Hot Springs Go Green

You may have noticed that I’m a sucker for hot springs, so when I heard about Liard Hot Springs along the Alaska Highway, I was determined to go.

Each of our hot springs experiences has differed considerably from the last(Hot Springs, Arkansas; and Bozeman Hot Springs, Montana). This visit was absolutely the best. These springs are part of a provincial park in Northern British Columbia. We drove in and found our campsite—there were very few left and we arrived early in the day. The campsites were gorgeous with lots of greenery to give you privacy from the other campers. I miss this since most RV parks are more like parking lots.

We set up camp, rested, and headed to the hot springs at about 5pm. The walk to the springs was fairly short along a wooden walkway weaving through a very green forest of ferns, wild roses, and trees.

The springs were natural except for the boardwalk and steps down into the springs. We rested on logs and rocks as we relaxed in the water. It was nice to sit and talk with other visitors from all over the world.

This morning, Adolfo and I made a final visit to the hot springs for photos. We found a number of workers in the water cleaning out algae—no wonder the rocks, logs, and bottom didn’t feel slimy. I stopped to chat with a few of the guys. Several of them live in this area year round. I cannot imagine living in a place where the temperature falls 50 degrees below 0 Celsius. However, the idea of swimming in the hot springs in cold weather sounds great. They agreed that it is the perfect place to be in winter. In fact, they said that it is customary to celebrate New Years at the springs. Plus, there isn’t the fear of bears in winter, and you have the pool to yourself most of the time.

This didn’t convince me to move to the area, but I have to admit that a trip in the fall did sound tempting.