Driving Home

July 20, 2018

Saturday, July 21, 2018

Drove 299 miles from Rifle, Colorado to Spanish Fork, Utah. I could have driven much farther but tomorrow morning I want to hike to nearby Fifth Water hot spring.

Got a $104 room at Quality Inn, the only motel in the large Mormon town.

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Early in the morning I drove high into the mountains to the Fifth Water trailhead and hiked 2.5 miles down to the hot spring.

I arrived at the trailhead around 8 AM. There were no other cars parked at the trailhead. I saw no other hikers on the trail but I saw many people at the hot spring, backpackers who hiked a much longer trail from below.

No other cars were parked at the trailhead. I saw no other hikers on the trail.

The first 1/3 of the trail is in a pasture on the ridge top. The last 2/3 of the trail descends in a forested canyon above the dry creek.

Fifth Water trail entering a forested canyon.

Fifth Water creek is dry this time of year so there is no cold water to mix with the extremely hot water. Most of the soaking pools were far too hot to be soakable now. I want to go back in springtime when snowmelt feeds the creek. Then it would be soaking nirvana.

The upper pools are fed by a large hot source adjacent to the dry creek. They are way too hot for soaking without cold water.

The uppermost pools are far too hot without cold creek water.

The hot water gets steadily cooler as it flows down the creekbed. About 100 yards downstream it had cooled enough for a soak. My little pool was in full shade, 97F when I got in, 100F when I got out 2 hours later as the sun encroached.

I had a long soak farther down in a "lower" upper pool.

After the soak I continued down the canyon. 200 feet below my pool is a 10 foot warm waterfall. Just below the waterfall are two huge hot water flows that make the pools below the waterfall far too hot for soaking.

The middle group of pools are also too hot because of two huge hot water sources coming out of the hillside (bottom center and right center).

100 yards below the middle pools is another cluster of pools. The water was no longer scalding but it was still too hot for anybody to stay in for more than a couple minutes. I imagine the temperature gets pretty good a couple hundred feet downstream, but I didn't go down there.

The lowest pools are barely soakable, still too hot.

Hiking 2.5 miles up to the car took twice as long as hiking down. The trail gains 750 feet elevation.

Afterwards I drove all the way to Ontario, Oregon. 516 miles total, mostly after lunch in Spanish Fork.

Monday, July 23, 2018

Drove 486 miles from Ontario to Oakland, Oregon. Lunch stop in Bend which was extremely smoky. No views of the Cascade range volcanoes today! On the west side of the Cascades I stopped for a soak at Deer Creek hot spring. Then I drove to Cottage Grove to have dinner with old friends Gary and Lisa from Chicago who are vacationing in Oregon. Got home at 9:30 PM.

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