Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs 50th Birthday Celebration

For the last couple days of my 50 Birthday Week, my friends and I planned an overnight at Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs and Spa. Two days of soaking and mudding along with a night in the cozy historic hotel. 

The scenery around the mineral springs and spa are beautiful and serene, purely New Mexico!

The mineral spring pools were varied and spread throughout the resort area.

After soaking for a bit, I sprawled out on a chair. Later on, I even crawled into one of those blissfully comfortable hammocks and took a nap!

My friend Yvonne with the beautiful rock backdrop.

Me and my buddy Yvonne!

My friend Gin and I!

And me and my friend Ginny!

Yvonne, me and Ginny at one of the mineral springs pools.

Later that evening, after about 4-5 hours of soaking, we went back to the room to enjoy our own happy hour and get cleaned up for dinner. And my friends surprised me with gifts!

A cute hat and a lovely framed picture with images of me and my very special Apache mare.

And a bunch more goodies, a fun sign for my chicken coop, socks, and a few other goodies not shown.

The entire weekend, I never had to pay for a single meal. My friends took turns treating me in restaurants for all of my breakfasts, lunches and dinners.
The following are just a few photos from some of those delicious meals!

This was the fancy 50th Birthday dessert that the Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs and Spa Restaurant served me, along with a birthday song, of course!

Thankfully, there were four delicious truffles...one for me and one for each of my friends! 

During dinner, there was a powerful rain storm that even caused the electricity to briefly shut off.
But by the time we were finished with our meal, the storm had passed.
After dinner, we went back to our room and put our bathing suits back on and we made our way out to the mineral springs to soak some more. The air smelled so fresh and clean after the rain storm, but we were grateful for the comforting warmth of the mineral springs pools, because the temperature had cooled off considerable and was quite cold out of the waters.
We ended up soaking until they closed the pools at 10pm. It was heaven! 

After a cozy and comfortable good night's rest, we woke up and had a delicious breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then we made our way back out to the mineral springs. After soaking for a couple hours, we decided it was time to head over to the mud pool.

The sink to the left of my friend Gin sprayed continuous smooth, watery mud. We stood there and scooped up handfuls of the slippery, warm mud and painted it all over our bodies with our hands. We even helped each other spread the mud onto each other's backs. 

The idea of mudding, is to sit out in the sun and allow the sun to bake and dry the mud, so it helps draw out toxins and tighten the skin.

My muddy selfie!

Yvonne and I getting muddy together!

Me and my buddy Gin having fun getting muddy!

Ginny and I posing with mud on our face....A big disgrace, kicking our cans all over the place....singing..... we will, we will, rock you!" (Sorry...I couldn't help it! haha)

A nice (and muddy) mineral springs visitor offered to take a photo of the four of us bathing beauties covered in mud!

We had such a fabulous two days! And I can't remember having a better birthday than I had this year with my three dear friends. They really treated me well and we had such a great time together!

And for the entire following week, we all noticed how silky and smooth our skin was!

Life is Good!!  

Sandia 10K Crest Trail Loop Ride

Last Fall I organized a ride, for my friends and I, up in the Sandia Mountains, to enjoy the changing of the beautiful golden aspen leaves above 9,000 ft elevation. It's one of my favorite local rides and I was excited to share it with my riding partners.

My riding buddies were excited, too!

They were surprised at the beautiful green meadows and thick stands of forest up near the Crest Trail.

The day was perfect for a ride in the mountains.

Up on the Crest Trail, the aspens had already mostly turned golden. The color was spectacular!

 Riding beneath the aspens is just as magical, surrounded by their white, papery bark while stepping on a trail covered in golden leaves.

At the top of Sandia Crest, there is a parking lot to ride across. This allows you to make the ride a wonderful loop trail.

Even riding on the old forest service road is quite the spectacle of golden color!

And then once you're back among the thick forest cover, the trail gets even more magical and enchanting!

Truly, it's like riding a trail of gold. It's amazing!

Riding back down to the trail head, the trail rides near the winding, scenic road up to the top of the mountain. The views are truly spectacular!

And then the trail continues through more beautiful and colorful aspens.

My Autumn Aspen Horseback Riding Selfie!

I am so blessed to live only about 20 minutes from these trails. These gorgeous mountains are basically in my backyard!

Life is Good!

Oak Flats Pre-Mother's Day Ride

Still working on getting caught up here on my blog. These photo were all taken a year ago.

My riding buddies asked me to lead them on a ride through one of my favorite local trail networks in the National Forest, just 15 minutes from my house.

My happy-to-be-out-in-nature-riding-my-awesome-horse selfie!

My riding buddies were smiling and happy to be out in nature riding their horses, too.

Yes, we even get cell phone reception out here in the National Forest, too. haha!

I feel so blessed to have these gorgeous, tree covered mountain trails within minutes of my home. 

While we riding snow gently began falling all around us. It was magical!

 

At one point it felt like we were riding inside of a snowglobe.

We all loved it!

It was even more beautiful when the snow was falling and the sun came out.

It's magical and fun to ride through the forest while the snow is falling.

I was enchanted with the snowflakes drifting down onto my mare's mane. The snowflakes looked like tiny, little pearls.

My riding buddies stopped for a moment to put on some waterproof, warmer outerwear.

But a few minutes later the sun was fully out and the snow slowed down.

Apache and I and one of my riding buddies and her horse, posing for a photo in Oak Flats.

We had such a great day!

Our horses seem to be saying, "Enough with the photos already" haha!

The Spring grass was already sprouting up beside the trail.

At the end of our ride, we decided to tie up our horses and sit down beneath one of the Oak Flats covered picnic areas and enjoy some lunch.

How lucky we are to get to do this anytime we want.

I feel so blessed! What a fantastic ride we all had!