Contributor, fellow soak-seeker, writer and backcountry traveler Daniel Claar has graciously contributed “Hot Spring Break – Road Trippin’ Idaho Style” to IdahoHotSprings.com. Daniel was recently the winner of Idaho Magazine’s Publisher’s Choice Award for 2010.
While friends and family set sail for some sunny beach on their annual spring break, my wife and I drive towards one of the coldest inhabited places in the continental United States. The frigid mountain town of Stanley, Idaho has a population of roughly 50 hardy souls and brutal six month winters are the main reason. Even in these last days of March, Jamie and I expect nightly temperatures to plummet below zero, and we’ll be lucky if daytime highs break the freezing mark. We will also be car camping, an endeavor begging questions from our peers. Are we crazy? Are we not sick of winter’s gray cloak? Are we not dying to step into shorts and feel warm again? The answer is yes, yes, and most certainly, yes. In fact, we have swimsuits packed, and, in the American spring break tradition, predict we’ll see public nudity along the way.
Cool site. Planning on a trip north from Ogden up along US 15 to the Montana/Idaho border and on up to Great Falls. Lotta hotpots I see. I use a wheelchair but that doesn’t slow me. Been out under the Big Sky 30 years ago near White Sulphur Springs, Montana soaking at dusk.
Wondering if you have any suggestions along the above mentioned route.
Thanks, George! There’s a commercial soak at Lolo Pass (Lolo hot springs) that has a 9.6 pH (highest I’ve ever heard of) and just down the road (highway 12) past Powell is Jerry Johnson. If you visit Jerry, go early! This is the most popular hot springs in Idaho!