Morning found us in Montana, evening found us driving towards menacing thunderstorms in Utah. The plan was to camp at Meadow Hot Springs on our very last night, a comfortable distance from home to make the last day's driving not too painful. We kept careful watch on the weather radar as muddy farm roads would be no place for the Prius. The storm seemed to be just to the south by miles and moving away from us so we decided to give it a shot.
Meadow Hot Springs is a fascinating group of springs and an incredible rarity: undeveloped springs on private property with no apparent restriction on access or camping. Just keep it cleaner than you found it. We found them to be in relatively good shape. We drove first to the fish pond pool (shallowest, coolest, dock for entry), then drove on to the figure-8 shaped pool where we set up camp. The later was warmer and had an interesting deep end going down about 10ft. We had a great show of dramatic skies, strong winds, lightning, and rainbows from the nearby storm. We had a pleasant soak and played around with our goggles and dive light in the depths.
It was not until the morning that we explored a bit further and found the northernmost pool to be the main soaking and SCUBA diving pool. At 95 degrees (and devoid of fish) it was certainly the warmest and most comfortable of the three main pools. Though modest in size at the surface, the pool bells out into a wider chamber below. Lowering my dive light down on a line suggested about 25ft depths. I have not been to many hot springs with such large travertine- lined vents, and was an interesting analogy for Homestead Crater, not too far away. After a peaceful morning soak, we reluctantly hit the road for our final day of the road trip.
I found out Sara had never been to the isolated but surprisingly accessible Kolob Canyons portion of Zion National Park so we took a 25 minute detour from I-15 to drive the scenic road and say goodbye to the Navajo Sandstone for a while. It was just long enough to snap a couple pictures before hitting the road again. The rest of the drive was familiar and without incident. We arrived at home with mixed feelings. Home is home, but open road and broad landscapes have endless appeal. Thanks to Sara for being my partner in adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment