Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Hot Springing in Idaho!


We've been in Idaho for nearly a week now and haven't seen one potato patch! We journeyed through the central part of Idaho, in and around the largest contiguous wilderness area in the lower 48 states; not potato territory evidently. I keep looking for a good place to get a loaded Idaho spud, but the only hot potatoes I've seen around these parts have been us! We've been touring the hot springs of the area, soaking our spuds in a variety of pools. We've hit road-side hot springs, river-side hot springs, hike-in-to hot springs, and commercial hot springs. So good! Here's a few of our favorite spots.

We hiked three miles to reach Gold Bug Hot Springs.

A long, steep three miles in!

But it was well worth the effort!

And we got warm waterfall massages too!

This one was nice too, Gold Fork Hot Springs. A commercial spot, but the pools were nestled into the rocks.

Burgdorf Hot Springs had a large hot pool with great floaties. It was surrounded by old ghost town cabins, with the original cabin from 1865.

And it had this bathtub with a great view!

We had a few other adventures besides hot springs during our journey through Idaho. We took an amazing 10 mile hike in the aptly named Sawtooth Mountains.

We made it to Sawtooth Lake.

And Adalaya made a friend.

We camped nearby and expanded our dinner menu to stick-meat and bread-sticks. . . hunter gatherer meets food science. Fun and yummy!

On the night of the 12th we found a remote, treeless place to camp in the national forest among lots of sagebrush. We slept out under the stars so we could watch the breathtaking display of the Pleides Meteor Shower. It was an amazingly clear, moonless night with no light pollution, and the stars and the Milky Way were brighter than I've ever seen. We saw so many meteors that Adalaya lost count.

Our last day in Idaho was very hot! We drove down 35 miles of switchbacks on a one lane dirt road (which was very trying for the van's brakes). When we reached the Salmon River, we had to take a dip to cool off!

Later, the van needed to cool off too. Here we are midway out of Hells Canyon; again, aptly named. We just barely escaped!

1 comment:

  1. Hey yall I'm trying to post. I keep loosing my comments. Wow I think I've got it. The hot springs look beautiful, but give me some cool springs, please! We are melting here in SC.
    Travel quote: "The world is a great book...They who never stir from home read only a page."- St. Augustine You are well read folks!

    ReplyDelete