In hot water

After a busy day of driving and hiking yesterday it was nice to just relax today.  We took plenty of walks around the campground, read, played frisbee and horseshoes.  I called my dad to wish him a happy 82nd birthday and had a nice chat with him and my mom.

Our campground was just a few miles from the town of Radium Springs which is home to a hot springs pool.  But it was a blistering hot day so we decided to try out the pool after the temp cooled down a bit in the evening.  So after dinner we drove the short distance to town.   Before going o the hot springs we stopped to check out the stations of the cross they have on a hillside in town.  I don’t think I have ever done the stations of the cross so this was a very neat experience and we counted it as our church for the day being a Sunday and all.

Just a few minutes drive from town up the canyon is the hot springs pool.  The first thing I have to mention is the price…for all 5 of us the total came to less than $21 Canadian which is about $16 US.  Back home in Colorado we love Glenwood, Pagosa and Mt Princeton hot springs but these will typically run you $20 a person so this was a spectacular deal in my opinion!  They have a cool pool (about 85F) and a hot pool (about 100F).  Even at 6:30pm it was still pretty hot so we started in the cool pool which was still in direct sun despite the high canyon walls.  After some splashing around, tricks off the diving board and some trips down the slide we moved over to the hot pool.  Ahhhhhh….tubby time!!!  Oh how I love soaking in hot water, especially outside in a picturesque location!  Turns out our neighbors from the campground (seasonal residents of the area) were also at the pool.  Karen and her friend Carmen have a LOT to talk about.  Karen had been talking at us for about 15 minutes when she said, “but….you are probably tired of hearing me blab on and on.”  After that, she went on for another 15 minutes or so.

At one end of the hot pool was a little tiny hot tub sized pool.  According to some this is the surprise pool.  Sometimes its bloody hot and other times it is ice cold.  Today it was ice cold and the kids loved seeing who could stay in it the longest.  They actually got so good at being in the cold water that they could sit in there and look completely relaxed.  In doing this they would lure unsuspecting guests over to take a dip in what they believed to be very hot water.  The kids loved seeing the expressions on the surprised polar plungees!

Karen came over again and said, “Oh I have just one more question for you…”.  Somehow asking if Windsor CO is windy turned into a 20 minute discussion 99% of which was handled by Karen!

We stayed till almost 9:00 (sun was still up, but shady in the canyon) and had a really enjoyable time at this pool.  I think it ranks as one of our favorite hot springs experiences.