Montezuma Hot Springs

🏊Swimming at Montezuma Hot Springs

This is a soaking site rather than a swim-and-cool-off spot: multiple small pools hold mineral-rich thermal water ranging from about 94F up to 120F in the hottest pool ("The Lobster Pot"), with other named areas such as "The Cube" and "The Toaster." Visitors soak rather than swim laps; the experience suits people seeking a warm, rustic mineral bath rather than families looking for a swimming beach.

📍How to get to this swimming hole

From Las Vegas, NM, drive NM Highway 65 for about 12 minutes (roughly 5-6 miles) to 400 NM Hwy 65; a parking area for the springs is on the right side of the highway beside Gallinas Creek, with the pools a short walk from the lot.

Parking: Free parking lot at the site off NM Highway 65 (per tophotsprings.com); the official visitor page does not itself describe parking.

💬What regulars say

Visitors describe it as a brief, casual stop: one 'enjoyed a short soak in the series of tubs closest to Las Vegas' during a road-trip pass-through, and another said she arrived 'unprepared' without having researched which pools/activities were available, then wandered to 'the first set of springs' encountered. Together they suggest most casual visitors soak briefly in the nearest pool cluster rather than exploring the full site.

📜Backstory

The U.S. Army built an adobe hospital on the site in 1846, later converted to a hotel called The Adobe (1862); several Montezuma Hotel buildings operated in the 1880s, and Doc Holliday is reported to have visited in 1879 for tuberculosis treatment. The historic hotel building (Montezuma Castle) and surrounding property, including the springs, are now part of the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West.