Lava Hot Springs

Just got back from an outing to Lava Hot Springs. Greg and I went with Lauren and her friend Laura Wouden. We camped at the KOA campground....I would not recommend it...noisy with a train that passes every hour or so day and night, and a major highway with trucks that have screechy breaks. Not to mention our site backed the river that made me feel like I needed to go potty all night! But the trip was fun enough to write home about so I will overlook the campsite!
Lava Hot Springs is a little sleepy town in Idaho. There are natural mineral springs minus the sulfur that is often in hot pots. The town has some fun things to do for a quick get away. There is a large olympic sized swimming pool with platform diving boards and water slides. We didn't try out the platform diving boards...too old and too chicken! My sister did it when we were young and ended up with a few stitches...bad memories.

The next thing we did was soak in the hot pools. There is an area that has been cemented in and there are about 6 large hot pools. Kind of like massive hot tubs. They range in temperatures of 102 to 110. They made me a little sick to my stomach after sitting in them for too long, but they were fun, and if it would have been a chillier day I would have enjoyed them more.

The final thing we did was tubing on the Portneuf river. It was a blast. The river is fairly shallow, not to swift, and the hot springs feed into it making the water fairly warm. There are tube rental places all over town. It was swift enough with a few rapids to keep things exciting, but not too dangerous that I was scared. I'd definitely recommend it. I think Lava Hot Springs would be a great place for a youth activity. Either a Youth Conference or a girls camp.