptures scattered around. The staff collected them and replaced them with dry pliable towels throughout the day.

If you ever start the new year by taking the waters, you will want to make it tradition and start every new year with a sunset soak at Ojo Caliente. We definitely prefer Ojo in the cold weather. If we made every enjoyable trip to Ojo a tradition, we would go several times a year. Summer is a great time to visit if you want to soak in the mud pool. The mud draws toxins out of your body as the sunshine bakes it to a crust. Flake off the crust, rinse and repeat.