Salmon Tolman Fam

When I started heavily researching hot springs in Idaho back in the spring of 2021, I started thinking of taking a trip to Warm Lake because it's a central location for several hot springs in the surrounding areas. I'd heard the name of it before, only due to seeing the sign for it while working my summer job of driving for River Shuttles, but neither Josh nor I had ever been there before. When Josh and I went to Brundage Resort last fall to hear Jeff Crosby's concert at their Summer Concert Series, we soaked in Trail Creek Hot Springs near Cascade on our way home and decided to drive by Warm Lake. It was SO adorable--a small lake tucked into the mountains with lots of camping opportunities and two lake resorts with cabins. I got online and booked a cabin for us for the following summer on the 2nd weekend of July, and since I've been earnestly seeking to complete my "100 Idaho hot springs hit list" this summer, the timing of going there was perfect.

We sold our camping trailer last fall, and purchased a used, modified camper van instead. We talked all winter about some of the places we'd like to take the van to, and Warm Lake was one of the trips we'd had in mind. We extended our 2-night stay at the cabin to a 3-night getaway with the plan to spend the night in the van the first night. And in an effort to see more of Idaho, we also decided to take the longer route (but less miles) by driving through the mountains of the Boise National Forest, rather than taking the highway the whole way.

We began our highly-anticipated weekend trip to Warm Lake on Thursday, July 13th about 6pm after work. After we passed Stanley 2 hours later, we took the Boundary Creek turnoff from Highway 75, and then headed east through the mountains over some very bumpy dirt roads. It was definitely slow-going, and not the preferred route, but we were glad to see some of Idaho's backcountry that we'd never been to before. We got to the primitive Deer Flat campground after 9:30pm, just as it was getting dark. We were the only ones there, which was nice. We got set up and spent the night in our cozy van.

On Friday morning, we left the campground pretty early and continued our drive towards Warm Lake. Our check-in at the cabin wasn't until 3pm, but we had plans to go to several natural hot springs before then that morning. We figured we'd see less crowds soaking if we arrived earlier in the day. That plan ended up working out well for us. We arrived at our first hot springs, Molly's Tubs, about 10am and for a while, we were luckily the only ones there! There used to be an array of bathtubs set into the hillside, hence the name "Molly's Tubs", but there was a forest fire several years ago, and the tubs are now gone as well as the original road access leading to it from the highway. At some point, a spa bath was placed on the upstream side of a rocky spur above the South Fork of the Salmon River, and a rock & mortar natural pool was built on the downstream side of the rock embankment. The spa was dirty, and required some maneuvering of the pipes that were placed there with it, so Josh and I opted to just soak in the rock-lined natural pool. It was absolutely heavenly! It was an incredibly memorable soak.

At the top of the trail leading down the embankment,
you can see where the spa tub was placed.

That's not a sight you see every day in the forest!

From the trailhead looking down,
the man-made rock pool was also visible.

This pool was divinely serene!

As we were driving on the gravel road to our next hot spring, we could see more evidence of natural hot springs in another spot above the South Fork of the Salmon River. We pulled over, walked through brush to get down to the river, waded across the river, and Josh found a tiny pool at the base of the runoff right along the river. I never made it to the pool--it took me forever to cross the river and halfway across I decided to turn around and go back. Josh crossed the river, hiked partway up the hill, soaked in the tub, and walked back across the river before I made it back from my half-way wade! I still had some PTSD from the recent river crossing to Bear Creek Hot Springs. Apparently, this pool that Josh soaked in called "Molly's Trolley Hot Springs".

Josh hiked up to see if there was any pools
on the hillside. There wasn't. But it's a great
view of my paralysis while crossing the river!

Here's the little riverside pool at the base of the
hot springs runoff that he soaked in. Also,
you can still see me crossing upstream.

I tried to be hands-free, so I wrapped my towel
around my head and it's reminiscent of a nun wrap.

When I finally made it back to the van, we only drove for about a half mile before we parked again, this time for a marked trail that included a bridge over the water crossing (yay!) to our next hot springs: Molly's Hot Springs (AKA "The Duke" because John Wayne used to visit it frequently back in the day). The trail was only about a quarter of a mile long to access the hot pool, which wasn't bad until the end when you had to go up a slick, rocky slope to reach it. It's a large concrete pool set above the river. Again, our timing was perfect. A group of 4 people were just leaving as we were arriving, and we had the place to ourselves. The views were amazing, and it was so peaceful! Josh checked out the cliffside above the built-in pool for a close-up view of the hot spring source. There was some intricate piping involved in creating the perfect soaking temperature in this gem of a pool.

Josh is standing to the left of/below that dead
tree in the center of the photo.

His view from up there. The pool is visible towards
the bottom center just above the bare ground.

Our next stop was to Vulcan Hot Springs, a few miles down the same dirt road. A one-mile trail leads through a field and over creeks to access the hot springs. I'd read multiple reports that Vulcan was too hot to soak in, and it was infested with spider mites, so I opted to stay in the van because I was exhausted. I took a nap as Josh happily hiked across the trail and scoped out the large area of Vulcan Hot Springs that seems to just crop up out of a grassy field in the middle of nowhere! He ended up not soaking, but he enjoyed his quiet hike--because once again, no one else was in sight.

This rock-spelled word "NO" was placed in the grass
right under the rock-walled pool. Josh took it as a sign to not soak.

Our next destination was to the North Shore Lodge. We got there just before 2pm. Our cabin wasn't ready yet, so we just ordered lunch and ate it on the lodge's patio and enjoyed the views of the lake until our cabin was ready to check into. We reserved Cabin #8, the smallest of the cabins. It only has one bed, sleeps 2 people, and the bathroom was detached--on the backside of a nearby storage building. We were content with it! We relaxed for a bit, then freshened up and left to go to the Summer Music Festival at Roseberry, a small town near Cascade. We watched 3 performers at the outdoor venue that night: Muzzy Braun, Steve Poltz, and Jeff Crosby's band. It was a neat little venue, an organized festival, and lots of food truck options for food and drinks for the large crowds that came. But it was really hot, and not in the shade. It was nice when the sun finally went behind the barn's roofline! Steve Poltz was someone we'd never even heard of before this event, but we absolutely loved him! He's hilarious and so creative and is a great performer! We bought some of his CD's and merch and talked to him afterwards. We'd love to see him perform again. Jeff Crosby's band was the final performance of the night, and we were crowded out at the front of the dance floor by lots of rich 20-something kids, which was annoying. However, we still had a great time and always love watching Jeff Crosby's band live! It was such perfect timing that he was performing nearby on the weekend we had a cabin reserved at Warm Lake!

On Saturday morning, we woke up in paradise. The view of Warm Lake from our cabin was so refreshing and peaceful! We left that morning headed north--the previous day we'd done hot springs south of Warm Lake. Our first Hot Spring was the popular Mile-16 one. It's almost 16 miles north of the Warm Lake Highway. There are 2 rock & mortar pools set into the edge of the South Fork of the Salmon River at the base of a steep bank with built in wooden steps and switchbacks below the paved road. When we first arrived, there were 2 women in the larger pool, so we soaked in the smaller pool until they left, and then we had it to ourselves for a while. Just as we were leaving, another group was coming. We were grateful we'd gotten there early enough that it wasn't crowded yet!

The smaller pool

Teapot was our next hot springs; it was about 7 more miles north on that same road. Several hot seeps emerge along the rocky banks of the river to create Teapot Hot Springs. We could see 3 definite pools within the rocks, and we parked at a narrow pullout and walked down the embankment below the road to reach them. We only soaked our feet in these, as the temperature was super hot.

The next hot springs on our last was a bit of a challenge to find, due to some bad written instructions that included wrongly defined landmarks and incorrect mileage. After some driving around in circles and exploring all the little side roads, we finally discovered the correct parking place and identified the mis-steps in the outdated hot springs book we were using as a guide. Penny Hot Springs was also on that same road, but was much closer to the Warm Lake Highway than the other 2 hot springs, so we went to it on our drive back to the lodge. Once we parked, we hiked along a trail that led to a steep slope that had to be slid down or carefully stepped down in order to access the hot pools along the South Fork of the Salmon River. There was a group ahead of us on the trail, but they continued on, and we stopped at the first soaking pools we saw. We soaked in them for a while, enjoying the differing views all around us. These were the last hot springs of the day, which we were glad of, but we also wanted to relish the time.

When we got back to the lodge, we just relaxed for the rest of the day at our cabin and on the lake: reading, sun-bathing, people-watching, paddle boarding on the lake, and just relaxing. We went to the lodge again for dinner, and this time we sat inside. We headed back to our cabin just as the sun was setting. It was so beautiful!

Sunday morning was our last day of the weekend getaway, but we made the most of it! We slept in, packed up, and then checked out. We decided to do another scenic drive on our way back home. We headed southwest from Warm Lake, continuing through the Boise National Forest, this time heading towards Deadwood Reservoir. Neither of us had been there before, but we were both curious to see it! The road was once again long and bumpy and slow. The Reservoir was gorgeous and had lots of campsites all around it. We stopped to check out the dam at the base of the reservoir. It was very impressive!

From Deadwood Reservoir, we continued south until we reached the Banks-Lowman Highway. It was nice to finally have some smooth road and could pick up speed! We decided to stop once more on the drive home, at Pine Flats Hot Spring. Unbelievably--it wasn't very busy when we arrived. We hiked the half mile to the hot spring, and Josh took a route above the springs that emerge on the cliff, that then turned into a steep slope downwards to access the waterfall springs next to the South Fork of the Payette River. I didn't have the right footwear, so I couldn't traverse the steep slope below the cliff. I just soaked in different pools on the rocky hillside instead. The main pool we soaked in 3 years before had changed--two large rocks sat in the middle of the pool now than on the edge like they had before, which really decreased the area of soaking. Josh had a terrific lone soak in the waterfalls at Pine Flats, and I was content to wander around the area soaking my feet in little pools. It was a good place to get out and move our feet and relax for a bit before the final leg of the trip back home.