Day 3 : Pagosa Springs and Crestone #UtahVacation

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Before going to our Day 3 travelogue, please go through below posts to follow the itinerary.

Utah Vacation Plan with Kids

Day 1 - Arches National Park and Canyonlands National park

Day 2 - Monument Valley Park and Four Corners National monument

Day 2 - Mesa Verde National Park

We reached our hotel in Pagosa Springs on the night of day 2 itself. We intentionally took more rest on day 3 instead of visiting places. When we plan any vacation with kids, this is very important. Continuous traveling will impact kids making them cranky. So, we wanted to get up late, enjoy the breakfast buffet, relax in the pool and hot tub before starting our drive.

As mentioned in the previous post, Chimney Rock National monument is around 30 mins drive from Pagosa Springs. This is a good place to visit if you are interested in archeology and native American Lifestyle.

Chimney Rock
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It also makes sense to visit the world's deepest geothermal hot springs. There are 3 locations with access to hot springs in Pagosa Springs - The Springs Resort & Spa, Healing waters Resort &Spa and the new Overlook Mineral Springs Spa.

Hot Springs
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We drove towards Treasure falls, which is seen from the highway itself. There is a short hike going near the falls, but we couldn't go on a hike due to time constraint. Treasure falls is beautiful and it is worth the hike.

Treasure Falls

After crossing treasure falls, the drive is very scenic with mountains and valleys. We crossed 'Wolf Creek Pass' and skiing area as well on the way. The views were breathtaking.

Our next stop was to Crestone. 

The drive from Pagosa Springs to Crestone is scenic too.

Near Crestone

This Mahalakshmi temple and Haidakhandi Universal Ashram is in the foothills of San De Cristo mountains. The place is peaceful, good for meditation and yoga. The devotees perform aarti every evening at 6 PM and they provide overnight accommodation as well on request. There is also a Mahalakshmi shop with brass idols and pooja related items. 

Mahalakshmi temple and Haidakhandi Ashram

They have built this ashram in a self-sustainable way by properly utilizing the natural Sunlight to the advantage. The Ashram kitchen also offers lunch to the devotees. Visit this site to know more about this ashram.  

I have also heard that there is a small waterfall near the temple which is accessible by a short hike. We couldn't go for that as we had to return to Colorado Springs. We could reach Springs by 6pm itself which gave us enough time to rest and get ready for our daily grind from Monday. 

Thus, our 3-day Vacation ended on a happy note. 

Bonus Tips:

1. There is one specific part that we left on this trip which is on the way - Telluride and Ouray. These mountain towns are on the way to Pagosa Springs from Mesa Verde. We wanted to cover these places in the next fall and of course, we need another 2 days to relax in the Switzerland of America(Ouray).

2. One more part that you can customize is the plan from Monument Valley Park. We have covered Four Corners and Mesa Verde after Monument valley, But if you have time for 2 more days, I suggest you cover Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and Lake Powell from there as you will be nearer to Arizona border from there. 

Accommodations near Pagosa Springs:

So, How do you like our travelogue? Do let me know in comments.

Until next time,

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This post is written as part of a blog train #letsblogwithpri hosted by Prisha. Thanks to Revati for introducing me to this blog train. I would love to introduce Noor Anand to the blog train. Noor writes on multiple topics like food, travel, parenting etc., Read her posts.

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