Nude ain't lewd...

When I told my father that we were going camping at the hot springs, he said, “ Well, don’t get naked and smoke pot…” I pretended as though I’d never dream of doing anything like that. I mean, I’m not one to get naked AND smoke pot… to me, that seems like some sort of first aid disaster waiting to happen. But then again, if it’s good enough for Matthew McConaughey, then it’s good enough for me. I'm not big on nudity or pot smoking...but I do like a glass of wine while wearing my bathing suit....eh... I'm so boring.

That being said, we drove many miles down to southern Colorado to the “naturist” hot springs. As we drove up, I saw most everyone milling around with clothing on, so I started to think maybe the nekked folks didn’t come out until night time. I was wrong. By the time we made it down to the pool, it was middle aged, pot-bellied nakedness on a rampage. I wasn’t that shocked by it. I mean, I’ve seen tons of naked people in my life, but you never quite get over wanting to see. At first it was funny, but by the time I saw the naked stranger peeing in the Co-ed bathrooms, I was starting to get sick of seeing all the available flesh. If there had been some hot nudity, that might have changed the environment... as it was, it was mostly saggy tits and dangly grandpa doodads. So not sexy....

We found a campsite (which was far away from parking, so we had to lug all of our stuff up this hill…) which we happily shared with about 6,000 gnats. After setting up camp, we decided to check out the hot springs (while wearing out bathing suits). Afterwards, we decided to go check out this famous abandoned mine up a mountain nearby that supposedly had a large number of bats. I didn’t jump right up and go mind you, it took a lot of convincing, but we finally made it up to the top and watched an amazing sunset and saw this HUGE flock of bats heading out. I can’t tell you how cool it was to be up there. The long hike was almost worth it, but by the end, my bad ankle was smarting and I was STARVING.

When we all finally made it back to the campsite, which the gnats had abandoned, only to find our stove wasn’t working. Since there was a fire ban, we made do with Jon & Desha’s Bunsen burner and still managed to turn out a pretty fantastic dinner. Afterwards, we all trekked up to the natural hotsprings for a late night soak and to look at the stars. The sky was completely clear and the stars were so bright… it was pretty surreal and beautiful. It really made me appreciate living in Colorado.

The next morning, I woke up and realized that the gnats were back and with a vengeance. Tim and I had work to do back at the house, so we high tailed it out of there…but not before running into a few naturist strollers out for a nude morning jaunt. I had almost forgotten there was nudity that morning, but my lingering memory is of a guy wearing a fishing vest, hat, and hiking boots.... and nothing else. I guess that must save money on bait...

pictures here...