I have been fascinated by hot springs for a long time. Maybe it comes from the freedom I experienced as a young teenager when my parents would turn us loose on cold wintery evenings to drive to Lava Hot springs to soak after cold wintery Idaho days. After a long day of fishing, rowing a river, cross-country skiing or cutting Christmas trees, the relaxing hot water, starry nights and friends always make soaking in a hot springs an adventure.  

It’s still a favorite adventure I look forward to in the colder months. It usually ends up as a group of friends, it’s quiet and it’s different. People from all over seem to end up in hot springs and they generally like to talk. Deer can be grazing a few feet away, wild turkeys on the hillside above clucking away. I’ve had coyotes howling up in the high draws; geese, ducks and swans flying up and down the river in the cold winter twilight; and according to a few friends, an occasional mountain lion prowling the area. I seem to find myself at Maple Grove in Idaho (42.308,-111.707) fairly often, since it’s close to some good fly-fishing, and it’s off the beaten track but easy to get to from Logan.

Experiencing hot springs is like geocaching; they are fun to hunt down, some are hidden gems, and some of them are just rough.  

Logan has several public hot springs located within less than an hour’s drive time, some developed, some not-so-developed, and lots of undeveloped ones. The closest developed or semi-developed locations are Crystal Hot Springs in Honeyville, 25 miles away on the other side of the Wellsvilles. Downata, north past Preston going towards Pocatello, is just a little over 55 miles away. Riverdale Resort, north of Preston, is about 30 miles away on the way to Grace. Just turn left when the road drops steeply towards the Bear River. And if you continue north on that road you only have to make a couple small turns and drive down the Bear River to get to Maple Grove Hot Springs, which is 50 miles away depending on which of the three roads you take to get there (two of them are not for winter use.) Look on Google Earth so you know where you’re going or you will end up somewhere else.

The closest, Crystal Hot Springs (41.659, -112.087) is a developed site with hot pools, a swimming pool and a slide, and there are lots more people found there since it is closer to a larger population.  I would avoid Saturday nights unless you like to be jam-packed next to lots of people you don’t know in a hot springs pool. I go there for a reason though, as I get older — soaking there seems to take care of a slight case of tendonitis, at least for a few weeks. It has some of the highest dissolved mineral content in the United States. It might only be psychological but it seems the combination of hot water and dissolved minerals works for me.

Riverdale Resort (42.1645, -111.8361) is more developed than Maple Grove and has fewer people than Crystal. The actual hot springs pool is smaller and hot. Their swimming pool is open year-round as well, but it isn’t that warm in really cold weather, so during colder weather you’ll stick close to the hot springs pool.

Downata Hot Spring (42.388,-112.085) has a hot main swimming pool. Downata is a developed hot springs with yurts and a campground. Many people have family reunions there in the summer and it’s popular. It’s a good, fun trip to take.

The hot springs at the mouth of Ogden canyon (41.2359, -111.9242) are not developed at all, as are many others around. They are just round stone formations next to the river. You can see them on Google Earth if you look exactly between the overhead water pipeline and the trail coming from the pull-out on the south side of the river. They are round pots on the south side of the river.

There are some other hot springs that are not as close but are places to visit for day or weekend trips. I have enjoyed them as little side adventures along with fishing trips, whitewater river rafting or cross-country ski trips. They will take at least a full day to visit.

A fifth hot springs lies up Spanish Fork Canyon, (40.0829, -111.31861). A nice, 2.5 mile hike, and an interesting hot springs, and occasionally people running around all natural, so careful with the kids.

Granite Hot Springs (43.369, -110.446) is near Jackson Hole. It’s a hot springs swimming pool made by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the middle of beautiful granite mountains, and a natural hot springs under the waterfall downstream as well. It’s up a long beautiful canyon, but it’s nine miles off the paved road, so you’re never sure what you might see. And in the winter you can pay to ride in on a dog sled.

Norris Hot Springs (Water of the Gods Hot Springs, 45.5744, -111.6845) is a fun place just north of Ennis, Mont. If you are there on the right night they have some great live concerts while you soak. It is a great place to relax after a long day of chasing fish in the Madison River. This one is not overly developed and out in the country.  

Near Stanley, Idaho, there are lots of them, and they are all different, from an oak barrel on the side of the road to huge springs boiling up in the river, and they are all fun (you can find the locations on the website for Idaho mentioned below.) One of them is the only place I know where you can stand in a hot springs in the middle of the Salmon River and cast big golden stones flies out into the river to rising fish all at the same time.  

And of course Lava Hot Springs (42.621, -112.008). It’s a nice place to soak, and Idaho has put some money into it and fixed it up. There is some nice cross-country skiing on the golf course a mile away in the winter. It is a fun weekend get away.  

There are lots of other completely natural hot springs in our area that are not developed at all. The easiest way to find them is to visit the USGS listing on the hot spring enthusiast website. It gives you the city closest to them and then a latitude and longitude position, much like geocaching. Here are the websites for Idaho and Utah: http://www.hotspringsenthusiast.com/Utah.asp, and http://www.hotspringsenthusiast.com/Idaho.asp.

You can also load them onto Google earth to get a look at them before you actually go. Look them up by entering them with a format on the search line as follows, and using the latitude and longitude they show for that specific hotsprings: such as 42.374, -111.726. It might not be exactly on the hotsprings but it should be close, and most are easy to pick out on the imagery. The map will fly right to them.

Hot springs are fun to visit anytime in the winter time but I love full moon nights after a snowfall, when they just seem to have some good karma flowing from them. The snow on the mountains can be beautiful and the wildlife abundant, but it’s the people that you meet that makes each hot spring different.  

Chris Thomas is a fishing guide and quadrotor drone pilot who is just looking for another excuse to be in the mountains.