got to sleep in late. went to chile works for breakfast burittos. bought some for guy and camilla as well, but they were so slow getting out of bed that i ate camillas. i had finished mine, i was still hungry, and they weren't making any progress towards getting downstairs. besides, i paid for all of them..

carolyn and i were going to go hiking on the mountain behind her house, but we decided instead to go driving and have a look at the caldera.

the initial portion of the drive was very beautiful. lots of pines and aspens, curvey windy road up the side of the jemez mountains. there were a couple of good views across the rio grande valley to santa fe.

eventually, we found a huge meadow in the heart of the mountains. it was probably 5 miles across the short way and at least 15 miles long. there were cows in what looked like a nearby portion of the field, but they were just little dots. this plain was much larger than it looked.

it didn't look like a volcano caldera to me, but it turns out that's what this is. it's now privately owned. probably some of the best land in america. lush grass, surrounded by green mountains, etc.

on the other side of the jemez mountains is a small stream called the jemez river and a town called jemez springs. we stopped by the ranger station and asked about the hot springs that we heard were in this area.

she gave us a couple of maps towards the two main ones. one was a 1.5 mile hike off the road, so we skipped it and went on to the one that was next to the road.

on our way, we passed a "natural recreational area" on the side of the road called the soda dam. It was a big rock formation, created by a hot spring, blocking the jemez river and forming a waterfall. the rock formatio has grown up over the waterfall, making a sort of tunnel-sluiceway and leaving a high rock ledge up above the waterfall basin pool. there were people jumping off the cliffs into the pool, which is apparently very deep. if carolyn and i had been wearing swimsuits, we'd have gone in. instead, we just climbed the cliffs and wandered around on the nearby dry land.

we drove on to the hot springs, which were about 5 miles up the road.

to get from the wayside to the springs required hiking down to the river, crossing it, then climbing back up to road-level on the other side of the valley. although the straight-line distance between one and the other is about 100 meters, the hike is about a kilometer.

we passed a sign that said "clothing optional beyond this point."

the springs are in several palces among some large boulders on the side of the mountain. the main one pours into a series of pools, each one cooler than the last. the pool into which the spring originally pours is about 104 F degrees. no one was in that pool.

the next pool was considerably cooler, and it was filled with older naked men.

the third pool was just barely warm and was full of younger clothed men and women.

we found a much larger warm pool off to the side, but it was also full of naked old people.

finally, we found a small pool to ourselves. we just sat in it for awhile. no one got naked, etc.

after driving back and taking a nap, camilla and guy appeared and i convinced them to go back to the soda dam with us - this time in suits.

not suit-and-tie, stupid. bathing suits.

we drove all the way back there (45 minutes) only to find that a storm was brewing over the mountains.

before the storm got too bad, we got into the water. the pool was very deep in the center. i couldn't touch the bottom with a surface dive. towards the edges, it got very shallow with big rocks near the surface. there were people jumping off the cliffs from a few different places. the low cliff was only about 4 meters tall. the high one was probably 10 meters. the really high one was 12 or 13 meters. people were also sliding down the waterfall-sluice like a waterslide.

i decided to try the waterfall. it was amazing. the actualy vertical fall of the waterfall isn't more than 2 meters, but there's a long steep slide down to that point perhaps 5 meters. the wide steam is compressed into a 2-foot wide channel as it turns through the rock. you can climb along the tunnel to a point next to the thinnest part of the flow. from there you lower your feet int the water, then slide your ass into the flow and it jets you away.

the acceleration is enugh to whip your body back into a laying position. you hydrofoil on top of the water, so nothing gets hurt on the rocks. about half-way down the slope, the water widens out again, turning your body sideways. now you're rolling down this slope at about 25 mph on top of the water. it is very disorienting. suddenly, the rock drops out from underneath you and you're falling.

it's not just regular falling, though. you start at high speed, and the water forces you down quicker. in an instant, you are plunged deep underwater and shot out from under the waterfall by the current. in a second, your head pokes up from the pool and you yell and hoot like an idiot.

i wouldn't shut up about how cool the waterfall ride was all night.

the storm forced us to leave before i could do anything else.