Jemez Springs is a small town
in the mountains of northwestern New Mexico. As you might guess from the name,
it is known for its natural hot springs. Some of these are businesses with a
fee.
The Jemez Springs
Bath House, operated by the Village of Jemez Springs, is located in the
park on Main Street. Open daily 10 AM to 6 PM, prices start at $12 for a 25
min. soak, with a free mineral bath for the week before or after your birthday.
Massage and herbal wraps are also available. Reservations recommended.
Giggling Springs Hot Springs
has a lovely outdoor soaking pool near the river. They'll even deliver drinks
as you soak. They claim, "The water on this property originates from deep
beneath the Valles Caldera National Preserve about 17 miles up the mountain.
It's the ancient sea water that got trapped there long ago, and so it has been
infused with many minerals over eons of time. We believe it's one of the
reasons the water here in our village is so special!” Closed Mondays and
Tuesdays, other days open 11 AM until 5-10 PM depending on the day and season. Prices
start at $18 per hour.
 |
Spence Hot Springs: By Daniel Schwen (Own work)
[CC BY-SA
4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons
|
You can also visit natural hot springs for free.
San Antonio Hot Springs, north of Jemez Springs, is about a 10 minute walk
from a parking area. Soak in a series of rock pools, hotter at the top and
cooler as they flow down the hill. No official website, but Trip
Advisor and Trails.com
have info, and this motorcyclist posted a description of
the trip with photos.
McCauley
Hot Springs requires a 2 mile hike. The pool is large, shallow and warm
rather than hot. It makes a nice stop on a hike on
hot day. You can start from Battleship Rock a few miles north of Jemez Springs,
or from Jemez Falls off NM-4. If you're up for a 5 1/2 mile round-trip, you can
start at Battleship Rock, stop at the Hot Springs, and also visit the
impressive waterfall. Camping
is available at both ends of the trail, but check ahead for seasonal closures.
Spence Hot Spring is about 5 miles North of Jemez
Springs, a short hike from a paved but unmarked parking area. These springs are
overused and may not be very clean.
If you need even more relaxation, Bodhi Manda Zen Center is a Buddhist center
offering Zen practice and retreats. Stop by for individual meditation, group
chanting and meditation, or public ceremonies. Families are welcome.
In or near Jemez Springs, you can also visit the ruins of an old Spanish
church; Soda Dam, a cool rock formation formed from the mineralized water
flowing in the river; and Battleship Rock, so named because it resembles the
prow of a battleship. (Pictures on my Pinterest
page.) I'll follow up in another
post.
I’ve attended
many writing retreats at a camp north of Jemez Springs, and those experiences
inspired Counterfeits. Of course, in the
book, the site isn’t quite so relaxing. When Jenny inherits a children’s art
camp, she discovers that her grandmother’s death might not have been an
accident after all. The men who killed her grandmother are searching for stolen
paintings, and they think Jenny and her old friend Rob, the camp cook, are
involved. Doing research at a real camp tucked away in the woods, and hiking
above Battleship Rock for a scene where Jenny gets lost, helped the setting
feel realistic.
Excerpt:
Jenny rose from
sleep slowly, her body resisting. She could see nothing in the pitch black.
Where was she? She blinked, trying to make sure her eyes were really open.
Memories broke through the fog. The phone
call, the rush across country, the late arrival. Crawling into bed in her
grandparents’ upstairs guest room. She groaned and pulled up the blanket.
Morning must be hours away, given the darkness.
The old house creaked, but no sounds
drifted in from outside. Maybe that’s what woke her; she was used to the murmur
of city sounds all night long. Who’d have thought that would become normal?
Her head pounded. Probably dehydration from
the high elevation and dry air. She should get up, drink a glass of water, take
a couple of aspirin. Her head would thank her in the morning. If only she could
make herself move.
The house creaked again, followed by a
rhythmic sound – like footsteps. Jenny jerked upright, her ears straining. Had
she heard a voice?
She shook her head. She must still be half asleep,
dreaming. Imagining her grandparents were still here. Wishful thinking.
Downstairs, a door closed. Jenny clutched
the blanket. Imagination be damned. She was not alone.
For a long moment, she sat frozen. During
her ten years in New York City, she had never been burglarized or mugged. It
seemed impossible that such a thing should happen now, here, in an off-season
art camp five miles outside of Jemez Springs, New Mexico.
Maybe it was someone her grandmother knew.
But what were they doing there in the middle of the night? And if they’d come
to see Jenny, they should have knocked, rung the bell. Waited for morning.
Anyway, who knew she was there? Even Ms. Lucena didn’t know when she was
supposed to arrive. She hadn’t told anyone her travel plans; she’d just gone.
She had to do something. Jenny rose and
eased open the bedroom door, praying she had somehow been mistaken, that
everything would make sense if… when…. She couldn’t imagine a benign
explanation.
She stood with her ear to the crack and
heard a low chuckle, and then a male voice. She couldn’t tell if the laugh and
the voice were the same person. Either way, that suggested two or more people,
at least one of them male.
Why would a man be laughing in her
grandmother’s house, in the middle of the night, two days after her
grandmother’s death? No good reason came to mind.
She fumbled for her phone on the bedside
stand. But even before she activated the screen, she gave a frustrated grunt.
She wouldn’t get reception here. The only place in camp that got cell phone
reception was the southeast corner of the parking lot. The landline was
downstairs, in the kitchen.
Something crashed in a room below. Jenny
jumped and dropped her phone. It hit her thigh, then her foot, and went
skittering under the bed with a faint scrape against the wood floor.
A man was swearing downstairs. Hopefully
that had covered up any sound she’d made. Jenny clenched her hands to control
the trembling. She couldn’t imagine her grandmother being friendly with anyone
who swore like that.
She had to get out of the house. She
wouldn’t wait upstairs for the burglars, if that’s what they were, to find her.
If she could get to her car – damn. Her keys were in her purse, which was
downstairs on the living room couch. So she couldn’t drive, but she could still
go to the Lodge, break in if she had to. Use the phone in the office, call the
police.
Still shaking, Jenny crouched and felt
along the floor for her shoes. She was wearing flannel pajama bottoms and a
tank top; no need to waste time putting on clothes. She was already cold, but
her jacket was downstairs, lying over her purse on the couch. It didn’t matter.
She just had to get out.
No comments:
Post a Comment