On State Road 522 in Questa, Yoga Sala is much more than a yoga studio. It is a movement studio, an event space, and a gathering place built around a simple idea the studio states plainly: supporting a culture of health in northern New Mexico. In Spanish, a sala is a communal space, a living room, a dance hall, and that is exactly how this bright room functions for the village, welcoming neighbors and visitors alike to move, meet, and breathe a little slower.
Founder Gaea McGahee moved to the Questa area in 2013 and, after listening at public meetings to what mattered locally, helped start the Questa Farmers Market in 2016. While that work was growing, she trained as a yoga instructor. In February 2018 she purchased the building that is now Yoga Sala, and after a year of renovating, she and her partner offered the first class there in September 2019. The studio that grew from that work still carries the same roots in land, food, and community that shaped the farmers market.
Today the weekly schedule is varied and welcoming. Yoga Sala lists weekly classes in yoga, tai chi, kickboxing, contemporary dance, a Tiny Groovers music class, and kids dance, with special events hosted monthly. Music events and community gatherings fill the room as well, in a light-filled space with wood floors and tall windows that the Questa del Rio News described as calm the moment you walk in. Schedules change and are updated monthly, so checking the studio website before you go is the best way to find the right class.
What makes Yoga Sala distinctive is its nonprofit heart. Sala Reach, a program of the local nonprofit Localogy, operates out of the studio and sponsors free community classes. Its current free offerings include chair yoga on Monday morning, community yoga on Monday evening, and tai chi on Saturday morning. Sponsorships remove the financial barrier for many people, including youth, veterans and their families, first responders and law enforcement officers, and people in recovery or coping with stress and trauma, who may attend as many sponsored weekly classes as they choose with no payment required and no questions asked.
For a traveler passing through Questa on the Enchanted Circle or on the way to the Rio Grande and Wild Rivers, Yoga Sala is an easy and restorative stop, and for locals it is a steady place to build health and connection week after week. You will find it at 2331 State Road 522 in Questa. To see the current classes and events schedule, visit yogasalaquesta.org or call the studio for more information, and consider stopping in for a class, a music event, or a community gathering while you are in town.