warm waters

I compare hot springs to treasure; they are nothing less. To find a place in the mountains or along the rivers where warm water pours out of the earth, not much beats the experience. I have recently been notified of my visitor center junkie status- undenied; but even more than the braking for national park visitor centers, I drive out of my way for hot springs. The best hot springs of all are the ones with broken down signs, found only in guide books or lost all together save for the word of mouth. These are the waters in which you find the hot springs junkies; the ones that have been coming to that very spring for 20 years because they know the secret of the place. Springs make sense to me, my body is at peace. I can sip coffee and let the new sun of the day light my skin or drink wine under the stars- this is the treasure of the springs. Geothermal activity is responsible for the warm waters, heated by magma deep inside the earth. The ground water picks up minerals present in the rocks or surrounding soils to make each spring unique. Where there is volcanic activity or plate tectonic motion there is bound to be a spring. Some hot springs have been developed, meaning turned into pools or soaking areas that are privately maintained and operated. Undeveloped springs are tended to only by the visitors that frequent their waters and are often times a shallow pool formed from strategically placed rock.

I can not take credit for the find on the Takhini hot springs; my eyes tired after a 400 mile stretch across the Yukon I never saw the posting. Fortunately my mother possesses the radar for hot springs, spotting the sign as I blew by at 60 miles in hour. Sometimes these signs are a bust, but we took our chances and drifted 20 miles off course down a bumpy dirt road just outside of Whitehorse. We were rewarded by warm waters to wash away the miles, a place to pitch a tent and second morning soak before continuing down the road. The goodness of the springs.