Skip to main content

Hot spring trek

By
On our trip to Mt Rainier last August we dipped our toes into the muddy hot springs at Ohanapecosh. It was fun, but not the real-deal soaking experience. So when I was searching for nearby biking expeditions for Edmond and me to go on, 'Goldmeyer hot springs' stood out as a fun option and only an hour drive to the trail-head (sort of).  During COVID they have been limiting visitors to two small groups per day (so no chance of bumping into weird nudists) -- and as you can probably guess the demand is sky-high right now for outdoorsy family activities. Luckily, I called at midnight on opening day for fall reservations and was surprised to hear a few days later that mid-week slots were the only options left... but I took it!

After a week of steady rain and wind-storms, the forest road to get to the trailhead was virtually washed out. Halfway along the 5-mile bumpy drive we ditched the car and road the rest on our mountain bikes. All in all, it was about 17-miles round trip on a fairly low-grade climb following a very vigorous flowing river. The trek was rainy and cold as we crossed multiple streams, but we were rewarded with dozens of waterfalls and a few peeks of the Yosemite-like tall granite mountains on either side of the river. 

The trip was definitely worth it. After checking in and learning about the history of Goldmeyer and nearby mining claims, we hiked to the hot springs a 1/4 mile up from the caretaker's cabin.  There were a few small pools made from local granite stones, a small restroom, and a beautiful cabana all perched right next to a raging river. It was the perfect temperature and only the faintest whiff of sulfur in the air. It was very hard to get out of the steamy water a couple hours later and dry off to cook lunch (ramen and beef stew!).

The trek back down to the car had better weather and was downhill, making it the perfect end to a fantastic adventure. Highly recommended, but I'm not sure when our kids will be able to hike that far in a day. We'll have to start practicing more this winter!








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy new year!!

By
Goodness, it's already 2025! It's been a really long time since we posted!  We had a very lazy new year. We flew back from LA on the evening of the 31st so spent the last remaining hours of 2024 cozying up on the couch and then fell asleep before it even hit midnight! On New Years day, we slept in, cleaned up the house and then did a quick hike the next day. All in all, a good start to the year! Nora's new blanket hoodie. Cold and muddy trails. We're not in LA anymore! We hiked the Primrose trail that follows Coal Creek.  
Post a Comment
Read more

1 week checkup

By
We took Nora to her one week check up today and guess what? We have a porker on our hands! She weighed in at a whopping 6 lbs. 5.5 oz. That's 2.5 oz more than her birth weight! They want the baby to be back at birth weight within 2 weeks so she beat that milestone pretty handily. Hooray! So far, she's been better than Evie at eating (she doesn't take nearly as long, although she falls asleep VERY often) but she's not as good as Evie at pooping. Poor thing always seems to have tummy issues - she's very squirmy and fussy when she doesn't burp or poop. The doc doesn't think it's a big problem though since she still has lots of wet diapers, but we'll have to keep a better eye on it now. We'll have another doctor check up (with shots!) next week.
Post a Comment
Read more

black and blue

By
Poor little Nora! This little munchkin was running after her sister when we were out on a walk yesterday and tripped. She banged her face up pretty good, but thankfully it wasn't worse.  A big ole egg! she didn't like me trying to clean those scratches  breakfast thus morning! Lots of jam on her face to match her war wounds!
Post a Comment
Read more