Hello friends!
Without really intending to, I have taken the waters at four memorable hot springs this year. I thought I'd share my impressions, in order of visitation.
SLEEPING BUFFALO HOT SPRINGS • SACO, MONTANA • April 27 • $189
These hot springs are up on the Hi Line, the highway that stretches across the top of Montana. I've driven this remote stretch of road—U.S. Hwy. 2—multiple times over the past few years. But until this year, I never had time to stop at Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs. I was on my way to an interview in Poplar, Montana and there aren't many overnight accommodations near there. So I booked a night at the hot springs hotel.
The hotel has just a few rooms. I had the place entirely to myself, including the massive hot springs pool, which is kept at 95F.
I'd had a long day that began with a hike up Mount Helena and ended with a 300-or-so-mile drive to the springs. So it was heavenly to swim a few laps in the pool and then just float on my back, buoyed by mineral water heated by the earth's molten core. And yes, a little weird to be there alone.
My room had a sliding screen looking out on a slough, although I arrived too late and departed too early to see much. But I could hear everything on the prairie that night—frogs, insects, ducks and what sounded like a million migrating birds all sexed up on spring. The room itself was a little stuffy and sulfurous, so I slept with only the screen door between me and all that cool air and beautiful noise. I slept hard, and was up early to drive 110 miles to my interview. 4/5 stars.
STRAWBERRY PARK HOT SPRINGS • STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO • July 24 • $20
I suspect I would have liked these hot springs a little better in the winter, as an après ski sort of thing. But Chris and I were here on a hot day in late July, and for some reason, decided to hike three miles up to the springs in the mid-day heat. We had to hurry up the hill because we had a reservation and started late, which meant we arrived red-faced and hot. And I personally was not super interested in a hot soak.
But! There was a cold plunge pool fed by a creek! It was 65F and perfect. I tried the hot pools just to experience them, but kept returning to the cool pool.
You can stay overnight here in rustic accommodations. There are also shuttles from Steamboat Springs, which I imagine is very nice when the roads are bad in winter. The changing rooms aren't ideal, and you need to bring your own towels.
Also: I nearly got in a fight with a man who was feeding Cheetos to chipmunks even though signs everywhere said no food was allowed—and the springs management was pretty explicit that the little f*ckers were pests who would chew through your backpack for your snacks.
Anyway. It was still fun. We walked three miles back down the hill all cooled off and happy from our soak. 3.5/5 stars.
MOCCASIN SPRINGS • HOT SPRINGS, SOUTH DAKOTA • July 27 • $28.67
This was hands down one of the loveliest hot springs I've ever experienced. There are multiple pools of various temperatures. The grounds are beautiful with ample lounge chairs. The changing rooms are elegant and clean—with amazing showers and free bath products. There's a farm-to-table restaurant that gets rave reviews, but sadly, required a reservation I didn't have. You can get a massage or take a yoga class, too.
I never would have known about this place or sought it out, but I was staying at Wind Cave National Park on my way from Denver to Bismarck, and I noticed that the park was near the town of Hot Springs, South Dakota. Huh, I thought, maybe there's a place to soak? Sure enough, there was! So after my cave tour, I drove back to town and spent a blissful couple of hours in the Moccasin Springs pools.
While there, I chatted with a nice couple from the Denver suburbs. I sold them a copy of my book, so I can officially write off the entrance fee as a business expense on my taxes. Everyone's a winner!
After I got back to my campsite, a park ranger invited me to his talk about Lakota origin myths. During his presentation at the amphitheater, he showed blurry PowerPoint slides about the Land Back movement. Unexpected post-soak radicalism at a national park! 5/5 stars.
HOT SPRINGS STATE PARK • THERMOPOLIS, WYOMING • August 8 • $177.98
Hoo boy, I could write a whole book about this place and what happened here!
Also, until I verified the cost on my credit card statement, I remembered this way-past-its-prime hot springs motel as being much cheaper. Lodging and sales taxes are high in states without income taxes! I suspect I also charged to my room my dinner at the hotel’s Safari Room restaurant, which was one of the strangest places I've ever been—hundreds of taxidermied heads on display. That and the anti-vax talk around the bar were enough to put me off my chicken sandwich.
But before the Safari Room, I hung out in a very hot soaking pool for a little too long. I chatted with an electrician from eastern Washington, who told me about a gun shop he'd just visited in Cody where you can fire Gatling guns and other antique and obscure weapons.
Also in the pool were an oil man from Houston and his wife. When I told them I had written a book about the oil boom in North Dakota, the wife asked me point blank whether I was for or against oil. "You should read my book!" I told her and her husband, who were on their way to North Dakota to check on some of his investments. He promised to buy Windfall on Kindle. And she told me to hold onto my mineral rights, they might pay off someday. I laughed and said they might not like the ending of my book. We agreed on one thing beyond our affection for hot springs: There's nowhere decent to eat in Dickinson, North Dakota.
So how did I end up in Thermopolis? I saw it on the map and liked the sound of it—Greek for Hot City. And I hadn't ever been through that part of Wyoming, so figured it'd be a novel way to get home from North Dakota. Via another hot springs, of course. But when I arrived in Thermopolis, a police cruiser followed me at every turn through the entire length of town. (Waiting for me to do something that would allow them to pull me over and search a Subaru with Oregon plates for cannabis products, I assume.) I set my cruise control, used my blinkers, and headed straight to the hotel.
Some towns have a vibe you should attend to. I’m certain that had I lingered in Thermopolis too long, something weird, unwelcome or violent would have happened. So while their spring water was just fine and the bath house at the state park is free, I got out of there fast the next morning, never so eager to arrive in Idaho in my life. 3.5/5 stars
Coming in October: Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.
Happy soaking!
Erika
THE NEWS
All the links…
If fracking has a silver lining it would be that the drilling technology it spawned might make it easier to access geothermal energy. Very exciting!
An excellent dispatch from a hotel bar in Idaho.
A photo dispatch from the Hi Line.
Make yourself a syllabus. This is yet another genius idea from Kara Cutruzzula’s Brass Ring Daily. You may see one from me on my new project in a forthcoming edition of The Windfall Dispatch.
Just a reminder: If you’re in Portland, come see my film! To Be Rich will be shown at 7 p.m. on Sept. 18 at Cinema 21. It’s part of a showcase of short films by local filmmakers, put on by the Catalyst Film Collective. Tickets are $15.
Now I want to book a hot springs tour- I enjoyed your reviews! Do you know of the Safari Club in Estacada?? It’s a trip.
Loved this! My masters thesis was about Hit Springs National Park, and I once thought I'd write a dissertation about hot springs!