What a place. South of Salmon Idaho is a town called Challis. Near there, on the Salmon River in the 1890's a family started making pools to corral the hot springs and running a little spa. It is still owned by the family today.
God made this place, with the rocks on one side and the Salmon River's cooling breeze on the other, just for you and me.
There's a really hot pool, and then there's one about body temperature. Both have gravel bottoms so the mineral water perculates up through the bottom and keeps the water clean and warm. A hot springs with no Chlorine is a thing of beauty. At 9:45 pm when the owner said closing time, the pool was filled with about 50 people, lots of kids being watched by adults. The water was so dark if one had gone missing, no one would have seen. Everyone was counting heads continually.
In the morning though, the place was serene and quiet. In the hot pool, we met the guy who had been running his blender on a picnic table next to his Ford Taurus and his tent. He's a professional hot springs junkie and told me about a great book on all the best soaks. What's in his blender? Broccoli, Kale, Whey, Strawberry something....three times a day. He has prostrate cancer and this is his cure.
I'm working on a watercolor. That rock wall just inspired me.
And I loved morning aerobics with the locals. They spotted me right away as a "camper". I was the only outsider in the class. But they were very friendly to me, and if I ever move to Downey, I will come every M W F to water aerobics in a warm pool with the locals over 70.
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