About
IdahoHotSprings.com
Hot springs reviews found on this web site contain
trip reports (briefings), pictures, video clips, ratings and more about soakable, natural hot springs
located throughout Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming
and British Columbia Canada.
Many of which are located on public
lands.
It should be noted that the majority of the hot springs reviewed here are
located in Idaho.
Hot Springs
Etiquette & General Guidelines
Before heading out on your next (or first) soaking excursion
please take time to read and print the valuable
Guide to Roadside Hot Springs and
Backcountry Hot Springs
and Outdoor
Guide.
Two Types Of Hot
Springs
Public Natural Hot Springs - These
springs are typically on public land (National Forest or BLM) and are considered a somewhat
'rustic' or 'wilderness' style of soak, although sometimes
improvements made to the pools can yield to a commercial look and
feel.
Commercial Natural Hot Springs
- A secondary focus of this web site. These springs are typically
on private land and usually require a fee of some sort to access.
About Idaho Hot
Springs
Idaho has the most usable hot springs in the Nation, with about 130
soakable out of 340. However, Nevada has the most hot springs
overall, but the majority of them are not soakable. The water is hot
because it is heated from within the Earth's crust, forcing it up to
the surface where pools are developed or form naturally near the
outflow.
Ninety percent of
Idaho's 340 hot springs are the result of leftover energy heating
water near fault lines. This energy is essentially leftover from a 17 million
year old meteorite collision that occurred in present day southeast
Oregon. The collision dramatically altered the once lush, forested
environment into the high desert landscape that is familiar to us
today.
The impact of the
meteorite was deep, in fact so deep that it remains stationary while
the North American tectonic plate shifts above it. As the plate
slowly moves, the hot spot periodically erupts volcanic lava -
leaving a traceable path of volcanic activity behind.
This path of volcanic
activity is not only responsible for Yellowstone, but for almost all
of the hot springs activity in Idaho. Other evidence the hot spot
has left behind include Craters of the Moon and the basalt lava
flows visible throughout southeast Idaho, most notably off
Interstate 84.
As
the earth above the hot spot continues to shift, Yellowstone will eventually look
like Craters of the Moon does now. Which means Craters once looked
like present day Yellowstone.
Also worth noting: The
meteorite that hit southeast Oregon 17 million years ago had an
impact so great that it wiped out all life in the Pacific Northwest;
lava blasted out of the impact crater for hundreds of miles and sent
a river of lava to the west coast, creating the Columbia Plateau in
its wake.
[Source: Roadside
Geology of Idaho, Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1995]
The
other 10 percent of Idaho's hot springs are from water being heated
by active volcanoes, typically at or around fault lines.
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