You Just Can't Soak In Every Hot Spring
When we came to Idaho, there was a hot spring advertised for sale on a bulletin board in the town where I now work. My wife and I had become quite fond of hot springs and so drove out and had a look around, thinking maybe we could even sweet talk our way into a soak. We found it was pretty run down but had obviously been a very nice resort in its day. The pool had begun to crumble and it had not been used for swimming for a long, long time. There was really no place to soak, and we passed on trying to buy it.
Yesterday we took a drive out there to see what, if anything, had been done to it in the 20 or so years since we last checked. The place is now occupied but there is no sign that there is even a hot spring there. Our hope that perhaps someone was fixing it up for for public use again was dashed.
Photo taken yesterday with Kingear digital.
Hot springs are truly a natural wonder and Idaho is dotted with them. They have traditionally been a place of truce, of peace, of healing. It always makes me a little sad when I find one I just can't soak in, but it does happen. We encountered this lovely steamer in the Alvord Desert, part of the "Oregon Outback." There are nearby soaks available, but this creek is too hot with no cold readily available.
This is near one of our favorite old campsites, Grand Jean. There are actually cabins and a pool that you can rent out for reunions and such, we would always just camp. While the lodge was all nicely plumbed with hot water, campers are left to stare at the little hot spot bubbling out from under that rock. There are little warm seeps all over the place, and those flowers will bloom pretty near year around, even though the elevation there at least 6000 feet. It is stunningly beautiful and you can warm your toes but you just can't fit your buns in there.
Last two pictures were taken with the old film camera by either myself or my wife, about twenty years ago.
Thanks for stopping by, next time I will go over some of the BEST soaks in Idaho!
Wish I could visit Idaho someday - I only know their potato and didn't know about their hot springs!
Hot Springs, Whitewater rafting, hunting, fishing and rock hounding.
It is always a little disappointing to find things you once enjoyed, gone. I find as I get older, going back just isn't what it is cracked up to be. Time marches on and waits for no one.
Sure does and something new always comes up to fill the space. Like crypto I actually lived long enough to see people print their own money. Life is great entertainment.
Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun, I have been to a hot springs in South America but I don't think we have any in this part of the country.