Love-Birds of a Feather[ville] Soak Together

When I was making plans for the summer, there were three weekend trips planned that would each cross off several hot springs. The first was to the Warm Lake area, which we went to in mid-July and the last was to Atlanta, which we planned for August. The second one was to the Featherville area, which we went to the last weekend in July. Neither Josh nor I had been to Featherville before, but from the moment we drove by the Anderson Ranch Reservoir, we both were in love with the beautiful area! We were able to soak in 9 new hot springs over the 3 days that we travelled the loop from Pine to Fairfield via the Sawtooth National Forest.  

On the drive to Anderson Ranch Reservoir

Our first stop on Friday afternoon was to Prince Albert Hot Springs, which was the opposite way from the Fairfield/Pine highway than the rest of the hot springs we went to. We turned south towards Mountain Home, and drove 20 miles over some gravel roads to access it. It was all by itself in the side of the hill above several fields. I heard it's a pretty popular hot springs in the winter months, but we were by ourselves for the summer's day soak--and for good reason: it was by far the most disgusting natural hot springs we've been to in Idaho! The entire hillside was full of Mormon Crickets, and there were tons of dead ones floating in the hot pool. It stank of rotting bugs. We dipped our feet in it, so we could say we "soaked" in it, in order to cross it off our list. We liked the views of the valley below from where the hot springs were located, but it will still definitely be our least favorite one we've soaked in. 

We drove back to the Fairfield/Pine highway, and then turned north. After passing by the beautiful Anderson Ranch Reservoir (which I'd never even heard of before this trip) and the cute town of Pine, we made our way to Trinity Hot Springs for the evening. We'd been wanting to go there for years and were so glad to finally make it. We checked into our cozy room above the lodge and then soaked in their outdoor hot pool. It's about the same size as the large pool at Challis Hot Springs. It was pretty scarce of people that evening, but the longer we were there, more and more people arrived. And we were happily surprised to find out there were some musical guests scheduled to perform that night on the patio to entertain soakers. The 2-person jug band used authentic instruments and had a great vibe. It was an absolutely beautiful evening: the weather and sunset were gorgeous, the soakers were happy folk, and the music was so fun and joyful. I felt so much joy immersing myself in all my surroundings! Because we were staying there overnight, we had 24-hour access to the pool even after public open swim time had ended, so we took advantage of it and had a 2am soak all to ourselves. It was truly delightful!

On Saturday morning, we drove just over a mile down the road to "Johnson's Bridge Hot Spring" on the South Fork of the Boise River. The bridge is right next to the Elks Flat Campground, north of Pine. There were two areas by the bridge for soaking: a series of shallow rock pools along the river, and a large soaking pool in a nearby tributary creek. There were some people in the rock pools when we arrived, so we soaked in the larger pool and stayed there for quite a while because it was the perfect soaking temperature in contrast to the cool morning air. When the rock pool soakers left, we meandered that way and soaked in the shallow pools for a little bit before heading back to the lodge to pack up and check out. We stopped at a store in the cute little town of Featherville to get a few drinks before our overnight drive into the mountains. 

Our next stop was Willow Creek Hot Springs, which was 9 miles northeast of Featherville. We hiked on a short path about 3/4 of a mile to get to it. It was located in a valley where the hot water emerges and then runs along a wide, flat gravel bar before it runs into Willow Creek. There were several shallow rock pools along one side of the gravel bar that were soakable. We sat on larger rocks on the edge and dipped our feet in. We were hesitant to sit in them completely, because we'd heard reports of spider mites being present in the area. 

Baumgartner Campground was our destination to camp for the night and it was also the location of the next hot springs on our list. It is just 11 miles east of Featherville, but it's about halfway on the Pine-to-Fairfield loop. We arrived a lot earlier than we'd thought (we didn't know how long each soak would take or what condition the road was in). Check-in to our camping spot was technically not until 3:00, and we'd arrived at 1pm, so we decided to soak first. Baumgartner has a nice outdoor concrete pool owned by the Forest Service, where a natural hot spring flows through it, maintaining the pool's temperature at 103 degrees. Nobody else was in the pool at the time--I'm sure mornings and evenings in the summer are much busier so I guess we timed that right! I'd recently purchased a "floating hammock" that we both tried out in the pool. We only soaked for about 30 minutes total--it was too hot to stay longer in the middle of the summer afternoon. We changed our clothes in the nearby changing rooms, and when we drove back through the campground, our campsite was vacated, so even though we were still early, we pulled our car into the spot for the night. This was the first time we'd taken the Acadia to go camping; we made a make-shift bed in the back by folding down both the back row and middle row seats and laying down some sleeping pads and foam pads under our sleeping bag. It was a tight squeeze, and wasn't extremely comfortable, but it was fine for one night. We spent the rest of the day reading in our camp chairs, napping, playing games on the picnic table, eating, sitting by the fire that evening, and talking until bedtime. It was a very nice campground, and we had a good time in our little spot, surrounded by trees (which made it more private). It was SO relaxing, and was the closest thing to "real" camping that we've experienced since last October. 

On Sunday morning, we packed everything back into the car and left the campground about 8:30am. After 9 miles, we passed a sign by the road that read "Lightfoot Hot Springs". I'd heard of it while researching hot springs, but I hadn't included it on my hit list--but I couldn't remember why (since I made the list 2 years ago!). We stopped and soaked our feet in the singular hot pool on the side of the road. I found out later (when we were back in cell service) that there is more to the hot springs than just that roadside pool, but it includes a 3-mile hike roundtrip from a trailhead that's nearby, so we'll have to go back another time to find it! 

The next hot springs on our list was five more miles down the road, and when we got there, it was one that Josh hiked into alone. In my research, I'd discovered that the trail to Skillern Hot Springs crossed Big Smokey Creek multiple times, and due to my anxiety over my recent treacherous water crossing to get to Bear Valley Hot Springs, I opted not to join him. I stayed at the car parked at Canyon Creek Campground instead, and read a book in a camp chair while I waited. The hike was 6 miles roundtrip. There were two trails to get to the hot springs: the lower way had 3 water crossings, and the upper way was steeper, but didn't require any water crossings. He took the upper way there, and the lower way back and said they took about the same amount of time.  He said this hot springs was his favorite of the trip, and once he recounted to me how beautiful it was, I'd wished I'd gone with him! The hot spring flowed out of the ground and into Skillern Creek, where there was a rock pool built on its edge where the hot water trickled into it. But the real gem was a smaller pool a few yards upstream of the Creekside, where water cascades down a rocky cliff and into it. He was the only one there, and had a relaxing soak in the smaller pool, listening to the creek flow below, and feeling the streams of water cascading in from overhead. 

He was only gone for about 2.5 hours, and when he got back, we ate lunch at the campground then continued on our way. A few miles later we stopped at Preis Hot Springs; a cute soaking box recessed in the ground near the side of the road, which is easy to pass by it without even knowing if you don't know what you're looking for, because from the road it just looks like a pile of rocks in some tall grass. The hot springs bubble up through the floor at 103* into the man-made tub made out of wooden boards. There's a bench at one end of the 3x4 foot soaking tub. I sat in the tub and Josh sat on the edge and put his feet in for a few minutes.

The ninth new hot springs of the trip was to the popular Worswick Hot Springs, which is over 30 miles east of Featherville, near the junction that heads east towards Ketchum or south to Fairfield. This hot springs spans a rather large area on both sides of the road. The springs flow from a grassy hillside, continue downhill through several rock-lined pools, into a stream that flows through a large culvert under the road, and creates large soaking pools before joining the Little Smoky Creek. The rock pools on the hill are extremely hot and were too hot to soak in, but the larger pools past the culvert were wonderful. We soaked in the culvert pool, and then wandered around exploring the area, and I soaked in a pool close to the creek and watched a snake slither along and eat a fish. Good thing Josh wasn't there at that moment--he hates snakes!

After we left Worswick, we headed south to Fairfield, then got back on the Fairfield/Pine Highway and drove home. We decided to stop at our favorite hot springs in Cronk's Canyon on the way, which made for a grand total of 10 hot springs soaks in one weekend--setting a new record for the number of hot springs we'd soaked in on one weekend trip! 

We really enjoyed this weekend exploring hot springs on the Pine to Fairfield loop. We already look forward to going again to all these hot springs and more in the scenic Featherville area!