A Slice of Heaven in Northern New Mexico

Spring Break has finally come...and where do these college students choose to spend the week away? Panama City Beach? South Padre Island? 

Nope!

We chose Northern New Mexico. More specifically, Hotel Luna Mystica in Taos, New Mexico. Hotel Luna Mystica is a campground/hotel (however you see it) full of renovated trailers available for rent. It is located just outside of Taos, New Mexico with a beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains just outside your window. The dudes over at Luna Mystica are very nice and will make sure you stay comfortable in your chosen RV. Once you arrive, you are given a free pint of beer for each night stayed at the local brewery that is right next door. Other than that, there is nothing else around. If you want more information about Hotel Luna Mystica, check this and this out.

We drove about 12 hours through the night to get to our trailer, named Judd, and arrived at around 8am. Our check in was at Noon so we decided to eat breakfast at a local diner and went from there. After getting some grub, we decided to check out the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge that is just about 5 minutes away from our RV and hope that we could check in early.

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

Its a pretty awesome place to check out and hangout a while. But for me, I got my picture and got out of there. Man-made structures at heights freak me out! 

We eventually got checked in earlier than expected, which was a good thing because we were all so exhausted from driving throughout the night. Once we checked in, we unpacked, bought groceries, settled in, and relaxed and napped for the remainder of the day. We looked out at the mountains from inside as it was snowing outside. 

View outside of Judd

The next day was perfect weather to relax in a hot spring and drink a few brews, so that's exactly what we did. We went to Many Hot Springs which is just about a 15 minute drive from Hotel Luna Mystica and located at the bottom of the Rio Grande with amazing views. We spent about the whole morning and into mid day here just relaxing and drinking a few beers. 

Side note: we learned the awkward way that this is a clothing optional hot spring. Keep that in mind if you plan to visit. 

Manby Hot Springs

We then headed to Santa Fe the following day to do some hiking, as well as check out Meow Wolf. Meow Wolf is an interactive museum/trippy art installation. Its very hard to describe because of how unique it really is. Basically, there is a house with different "dimensions" in each room. For instance, shown below is my buddy heading into a new dimension through a refrigerator. I don't want to give anything more away but I highly recommend going and seeing for yourself! 

Meow Wolf

One day we decided to head up north to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, which was about a 2 hour drive from Hotel Luna Mystica. We went for the views and to do a little Sand Boarding. It was really fun but walking up those sand dunes really wears you out fast! We rented our boards from Kristi Mountain Sports located in Alamosa, Colorado. They have sand surf boards (pictured below) and sand sleds that you sit on that are available to rent for $18 a day. You can either go barefoot or wear socks when riding sand surf boards, just no shoes. I would recommend wearing socks because the tops of my feet got ate up by sand stuck in between the top of my foot and the strap, which felt like the straps were made out of sandpaper. 

Sand Boarding in Great Sand Dunes National Park

After we were worn out from sand boarding, we went to Zapata Falls just outside of the park to kill more time, see more scenes, and to take some pictures. It was really beautiful all frozen, but it was pretty crowded when we happened to go and struggled to get some time to take some pictures by the waterfall. The drive up to the trailhead was only about 4 or 5 miles, but the road was not maintained and took what felt like forever to get the trailhead. The trail to the falls itself is only a half mile, so its something you can easily fit within your day and I would definitely recommend seeing it for yourself. 

Zapata Falls

Other than that, we really just hung out at out trailer, watched some March Madness, relaxed by the campfire and ate and drank at the brewery next door. We also visited the hot springs a couple more times throughout our trip. Overall it was a great trip filled with exciting new places to visit. Who knew Northern New Mexico could be so cool?

Judd at Night

Oh, and did I mention that at Hotel Luna Mystica you can also pitch a tent if you want? Our trailer slept four and with me being the fifth person, I opted to sleep in my tent just outside the trailer and wake up to this beautiful view each morning...

Hotel Luna Mystica Campsite

If you're interested in more pictures from this trip and others like it, you can check me out on Instagram @Jakesfagan

Cheers!