Josh's Bday at the Double J&D

On the first weekend in November, Josh and I went to Garden Valley to celebrate his birthday. We'd booked two nights at the Double J & D Historic Hot Springs Ranch on AirB. We left on Friday after Josh was done with work, and once we got past Challis, it snowed the whole rest of the way, so the roads weren't the greatest. Thankfully, we'd decided to take the Acadia rather than the Mini, so it handled the ice and slush and snow-covered roads okay. We stopped at the Subway in Garden Valley before heading to our weekend accommodations, in order to grab a quick dinner that we could just eat at the rental. The Double J&D was on the other side of the South Fork of the Payette River from Campground Hot Springs (which is along the highway). The place was SO nice and cozy. It included a bedroom and a living room/dining room and a separate private bathroom that was about 25 feet away, right next to the outdoor hot pool. We got our bags unpacked and got settled into our room for the night. We ate dinner, and then read until it was dark. We soaked in the outdoor hot pool after dark. It was lovely; the light snowflakes dusted our face as we were submerged in the hot water. I loved it!

The next morning, we slept in and had a morning soak in the hot pools. After our leisure morning, we drove into town again to have brunch at "Wild Bills".  It was a cute little restaurant, and breakfast is their specialty, so it was pretty busy. The food was good, and we enjoyed the meal! We made one more stop while we were in town to the small grocery store to get food to eat at our rental for the remainder of our stay. 

We decided to spend Saturday afternoon adventuring. In our hot springs research, we'd read about some natural hot springs in the area near the highway within 5 miles of Garden Valley, and we wanted to see if we could find them. We hiked along two different trails leading from the highway to the river, and found hot springs emerging from the ground, but nothing that was soak-able. There was another hot springs that I'd spotted last summer from the highway with a tub placed beneath the natural hot water source, so our next adventure was to drive to it (it was on the opposite side of the river from the highway). We drove back toward town, and then down the same road that our AirBnB was on, and we kept on going. Neither of us had been down that road before, so it was nice to see things up close that we'd only seen from across the highway before. However, as we got close to the area where the tub was located, the road had a gate across it with a sign that said it was a private road and we couldn't go any further. All 3 of the hot springs that were on our list to find that morning concluded with a dead end, which was a bummer. 

Check out that cool tree root!

South Fork of the Payette

Can you spot Josh in the orange coat searching for hot springs?!

See the tub on the hill? It is in such a neat spot! And the hot 
water emerging from cracks in the cliff was so fascinating, too!

On this hike, we had to follow the steep trail
downhill along this culvert, using a rope to help
us not slip. See Josh down there at the bottom?

Josh took this photo at the bottom of the culvert
of the water pump house that was built over
another hot water source. 

When we got back to the AirBnb, we walked around the property that borders the SF of the Payette River. The property is so cool! We walked to their private waterfall, saw the major pumping system that feeds the water from the hot water source to multiple properties, and climbed down to the riverside embankment that's directly across the river from Campground Hot Springs and spotted some people soaking! 

Can you see the natural hot springs tub across 
the river from us?

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening resting indoors: reading, watching movies, and snacking. 

See the river below the property? This place was so beautiful!

That covered porch was our private bathroom, 
attached to the owner's home. 

There was a walkway between our rental & the
bathroom/hot pool area. 

We soaked in the hot pool again that night, but this time, the sky was clear. The moon was beautiful! In a box by the hot pool were some inflatable floating loungers that we tried out. They were awesome! We loved being able to look at the sky while we were laying on our backs in the loungers, and we were also able to stay in the water a lot longer as a result of laying in them too, because we weren't too hot with our bodies only partially submerged in the water. 

We soaked again in the hot pool on Sunday morning for the last time. The sky was beautiful, the air was cool, and steam was rising from the hot pool. It was very picturesque and so peacefully quiet! As we soaked, we drank our morning hot drinks as we simultaneously drank in the beauty of our surroundings! We felt so rejuvenated after being in nature and enjoying our morning soak! 

The drive home on Sunday was much nicer than the drive down had been on Friday. Thankfully, the roads were clear, but the snow had stuck to the higher elevations, which was a pretty sight! It had been a truly magical weekend! We loved the cozy accommodations, the peaceful surroundings, and the amazing hot pool! We'll definitely go back to this place; we hope to try it in the summer next time.