Nice pullover off Highway 75 east of Stanley. Park and walk down to a little 2 person pool by the Salmon River. No shade, so you'll need a sun-blocking plan in the middle of the day.
All through the 90's and 00's this was my favorite getaway - old resort in the hills, a very hot pool, a just-right pool, a cold plunge, a lap pool that rocks on hot summer days, a cozy lodge, breakfast in the morning, expensive espresso drinks all day, world music dance every Tues and Thurs night. That whole vibe got vaporized in the fire. But the wonderful hot water is still coming out of the ground and the tubs (and beautiful ironwork railings) are still here! Last few visits before the cleansing fire I thought they were getting a little too taken with themselves. A Harbin parking ticket?! Give me a break. Then came the fire that consumed all the beautiful old wooden buildings. Everything that wasn't stone or metal was gone. On the way to rebuilding came COVID, now they're back!
Co-owned with Banbury Hot Springs. Banbury has better camping, Miracle better pools, so here's how it all shakes out: Banbury: tent sites: $10 | campground: park on the grass next to your picnic table in a pretty spot | soaking: big concrete rectangle pool (see their Spot entry) Miracle: must pay for hookups: $20 | campground: dusty and shabby | soaking: wonderful set of modern, interesting pools - a really hot one under the sun deck I call the Grotto :), a bigger cooler pool, then a long, skinny, segmented parallel pool that is a hot zone, a cold zone, and a slighter hotter zone. Really nice layout!
locals pool, basketball hoops in the water, stuff like that. -- -- -- -- Camping here this time. Offseacon it's $15=$5+$10
There's a very nice tub at the parking lot, holds 1-3 folks - adjustable temp, great soak. Down the hill is a travertine mound that starts with a pretty hot one person tub (109°-ish?) on the uphill side, which feeds into progressively cooler tubs as the water flows clockwise around the mound downhill. The last two have a spectacular view of the valley, but are too cool and have creepy stuff growing in them. This place is too accessible from 395 and too well known. It's usually busy, and sometimes straight-up creepy with weirdos straight off the highway. The camping spot is handy even without the hot springs. When the hot springs road turns left, take a right and park at any of the several rough camping spots.
An excellent spot up a little canyon off Cougar Reservoir. It's a free-form natural spring, but it's pretty easy to control access, so the Forest Service has set up a little booth to collect $5 from soakers. Good for them!
Oh, this place is soooo nice! It is now the same management as Miracle Hot Springs, so for your $10 ($8 for senior) you can go to both. Camping over here is both cheaper and way nicer. The Miracle soaking setup is way better (see their Spot entry), so driving to Miracle for your soak and staying here the rest of the time is the best bet. Banbury is a very large concrete pool, with very hot water coming out one place and cold water as many other places as needed. It is next to the river. No wifi.
Camping is just the edge of the forest behind the lodge. Next to a very pretty cow pasture at the edge of the huge Sierra Valley. Nice lodge to hang out in, wifi and kitchen, free to campers. The Hot Springs has also taken over the hotel in town. There is also a breakfast place and aMexican restaurant in town, both pricy but good!
Camping is expensive and the pools are extra, so not my thing. However just the pools is $5 for an old person, which IS my thing. There are: - three small pools ranging from very hot to way too hot. - one unheated pool for them kiddies - the biggest pool varies in temperature, see below. The big pool has three little waterfalls set up. The middle one is very hot, the left medium and the right cold. The left is always crowded, the right empty, and the middle always has an old dude or two planted under it.
On the eastern side of the Great Smoky Valley,You could probably see it from US 50 if you knew where to look. Turns south off 50 onto 376, and almost immediately there is a turnoff to a pretty good gravel road heading straight as an arrow south into the flats. Follow that 6-ish miles, and you will find the hpt springs!
The springs at Grover gurgle out of the hillside into a beautiful U-shaped alpine meadow. So it should be a groovy, enchanted place, but sadly it is managed by the State Parks system, who do their darnedest to make it prosaic and institutional. The pools are a couple of rectangular concrete tubs - a big one with lukewarm water, and a shallow (3 feet) one, maybe 40x20 which they keep at a pleasantly toasty 104°. You can look over the fence on the uphill side and see the water burble out of the ground and down a sluice to you. There are showers and cubbyholes to store your stuff. There is a campground, which I have never used since it's CA State Parks expensive and there is boondocking three miles down the road.
There is one big pool with a little waterfall, then up the hill are some bathtubs for your own private soak overlooking the wide valley. Really cool setup. Camping area is 200 yards down the hill. The pools are spectacular and the actual camping area is pleasant but rest of the property is extremely derelict. Walking up the crappy trail to the bathtubs in flip flops is hard for a 70-year old. It's pretty dangerous coming back down in wet flip-flops! Electric hookups and tent/van sleeping seem to be the same price.
Hot water pops out of the ground at numerous places around here. Get the Cal/Nev Hot Springs book for details. Today I went to the first one off Whitmore Tubs Road, called "Hot Tub" in the book, "Rock Tub" on the PDF. It was just excellent for one or two people. This is BLM land so I think you can camp. I did not this time.
Recently re-opened, run by an earnest young couple for whom I wish nothing but the best. You can get a rooms with your own tub, or for cheaper a regular room like mine, which is still quite nice, with a spacious kitchenette. With one of these rooms you can use the private tubs all evening. There are four more or less identical private tubs to choose from. They are open to the public until 3pm after that they are solely for the use of us lucky lodgers. :) You fill your tub from empty each time, so hygiene is pretty good, I think.
The hot springs is a completely separate business from the campground. $7 for seniors off season, $1 to re-enter - cheapskates. After the fine example of Lava Hot Springs, which was excellent in every way, this place is disappointing. The single soaking pool is quite nice however - slightly sulphur-y water in a row of hot jets on the side.
Old, charmingly decrepit place on the Snake River south of Boise. The hot springs is basically a spring-fed indoor swimming pool. It's a nice temperature, especially after you find the 3-4 spots where the hot water comes in. There's a basketball hoop and 20-30 little beachballs floating around, so one can pass the time shooting hoops.
How have I not known about this place?! It was nearly perfect in every way for what I like to do on the road. Common Room next to the office with satellite tv. The pool is awesome. Maybe 100' across, 2-4' deep mostly, with incredibly, life-threateningly hot water comong in from the southeast end, and cooling jets shooting out from the south, so you simply ewade in and find your spot!
Funny little place. It is mandated to be free by some old treaty or contract. There is an inside pool and an outside pool, and you can go to one or the other, and supposedly you have a 20 minute limit, but nobody was checking. I chose the outside pool,and it was really pleasant. Nice shade structure. It's very close to Tepee, so I didn't dry or change, I just soaked for a while, thanked to nice lady and flip-flopped 60 yards back to Tepee.
funky little place, needs a LOT of maintenance, but their wifi was pretty good.. They have three private bathhouses: 1 - pleasantly warm, 2 - hot (> 100) 3 - very hot. (> 104) So if the one you want is in use you're outta luck until whoever's inside has had their fill. The pools seemed hotter to me - the medium seemed like 104 and the hot like 107-8 ... your mileage may vary.
I have used the hot springs without camping, and lately I have been camping without soaking, so I'm breaking them into two spots. This is the camping spot.When the hot springs road turns left, take a right and park at any of the several rough camping spots. The hot springs is a little less tan a mile further on.
Wonderful private facility inside Hot Springs State Park. See also Thermopolis Hot Springs, for the free facility a few yards away. This had pretty much everything - an indoor water slide, an outdoor water slide, big pools in and out, basketball hoops in and out, very hot tubs, medium hot tubs, and my most favorite things, hot waterfalls. The one inside was done up scenically as their centerpiece decoration but you could still get under it. The one outside didn't try to be fancy, it was just PCV pipe dropping a stream mineral water from 8' up. Just perfect.