Who was Arthur Rochford Manby? Click here to find out
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I found the directions to the Mamby hot springs by a Google Internet search. As it turned out the following of these directions required negotiations of several miles of off-highway travel over natural dirt roads that were not much more than rutted tire tracks. A four-wheel drive vehicle is desirable and would be mandatory in wet weather. Jack who was familiar with the roads in the area had no trouble finding the trail head on the rim of the gorge above the springs. Leaving our vehicle Jack, Lucy Ann and I began the trek down the 3/4 mile now badly eroded 19th century stage road trail about 11:45 AM. It took us less than half an hour to make our way down the near 1,000 foot drop to the bottom of the gorge and the hot springs. These pictures were taken with my Olympus C-700 Ultra Zoom digital camera. . |
| Here is a good view of one of the principal pools taken from the trail above, The pool is the dark irregularly shaped rock rimed image at the edge of the river. To the right are the ruins of Manby's stone bath house built over the main spring. |
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Lucy Ann and Jack and their dog Callie, a Golden Retriever
are here pictured at the springs. . Lucy Ann is sitting on the wall
of Manby's bath house built over the main pool. Callie had not yet
had her first swim in the pool. A minute later she took the plunge
reappearing after a moment with a surprised expression apparently not
expecting the warm 98 degree water.
A century ago this was a favorite place of Manby to relax and unwind as he sought new strategies to save his crumbling empire. |
| In this picture Jack and Callie are at the river, the Rio
Grande about 100 miles from its source in the mountains in Colorado.
The river at this time, Oct 17, 2002 was quite low after a summer and fall
with little rain,
I think Callie preferred her dips in the cooler river to the warm water of the spring.. The link included with the first picture above indicates, however there is another fissure in the river bed here feeding hot water directly to the river. Chemical analysis of the hot water from the springs shows a high mineral content including a measurable level of radioactivity from radon, |
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Here is a shot of the ruins of the Manby bath house. Lucy Ann is resting on a large rock near the ruins. Visitors would be well advised not to sit or walk on the old structure least it prove unable to bear their weight. As the reader might surmise from the picture Manby was a long way from completing a spa development that would attract the eastern millionaires and European aristocracy that would have saved his empire. |
| Here is a view of the canyon wall across the
river. Note the complex system of ledges that were probable part of
the involved system of switch back road segments making it possible for a
stage to negotiate its way up or down the canyon wall. Today there
is not much left that could be recognized as a road and I really doubt the
possibility of any wheeled vehicle making it up or down either side
of the gorge.
I suspect that this river crossing would have been a rather harrying experience for the tenderfoot 19th century traveler. |
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The return hike back up to the trail head above of course required much more energy than the jaunt down, but in one respect the walk up was easier than the journey down. The getting a firm footing was much easier than when going down. In the picture picture, taken by jack, I am about 3/4 of the way back to the top. Behind me is the Rio Grande and its canyon looking upstream. We made it back to the top in about 40 minutes by about 1:30 PM, in time to return to Taos for a late lunch at the old Manby townhouse that is now a popular restaurant. |
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Continue: Manby's Taos |
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