218. Hot Springs

I grew up in a little unincorporated town in the center of Idaho along the Little Salmon River. I knew there were unique things about the area like the fact that it is in one of the deepest canyons in North America, adjacent to THE deepest canyon. Other things just seemed ordinary and I had no idea that I was one of a very few people who experienced what I did. Hot springs are just a fact of life in Idaho and they are relatively easy to find, especially where I grew up or anywhere adjacent to the Continental Divide. So, writing about something that unique, but very ordinary in my life experience, took awhile to cross my mind. I love hot springs.

Other countries don’t necessarily have many hot springs. I think it’s more common in the Pacific Rim nations that surround the “Ring of Fire.” I have never been to a hot spring in any countries outside the US, Canada, and the UK, though I know they probably are in those other countries where I’ve been. In British Columbia and Alberta, they are almost as common as in Idaho and since much of those provinces are national park, a good deal of their hot springs are developed into pools. The city of Bath in the UK is quite famous for its Roman shrine to the goddess Minerva (Greek Athena) and its resort status is ancient but I don’t think anyone bathes there anymore. Unfortunately, it has become more of a museum to ancient culture and they have removed the obvious connection to modern culture. It’s still a really cool place to visit, but don’t be thinking you’ll get to soak in hot tubs.

For me, hot springs were so common as to be used for drinking water and instead of hot water heaters some people had water coolers. There are several places where having a seat on the toilet on a cold winter’s day was not a shivering lesson in fortitude but a luxuriant basking in soothing warmth. I learned to swim in pools heated by hot springs (and, of course, the waters of the lakes and rivers of Idaho). I swam in those same pools into the depths of winter and had to be cautious with my hair in fear in would (and sometimes it would) break.

There were plenty of people of Scandinavian (especially Finnish) descent where I grew up, so getting out of the hot pools and rolling in the snow was considered a healthy thing to do, but somewhere in my teens I learned that such a drastic temperature change to my skin caused me to break out in hives. In fact, sometimes, if the air was cold enough, that would happen just when I got out of the pools. So, I learned to make sure not to go when it got below zero. I still love hot springs, even if I have to refrain from entering them on a frigid day.

I don’t really know of many hot springs in the northern part of Idaho. People here tend to cross the border into Montana or go up into British Columbia (when it’s not so hard to cross the international border) to soak in the hot springs. My favorite places to go were Zim’s Plunge a few miles south of me and just a short drive north of New Meadows. People would also go to Stinky’s Hot Springs or Riggins Hot Springs. There were also plenty of natural, undeveloped hot springs around such as Krigbaum Hot Springs. Sometimes people journeyed out to Burgdorf Hot Springs as well, but we seldom did because they were too remote in the winter and not really that attractive to us since we had so many accessible hot springs. Gold Fork Hot Springs is one that’s now open just out of Donnelly and I don’t remember it as a kid. Of course, Lava Hot Springs in eastern Idaho is the most developed that I know of in Idaho. Warm Springs Avenue in Boise has long used the natural hot waters to heat its old historic homes. While most of the hot springs in Idaho are remote and often clothing optional, you can find a nice pool, like Mundo Hot Springs near Cambridge, to soak in near a small town where people are friendly and just enjoying warm water and company.