Finding bliss in a hot bath
Hot springs are now all the rage thanks to wellness tourism, virus
Even years later, I can call up the memory of easing into the piping hot, silty waters of Travertine Hot Springs in Mono County, California. Sliding in, I took a sharp intake of breath at the water’s steaming temperature, a contrast to the cold mountain air on my shoulders. I felt the squelch of mud between my toes and a gleeful relaxation of my muscles, taut and aching after days of hiking the Eastern Sierra Nevada range. As the golden glow of a late summer sunset gave way to a moonless, star-filled sky, I embraced an elusive sensation of absolute calm.
Therein lies the magic of hot springs, mineralrich water heated by the earth’s core and bubbling to the surface. Some, like the springs at Yellowstone National Park, are too hot to touch, with some waters exceeding 250 degrees Fahrenheit. But many, cooled naturally or by clever construction, have been used for bathing, as medicine and as community gathering places, for millennia.
In the United States, rich, warm mineral waters can be found everywhere from luxurious spas to rustic mud pits, and the pull of these mineral waters has always been potent. Towns including Saratoga Springs, New York, and Calistoga, California, plus national parks like Yellowstone and Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, owe much of their early tourism draw to hot springs.
The basic premise: That the minerals found in the water, which vary by location and can include iron, lithium and sulfur, can help cure or at least relieve ailments from rheumatic conditions to inflammation. A renewed interest in wellness tourism worldwide, plus the rise in popularity of outdoor recreation because of the pandemic, have hot springs poised for a 21st-century revival.
“You can find wild stories of people being brought back to life,” said Jeff Birkby, a geothermal energy consultant and author of several guides on the hot springs of Montana, Wyoming, Washington and Oregon. (The Hot Springs of America website has also cataloged over 200 resorts in the U.S.)Inspired to “take the waters” yourself ? Here’s where and how to get started.
In the West
The majority of accessible hot springs in the country can be found in the Western United States, thanks to long-ago tectonic activity: Cracks in the earth’s surface, which tend to exist near fault lines and often in mountain valleys, allow hot water to bubble to the surface and emerge as a spring. Many resorts and resort towns got their start during the Gold Rush in the mid-19th century, as a destination for tired miners to wash their clothes, soak their aching bodies and, occasionally, experience a miraculous cure or two of their own. Others opened after the Civil War.
Nowadays, hot springs and spa offerings go hand and hand. In Calistoga, Dr. Wilkinson’s Backyard
Resort & Mineral Springs reopened last summer after a renovation that includes a new restaurant with kombucha on tap and a wide selection of Napa Valley wines. The resort has 50 midcentury guest rooms and spa treatments ranging from mud baths to massages with CBDenhanced oils.
But there’s no shortage of stylish, destination-worthy springs in the West, including Castle Hot Springs in Arizona, Ojo Caliente in New Mexico and Dunton Hot Springs in Colorado.
Looking to hot springs hop, perhaps with some spa services on the side? Visit a bona fide hot springs town, like Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Hot Springs, Montana, or head to Wyoming’s Hot Springs County. The city of Desert
Hot Springs, in California’s Coachella Valley, is another worthy destination, with plentiful soaking options ranging from retro to plantfilled oases.
But sometimes, there’s no beating the simple pleasure of soaking in hot water in a rustic, natural environment, where the amenities are few and swimsuits are usually optional. Travertine Hot Springs in Bridgeport, California, the site of my blissful post-camping soak, is a prime example of a more rustic kind of hot spring; Goldmyer Hot Springs near Washington’s Cascade Mountains limit entry to 20 people per day and require a 4 ½-mile hike to access the springs. While there are few “secrets” in the internet age, rustic springs that require some effort to access often
come with seclusion, and the opportunity to be surrounded by nature while you soak.
In the East
Hot springs offerings in the Eastern United States are decidedly less numerous than in the West. But what Eastern hot springs lack in quantity, they make up for in stature. At Saratoga Springs, New York, home of the Saratoga Spa State Park, you can find the Roosevelt Baths & Spa in the Gideon Putnam hotel. Preserved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 as part of a New Deal initiative, the waters have been a major draw to the area throughout the 20th century (and now can be paired with massage services, body treatments and more).
Roosevelt was far from the first president to seek the healing benefits of hot springs. Thomas Jefferson allegedly spent 22 days at the Gentlemen’s Pool House in Warm Springs, Virginia, which is now a part of the Omni Homestead Resort in nearby Hot Springs, Virginia. The original pool house, built in 1791 and reportedly the oldest spa structure in the U.S., is being rehabilitated with a planned reopening later this year.
George Washington didn’t need any such frills when he’d seek out a soak in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Berkeley Springs State Park has re-created “Washington’s Bathtub”, alongside more modern bathing offerings at the park’s Roman and Main bathhouses.