Upgrades attract more visitors to historic resort

From left, Miguel and Glenda Vega, of Peña Blanca, and Laurie Messina, of Sarasota, Fla., soak in the Cliffside Pools Wednesday at Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Resort & Spa. (eddie moore/journal)

The latest remodeling plan follows a number of changes that occurred after the Scott family bought the property in 2000, after years in which the resort “teetered on environmental collapse,” claims one resort news release.

And, yes, a lot of the funkiness has gone by the wayside, although you can be reminded of the history by old photos on the walls, along with framed cartoons from 1920s-era Denver Posts that were found stuffed in the walls for insulation.

Now, instead of checking in at the 1916 hotel’s main desk (transformed into a wine bar) or entering the bathhouse through a reception area in an old trailer, guests are received at a new building opened late in 2009. It includes a gift shop that carries items created by area artists, and the spa’s own line of body products (just unveiled last year) and Pendleton blankets.

A line of faded, wooden cottages built in the 1930s that looked like they belonged to an old motor lodge was replaced by stuccoed, modern rooms, while two other buildings with six suites each (some with their own private pools) were added to surround a plaza area with a soaking pool.

All together, the resort has added 12 rooms, bringing the total to 48, according to marketing director Wendi Gelfound. And more are under consideration for construction on the southern edge of the complex, but nothing is planned as yet, she said.

What is planned for the resort, which won a 2012 TripAdvisor certificate of excellence for maintaining a rating of at least four out of five stars from people on the website, are new pools, expanded facilities and “whisper zones.”

A grassy area currently inhabited by lounge chairs will be dug out to make a new mud pool, where guests can dip mud out of a vat and slap it on themselves, let it dry, then wash off the crust.

The pool is being moved from its current location, Gelfound said, because the shade from the cliffs hits it early in the afternoon, making it less than ideal for baking mud-slathered humans.

“The mud pool had been open May to October,” she said. The newly located pool, surrounded by a heating element, will be open year-round. Gelfound said that since that news was posted on the spa’s Facebook page Monday, it’s garnered 6,600 readers.

The former mud pool will be converted to a lithia pool. The spa’s old lithia pump stopped working in 2011 and guests have been asking to get access to those waters ever since, she said.

The men’s changing area in the Main Bathhouse already has been enlarged and modernized, while the surrounding section of the building is going to be gutted and rebuilt over the winter as a day spa area with separate locker rooms and changing areas, along with 12 new rooms to administer spa treatments, and new steam and sauna rooms.

And to try to meet the competing desires of visitors who want to chat with their friends and bring their kids, and those who want to relax in quiet serenity, the more eastern area with the big pool and new mud pool will be set up for the noisier set, while the “whisper zone” will be established through the rest of the pool and treatment areas, Gelfound said.

Attendance jump

In the seven years she has worked at Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs, Gelfound said the biggest jump in attendance probably came after 2010, when about 10,000 more people a year started visiting.

While 75 percent of the visitors did not stay overnight, that has dropped to about 65 percent, she said. And while 40 percent of the lodgers used to be New Mexicans, that percentage has bumped up to 50 percent.

Maybe people from Albuquerque realize they can drive only two hours and reach a getaway that really feels different from home, Gelfound said in explaining the change.

And it’s usually the most and the least expensive accommodations that sell out first, she said.

“Our fastest growing demographic is men,” she said. “They realize it’s not foofoo. We did a lot of promotion around skiing. We had billboards in Taos saying, ‘Come back this way after skiing.’ ”

Also, the resort has developed more things to do, encouraging people to stay longer, Gelfound said.

Yoga classes are offered every day, she said, and 12 miles of single-track mountain biking trails have been mapped on the mesa top, while hiking trails are also offered and basic wide-tire bikes will be available to ride around a two-mile bosque loop. (You have to bring your own mountain bike.)

“Our goal is to work in more of a Native American element,” she added, mentioning storytelling around the firepit, workshops or ceremonies.

And while everything has been spiffed up, Gelfound stresses that the work has been done with the environment in mind, as well as with the intention of maintaining the character of the original spa, now celebrating its 145th anniversary.