Springs, Stairs, Swims, & Sunburns

We went on our first (and only) family vacation of the summer just one week before it ended and Kanyon had to go back to school! Our vacation plan was to go to Bear Lake since Kanyon likes hanging out in water and on the beach, and we hadn't been there in years. But since Josh and I had so many weekend trips to hot springs planned all summer long, our family vacation didn't happen until the end of August.  

We knew it wouldn't be very fun for Kanyon to just hang out with just me and Josh, so we told him he could invite a friend. He invited his friend Sam, and he and his parents agreed that he could join us. However, he ended up going with another friend Jesse to Boise the day before we left, because he thought our trip was a different weekend. So last minute, Kanyon invited his friend Evan Dobson to come with us instead. We left on Saturday August 19th and drove to Montpelier. On our way, we stopped in Soda Springs as we were passing through because the timing was just right to watch the Soda Springs Geyser (it bursts every hour on the hour). 

We made it to Montpelier and checked into our hotel, then went to the Minnetonka Cave to take a tour. Our reservation was for the last tour of the day. You go down 444 steps while in the cave, and then at the end, you have to turn around and go back up the same steps. None of us had been there before, but it was an interesting cave tour that lasted a little over an hour. We were surprised at the people in our group who brought babies a/o toddlers and had to carry them the whole way! It wasn't easy going over the steps that were built out of natural materials 80 years ago! 

Walking on the boardwalk to get to the cave entrance

The cave entrance is behind/to the left of Kanyon

Some of the stairs inside

This formation looked like a pope gnome to me!

Don't worry--this formation was already ruined,
so the guide said people could touch it.

Afterwards, we stopped and got pizza in Montpelier. That night, the boys hung out at the hotel gaming and swimming in the hotel pool, and I persuaded Josh to go see the Barbie movie with me in the theater (I loved it and he hated it).  

On Sunday morning, we drove to the North Beach of Bear Lake on the Idaho side. It wasn't too busy, and the weather wasn't too hot, due to the sun being behind cloud cover. We soaked in the Bear Lake Hot Springs that are near the beach first (another one to cross off our list!). There are two warm pools there varying in temperature, and the smell of Sulphur was prevalent, so the boys didn't soak with us long because they couldn't stand the smell. I thought the location was quite pleasant and peaceful, with the view of the lake in the distance. We were the only ones soaking for a few minutes before a large adult family came and joined us. The facilities are dated, but sufficient with dressing rooms and bathrooms. I've been researching this particular hot springs for years--the ownership changed hands in the past few years and I wasn't even sure it was still open, so I was glad it to see it was! 

After that, we hung out on the sand and in the shallow water of Bear Lake for about 6 hours. It was very relaxing. We mostly used our paddle boards to play on the water with. Since it wasn't too sunny, Kanyon chose to not wear sunscreen, but since he was laying a lot on the paddle boards in the water, and the water reflects the light more intensely, he got super sunburned on his chest, shoulders, and back. We left around 4:00 that afternoon and stopped in Logan at a store to get some sunburn relief gel which I applied multiple times that night and the next day. He was pretty miserable! We spent the night at my parents' house in Providence. Grandma made dinner for us when we arrived, and then we hung out all evening talking, watching TV, reading, and doing puzzles. Kanyon and Evan walked down to Walmart that night, which was a 2 mile walk, and it was 11:00 when they got back.

On Monday morning, Grandma made us breakfast and then we drove to Ogden to Amanda and Ryan's house. Amanda trimmed mine and Kanyon's hair. We were there for about an hour. After that, we drove north and stopped in Pocatello to do some school shopping and have lunch before driving the rest of the way home.  It was a pretty short vacation, but it was nice to do some sight-seeing and have some down time with Kanyon before the summer's end. 

The Hundredth Hot Spring & the First with Friends

This August weekend hot springs trip to Atlanta, Idaho was nothing short of amazing for so many reasons: we both got to see parts of Idaho we'd never been to before, we spent the weekend with some of our best friends, we soaked in ten more hot springs, we celebrated my birthday, and accomplished soaking in the 100th Idaho hot spring while on this trip--a goal we'd been working on for 3 years!

Josh & I had been looking forward to going to Atlanta for years, and we were especially excited for this trip because our friends Phil and Darcy joined us! We'd never taken any of our friends on a hot springs trip before! We booked two nights at Twin Springs, a rustic mini-resort with 5 lodging cabins on the Middle Fork of the Boise River. Our shared cabin had 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, living room, and a deck with its own large private hot springs tub. We left the morning of Friday, August 11th. We drove from Salmon to Idaho City and stopped for lunch. We ate on the patio at The Gold Mine Grill. The food was so good! From there, we drove towards Boise and turned off on a gravel road that passed Lucky Peak Reservoir and Dam, and then we continued on to Twin Springs. Once we checked in to our cabin, we explored the beautiful grounds, soaked in the private hot tub on the back deck, and ate dinner together overlooking the river. It was a wonderful start of our weekend trip!

Ready to Roll!

Lunch at The Gold Mine in Idaho City

The warm natural pool behind the lodge
(shown behind the rock shed on the right).

The large community hot springs pool behind the small lodge.

Our cabin for the weekend

The covered deck overlooked the river. We spent a lot of time
soaking in the tub and eating & playing games at this table!

This private natural springs tub was such a treasure!

My birthday dinner of steak that Josh 
brought from home & grilled.

Darcy made this pie and brought it from
Salmon to celebrate my birthday! It was divine!

Saturday was a memorable day--our plan was to drive to the remote town of Atlanta (42 miles one way on gravel roads from Twin Springs) and soak in all the hot springs we could along the way. We made a new record for the most hot springs we've soaked in on a single day: 9! We soaked, forded the river several times to reach various springs, and swam in the river, too. 

The first hot springs on the list was 8 miles from Twin Springs. Loftus is a popular soaking spot, close to the road. It's set in a cemented rock pool, on a hill overlooking the road, with a small waterfall flowing into it. It was quite lovely, and I could see the appeal as to why it's so popular. We were the only ones soaking at the time which was awesome! 

Dutch Frank Hot Springs was our next soaking stop, ten more miles down the road. There were several rock and sand pools along the river, but there was also a singular metal trough placed on the ground below a mound where some pipes led into it from where some hot springs emerge on the rocky hillside. We soaked in the trough, explored 100 yards of the shoreline where lots of springs trickle into the river, and soaked some more in riverside pools. 

Just 3 miles later, we stopped again. Granite Creek Hot Springs was absolutely wonderful. It's a large rock pool located on a bend of the Middle Fork of the Boise River. It was so serene listening to the river flow and looking at all the mountainous surroundings. Josh and I sat in the pool, leaning against a giant rock, and soaked for quite a while; it was so relaxing! 

When we got to Atlanta, there was a giant hoard of side-by-siders congregating at the only restaurant in the vicinity. We'd originally planned on eating lunch there, but the service was going to take over an hour, so we decided to just keep driving to see more hot springs, and changed our plans to just eat the snacks we'd brought along for the day. We ate on some picnic tables at Power Plant campground east of Atlanta instead. 

We saw several people wearing swimsuits walking past our lunch spot and finally figured out that another hot springs was nearby. Our directions were unclear as to where it was, so the small crowds of people really helped us solve the location for us! Greylock Hot Springs was just north of the campground and down an embankment to some small, shallow pools along the Middle Fork of the Boise River. There were lots of people there, and not a lot of ideal soaking spots (some were too hot and some were too cold), so we didn't soak long. Josh didn't soak with us, though; he took a hike along a nearby trail, trying to locate a springs that we couldn't figure out how to find, but unfortunately he didn't have any luck. 

While we were waiting for him, we drove a quarter mile down the road to the popular Atlanta Hot Springs. A rock and masonry pool sits among a grassy field with two pipes leading into it: one hot and one warm. The overflow of water runs down hill from there and into a one-acre warm pond. Shortly after we arrived, Josh walked down the road to find us. The rock pool was too hot to soak in, but we swam in the warm pond after a few groups left and it was delightful. 

We really wanted to soak in another natural springs in the area called Chattanooga, but we couldn't find a way to get to it due to a road closure, although we tried. There was no cell phone or internet reception there, so we had no way of finding more information about it than what we already had, but we've since researched it further and we've now got ideas for how to reach it and we plan to return so we can still cross it off our list someday. So after that, we headed back to Atlanta, and then back towards Twin Springs. We stopped three more times on the return trip to the cabin to go to hot springs that were on the opposite side of the river. Our afternoon was so adventurous fording the river 3 times!

Brown's Creek Hot Spring wasn't too hard to access, thankfully. There was a shallow section through the river that was fairly easy to cross. The location of the hot springs looked like a gorilla face from the road. The hot springs cascade down the side of the rocky cliffs in several spots. On the eastern end of this section, the water falls into naturally-formed side-by-side alcoves. They were SO cool! It felt like a shower in there! On the western end it trickled over rocky mounds. Josh and I jumped off the part that looks like the gorilla's nose and into the water because it was deeper in that spot, and then we swam back to shore. I only jumped once, but Josh did it a few tmes. This was such a fun, refreshing hot spring! 

Ninemeyer Hot Springs was 5 miles west of Brown's Creek. It is right across the river by the campground with the same name. The path of the hot springs is visible from the road with all the dead vegetation surrounding it. But although it was easy to locate, it was a little more challenging to cross the river to this access it, and once we did cross, the water was too scalding to soak in. We kept walking along the hot stream through some wildflowers and grassy fields until we found where it joined the river. And thankfully, there was a large rock pool that was just the right temperature for soaking. This just so happened to be the magical 100th hot springs in Idaho that we've soaked in the last 3 years, so we took a group selfie to commemorate the occasion!

The source of the hot springs

Walking along the scalding water to see if
there's a soakable pool.

We found the pool it flows into by the river!

I didn't set the timer long enough on the first go!

My 100th Hot Spring in Idaho!

The final hot springs of the day was the toughest one to access, so I'm glad we left it for last! By this point, we were only about 10 miles from Twin Springs, so we were nearly back to the cabin. The river was swift right in front of Pete Creek Hot Springs. The depth of the water, combined with the placement of large rocks throughout the river, and the speed of the rushing water was so challenging! Josh and Phil made it across no problem, but Darcy and I struggled on our first attempt at crossing, so we tried from a different spot in the river, which didn't pan out. After 2 attempts, Darcy decided to stay on the bank and Phil came back across to join her. They took their dog for a walk down the road. I tried once more and FINALLY made it across! A 30-foot hot waterfall streams down the side of the cliff and into a rock pool on the side of the river. It was absolutely stunning and I'm so glad I finally got there! Between the sound of the river and the gushing water from overhead, it's fairly noisy, but it was such a unique experience. Apparently, there's a small pool at the top of the cliff too, but we didn't climb up to see it. After soaking for a bit, Josh and I forded the river once more to get back to the car, and drove almost a mile before we caught up to Phil & Darcy walking their dog Pearl.

Josh stopped to check out Smith Cabin Hot Spring five miles later, which was between the river and the road. It was super shallow and didn't look too appealing, so the rest of us waited in the car. There's more to on the other side of the river, but none of us were up to crossing the river again by that point. 

We were all pretty tired from our day's adventures of driving, hot water soaking, and river crossings, so we just relaxed on Night 2 at the cabin. We ate and played games on the deck and had a soak after dark in the private hot pool.

Sunday morning, August 13th, was the last day of our weekend excursion. Josh and I went to one last hot springs that morning. Sheep Creek Bridge Hot Springs is only 3.5 miles from Twin Springs, on a rocky hillside right after a bridge crosses the river (I was thankful the bridge crossed the river so we didn't have to ford it again!). There are several small hot pools on the slope above the river. It wasn't anything too spectacular. We soaked our feet in the highest pool, as it was the warmest.

I brought my camping chair along for the soak--
I sat in it inside the pool to soak my feet.

We checked out of the cabin, and took a different gravel road leading out of the National Forest, which met back up with the highway after Idaho City. We stopped for a picnic lunch at Bonneville Hot Springs on the drive home, but it was too hot of an afternoon to soak anymore!

This was an epic trip and I'm SO glad we took our friends along with us, it was so much more joyous to have them along for this experience to hit Hot Spring #100 on our Idaho Hot Springs Hit List! Memories made during this weekend will last a lifetime!