Fifth Water Creek in northern Utah's Uinta National Forest contains an interesting and surprisingly accessible group of hot springs a short 2.5 miles hike through a pleasantly wooded conglomeratic valley. We pulled into the Three Forks trailhead quite late in the day to find it full with about 20 cars. As we planned to camp at or near the springs and I was under the impression that camping options were limited, this had me a little worried at first. A quick survey of the vehicles and their contents however led me to wager that most, if not all, would not be backpacking and would soon be hiking back to their cars. Being a short backpack we over-packed and set off.
We passed many groups of people and an equal number of empty campsites. Things seemed like they were going to work out. We crossed the bridge over Sixth Water where the majority of the creek flows from (a surprisingly large catchment), and then soon were walking along a cool but sulfurous little creek. In about an hour and a half we reached the obvious start of the hot spring area. I was surprised by the number of pools (well over twenty), some scalding hot, other luke warm. The good ones unsurprisingly lined with the last holdouts of the day. We hiked on passed and up two waterfalls in search of the best pools and best campsite. Although we appreciated the relative quiet of the area above the first waterfall the springs and camping were less inspiring.
We walked back down the creek and found a perfect tent spot about 2 minutes walk below the first pool- just far enough to have some peace and quiet, close enough that we had great spring access. After establishing camp and dinner we set out to sample a few of the pools. Though not the warmest, we eventually settled into the pool closest to us which had excellent depth, ambiance, and a nice milky blue color (frontispiece).
A good night's sleep was interrupted by our alarm clock at 4am. We awoke and stumbled to our near pool where we enjoyed about 20 minutes of the Perseid meteor shower. It was perhaps a little overhyped but an excellent show nonetheless. Worth waking up at 4am for the second morning in the row. A couple more hours of sleep, a bit more soaking, then a speedy sub-hour hike back to the car and on the road. The springs were excellent!
It's too bad they're not further from a road to keep more diaper and
beer tossing riff-raff away, but they served as a perfect stopping over
place for our road trip drive. I imagine they would be fantastic in the
snow.
We had one further noteworthy stop of the day, the curious Homestead Crater hot springs, just outside the strange Switzerland-in-Mormonland town of Midway. Though not a crater, it is a curious hundred-plus foot tall mound of travertine, open at the top like a volcano and hollow inside with a significant hot spring upwelling into it. Allegedly when Mormon homesteaders first came on the "crater" the water still flowed out from the top of the mound. In an attempt to divert the water to their fields they drilled into the crater, permanently lowering the water level (punchline: it was a failure as crops could not grow in the alkalic waters). Now an adit has been carved into the side of the crater allowing access to the half-filled cavern. The "crater" is a popular place to learn to SCUBA dive, with its 65ft deep waters (and modest visibility). I'm usually not one for pay hot springs but it was an incredibly fascinating place to float around for a half hour.
After our soak we finished off the last bit of Utah and drove the straight, fast, and barren roads of Wyoming to Hoback Campground near the gateway to the Tetons. We thankfully found a nice spot in the campground before it filled. Though a little buggy and close to the road (and the river appeared much lower than I had hoped), it was a great place to stop over.
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