Our Hot Spring
- Joshua Venturo
- Sep 20
- 3 min read
The hot spring in this area was part of Sawtooth National Recreation Area, outside of these beautiful Sawtooth mountains.
As usual, we had a plan. And as usual, this plan didn’t work out like we planned.
It wasn’t that our plan was impossible, or even difficult to carry out. It sounded simple enough: Drive to a hot spring, get in and enjoy the relaxing warmth, and then eat the picnic dinner we had packed. It seemed like a fun plan for a restful afternoon.
Anyone who heard this plan would have wished they could come, too. The only problem was this: We cannot relax. We just aren’t that kind of people. It’s not that we don’t want to once in a while—we just can’t seem to pull it off. When we do get to relax it surprises us—and it is never what we planned on.
The first hurdle to our relaxing plan was the weather. Although it had been hot and sunny all week, rain clouds rolled in just when we were about to leave for the hot spring. When we stepped outside to get in the car, the cold shocked us. Where was the summer weather?
We got in the car and drove 40 minutes to a hot spring. A long drive, but it will be worth it, we thought, and maybe the rain will clear.
We pulled into a small parking lot. Hail pounded the roof of the van. The windows fogged up from the cold. We looked out of the windows—the parking lot was packed with cars. We couldn’t cram all seven of us into an already-crowded pool.
So, we drove another hour and a half to a hot spring on the Salmon River—deep in the Idaho wilderness. When we finally got there, it was already almost dinnertime. We had to find a hot spring so we could have our picnic.
This hot spring was by a pull-off. To our surprise, this pull-off was also packed with cars. We drove on without even trying to park. We were getting frantic! Thankfully, there was another hot spring just down the road. We parked at any empty pull-off. This was more what we were looking for! We sprang out of the car and ran down the path to the spring. Even though the rain had stopped, it was so cold we were shivering. Despite the cold, we were excited to get in the hot spring. We laughed and joked as we sprinted down the path. At the end of the path, a cloud of stink enveloped us.
“What is that?” we asked, holding our noses.
It was the smell of sulfur from the spring. Steaming water was bubbling out of the ground and flowing into a small pool. We all stepped in and grinned. It was warm!
We were all a little reluctant to let our bodies touch the muddy, stinky water, but soon enough I sat down in the pool.
“It feels great in here!” I reported.
And soon everybody was trying to find a spot in the small, crowded pool. We tried not to leave any skin out in the cold, and we talked and looked at the Salmon River, and it felt great!
After a few minutes, Mom looked down at her hand. We all crowded closer to see what had happened. Mom’s silver rings were gold! No one had thought to take them off, and now her rings were the color of gold. We found out that it was because of the strong acid in the water. Thankfully, Mom was later able to reverse the change with baking soda, which is a base.
But anything that could change the color of metal could not be good for skin. We decided to rinse off in the cold Salmon River. I ran out of the warmth of the spring and jumped into the clear river. I got out of that as fast as I could. It was freezing! All thoughts of a picnic vanished as we ran back up the path to change into dry clothes and get into the warm van. We drove back to the trailer to have our picnic. That dinner had been to a hot spring and back!
No, it wasn’t the picnic we planned, but we made the day as fun as it was unexpected!
Photo by Jenny Venturo
