Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
NATURAL HOT SPRINGS
hike to a “club mud” through an ancient forest
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Insert tree-hugger joke here if you must, but I swear on my dog's dish that
I felt a bolt of energy shoot up from the ground and somehow connect me
to that tree. At that moment, I could have been the first woman, or the last,
on Earth.
—Vanessa McGrady, hiker to Oregon's Terwilliger Hot Springs
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It used to be that if you wanted to soak in a natural hot springs, you either had to stumble
onto one (not an impossibility, since there are 1,661 in the United States alone), figure out how
to decipher geographical survey maps, or fight the crowds at the springs that had been com-
mercially developed. Now, thanks to the Internet and a spate of books overflowing with lists
and directions to these little-known hot springs, it's quite doable to plan a whole hiking vaca-
tion around remote hot springs. And if you're going to hike and soak, you might as well do it
with a stand of the Pacific Northwest's old-growth trees cheering you on.
Not only do you get an invigorating hike, but you can shed the boots, the pack, and maybe
even the clothes and settle into an oh-so-relaxing gift straight from Mother Nature herself. No
kids playing “Marco Polo,” no teenyboppers comparing tan lines, no concession stands trying
to sell you an all-beef patty. Hit it right and you'll have the primitive springs, ancient trees,
and views all to yourself.
These natural, outdoor, noncommercial soaking pools are improvised, often kept “in
working order” by volunteers. The springs are often creatively rigged to collect the flow of
water and to maintain a proper temperature.
The bible for hot springs hiking trips in Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and British Columbia
is Evie Litton's
Hiking Hot Springs in the Pacific Northwest,
which lists 140 undeveloped
sites. Litton, who broke free from her job as a technical illustrator in 1983, traveled around in
a camperized van to research this topic.
In Washington, there are hot springs on the Olympic Peninsula, in the Cascade Range,
and near the Columbia Gorge. Idaho has dozens and dozens of them. And in southeast Oregon
