The Hot Springs

Well, I mentioned the hot springs in a couple of posts, so I figured that I ought to devote a short one to it. The day after the big ride, Kim and I slept in. We awoke at 9:00, to find that Lari and Katie had broken camp and headed on to White Bird ID and our next campsite. We felt very refreshed from our night's sleep, and decided to explore that downhill trail we had found the evening after our big hike.

From the parking area, the trail went on for about a quarter mile pitching down quite steeply at the end to a rocky outcropping just above the creek that ran through our campground. We smelled the mineral hot spring before we saw the clouds of steam along with the hot water flowing out of the outcrop. It was a very extensive spring, and included a small bath house that I am sure was not up to Forest Service regulations. However, I salute the local Ranger's good sense at leaving the thing alone for people to enjoy! It was very hot water, and I am amazed that our benevolent government hadn't fenced it off to protect us from ourselves!

The smell of sulfur was pretty overpowering at the spring. It was quite an
extensive spring, and very hot. Too hot to stand in at the source without
getting burned.

The bath house was very rustic, and people had carved their names and initials into the old and weathered wood. A pipe gathered hot water from the stream and brought it inside to an old bath tub inset into the floor. There was a large cork plug that was used to stop up the drain, and after the water got nearly to the top, it drained out of the tub at the lower end and back into the spring. This way, you had continuous clean and fresh hot mineral water to bath in. There was also another pipe with a valve on it that appeared to be an attempt at bringing some cooler water in to mix and control temperature. We filled the tub, but it was just too hot and we decided not to risk a burn. I imagine the temperature might vary over time as conditions in the underlying rock formations change.
 

It was a wonder that the bath house survived our benevolent government.

It was a very cool set up inside the bath house. The blue valve
on the right didn't really cool things down as I believe it was
meant to.

We wandered down to the creek where the hot water mixed in, and found some pools that folks had built with rocks over time. There was just enough depth to sit or lay down to soak. So, that is what we did for about twenty minutes. It was wonderful, and we had the whole place to ourselves!

We did get to soak for a while, down where the hot water was cooled some
by the creek. No pictures however, as this is a PG rated blog!

 After our soak, we hiked back to the truck totally refreshed and ready to continue our adventure. Next stop was White Bird Idaho on the Snake River near it's junction with the Salmon. We were looking forward to some more motorcycle riding and a whitewater jet boat ride up the Snake River in the Hell's Canyon National Recreation Area.

That's All!