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Wildlife Sighted:
Deer, Elk and Moose
Seasonal Notes
The Forest Service Road that provides access is snow covered all
winter until approximately late April or mid-May. Spring runoff makes for a
tricky river ford early in the season, cross carefully. Best bet is
to wait until after runoff. During the summer this is ORV country,
expect legions kicking up dirt and dust all over the road.
Camping Notes
Primitive and official
campgrounds are all over the place. Due to the location of the hot
springs there is no possible way to camp next to or near the
springs.Briefings
07.15.08
On this particular adventure I teamed up with Channel 6 (KIVI Boise
Idaho)
When KIVI Channel 6 anchor Lincoln Graves approached me a couple months ago in regard to a hot springs venture, I was hesitant. In the same way that I am regarding IdahoHotSprings.com and this blog. Believe it or not, it's not my intention to drive large amounts of people to hot springs. It's actually to educate newbie and veteran soakers alike. However, after I was able to talk with Lincoln, I found out it was for a special segement called "Idaho Green Living", and that I could talk about the environment as well as protecting hot springs. Any hesistation I previously had, dissipated.
This morning I took Kevin (photographer/cameraman), Lincoln (anchor) and a longtime fellow hot springer with me to a hot springs in the Boise National Forest. The event went great, Lincoln and Kevin did an excellent job and everyone seemed to have a good time, myself included.
An easy ford, low amounts of trash and beautiful Boise National Forest scenery made the soak just that much more stellar.
The segment is going to air on Wednesday night, July 16th, 10pm and again on Thursday during the morning show. There will be a version on KIVI's website as well.
Rating:
A
11.12.07
Less trash, lower temperatures (just barley hot enough to soak) and
a freezing river ford... in a nutshell. All in all a great soak.
Although my friend experienced a couple bites that he thought to be
red
spider mites. Hmmm. Maybe, maybe not.
Rating:
B+
09.17.07
There's not much more to say that wasn't said in the 06.16.07 trip
report - meaning Rocky Canyon Hot Springs was indeed a sweet soak.
Since it was a Monday, forest service road traffic seemed light
compared to last time. There was still a steady stream of vehicles,
mostly hunters. It was a beautiful day, the river ford was freezing
(see
video) and the soak stellar. Light trash (no dirty diapers this
time) around and in the hot springs, and the road in was in much
better condition. Which can be accredited to all of the firefighter
traffic from throughout the summer.
Rating:
A
06.16.07
Well how do you like that. Five new, stellar soaks and one original
tasty soak await the hot springs interloper at Rocky Canyon Hot
Springs. Thank you Carey, J. Smith and son Nathan - excellent handiwork on the
new digs! If you are interested in the pool temperatures, please see
the pictures above.
Despite the insane forest
road traffic that did not cease until 3am!!!! This soak was a slam
dunk. The traffic is terrible because of all the folks heading to
and from Silver Creek Plunge. If you decide to camp near the hot
springs, make sure you put all of your trash away at night. Wildlife
has been getting into human trash in this area, once the wild
animals eat our trash they rarely are able to return to their
instincts.
As hot springers, we
already leave enough of a footprint behind. Let's do our part, pick
up everyone's trash, and make sure we are leaving these special
areas as untouched as possible.
Rating:
A
10.17.05
It was a nice return visit to Rocky Canyon. After braving the cold
water river ford we were rewarded with a choice of two steamy soaks.
All of the pools look slightly different in contrast to their
position and how they were reinforced in the past. Be careful on the steep hike
up - use a walking/hiking stick/trekking pole, which will also
greatly increase your river fording ability. The main downer on this
particular trip was the insane amount of cigarette butts... good
grief! And that's the odd thing - cig butts were the only trash I
found save for a lone beer can.
Rating: B+
05.04.05: 'Swimmy Thingies' Update
A longtime Rocky Canyon hot springer emailed me regarding the
07.07.02 trip report (below). Apparently, the 'swimmy thingies' are
actually Idaho Spade Foot Toads. -Thanks for the info. Shane!
07.19.04
It looks like the pools must have gotten washed away during spring
runoff once again because now there are 2 pools instead of 4, and
neither are in the same location of the previous ones. We were going
to soak, but while I was taking pictures a couple dudes and their 10
kids decided to get into the pools first. Which is fine but their
kiddies were screaming and cannonballing into the pools while the 2
dads sat back and enjoyed a few am beers. Oh yes, you've gotta love Idaho
folks.
Rating:
X
07.07.02
Rocky Canyon provided us with a most enjoyable soak. Especially since we had all 4 pools to ourselves despite it still being the big 4th of July camping
weekend!! If you know this area, then you must know how rare something
like this is. This would have been a grade A soak, had it not been for a discovery in the pool 2nd from the top. We noticed very very small 'swimmy thingies' in the clear water that were attaching themselves to our skin! Apparently the uppermost pool is too hot for those things, and was subsequently a very nice soak. When at Fire Crew we inquired about these 'swimmy things' with a local. He told us that his friend swears they are not any type of leech or anything like that, and that tons of people sit in them all the time. Other than the 'swimmy thingies' Rocky Canyon was awesome,
especially for an easy access dip. Note: The so called 'swimmy things'
are not the notorious Red Spider Mites encountered at Bear
Valley HS.
Rating: B+
Average
Rating: A [TOP] |
