Hot Soaks in the Sawtooths

Commercial Style Soaking @ Baumgartner


The early bird gets the soak

Baumgartner was a great soak early in the morning, but as the campground began to wake up the pool began to fill-up... with people. We felt lucky to have enjoyed a soak for about an hour with only a handful of other people. If you were in a helicopter it would have looked like srteams of people trickling out of their campsites and converging into a thicker stream that converged directly on the hot springs. The key here anytime of year is to soak early. The pool is drained daily, bright and early.
Rating A

Baumgartner Hot Springs Complete Listing

Chased Off by ORVers @ Willow Creek Hot Springs

The horse transfer camp and all nearby primitive camps were full-up! Tons of horses and tons of 4 wheelers... and I mean tons! There was vegetative damage from the 4 wheelers present everywhere. I've never seen so many people in this area before, let alone 4 wheelers. This area of the Sawtooths is now an off road vehicle park. Forget getting any peace and quiet and prepare for non-stop clouds of dirt being kicked up. There was even an outfitter present - I at first thought someone bought the land and was using it as a personal junkyard. The outfitter thrashed the entire expanse of their primitive site in addition to expanding it to suit their needs. The area directly adjacent to the outfitter camp featured clear evidence of 4 wheeler damage. In fact, just from driving the length of FSR 008 there were multiple areas that were clearly damaged as a direct result of 4 wheelers driving off track. This went from one of my most favorite areas of the Sawtooth NF to my least. I've never seen an area transform so quickly. I was so disgusted that I documented the damage then left.

Willow Creek Hot Springs Complete Listing


The Hustle & Bustle of Bridge Hot Springs

I was surprised to see anyone soaking this soon after spring runoff, but the horde of campers and soakers had diverted one of the main hot spring outflows to a channel large enough to pack in a dozen soakers on the bank opposite of the campground. I soaked only long enough to qualify, way too many people for my taste.
Rating B-

Bridge Hot Springs Complete Listing

Roadless Hot Springs at Risk in Idaho!

Roadless Area Hot Springs Jerry Johnson at Risk

Roadless areas represent our last intact ecosystems, water systems, wildlife areas and open spaces. Many use and value this land, including: hunters, anglers, backpackers and kayakers along with many other types of recreational users.

IRAs also contain hot springs, which are very unique features that set Idaho's roadless forests apart from the rest. Scroll down to view the list of 22 hot springs located in IRAs in Idaho - all face a severe risk of development.

Please send your comments to Governor Kempthorne (contact info. below), telling him to petition to protect all inventoried roadless areas in Idaho. I've backpacked 100s of miles throughout the years in many of Idaho's roadless areas within the Boise, Payette, Sawtooth, Salmon-Challis and Clearwater National Forests. Developing any of Idaho's IRAs just doesn't make sense.

Here's why:

• IRAs are important for recreation, clean water, fish and wildlife.

• Idaho's uniqueness is represented by roadless forests, that draw middle class families to our cities - which are vital to urbanized economies and growth.

• Idaho's forests already have over 34 thousand miles of road with over $660 million dollars of backlogged maintenance.

• Roadless areas are a key component of Habitat Conservation Planning; which allows city and land planners to better design roadway and transit systems, and manage population growth.

• 74% of the state's Steelhead and Chinook Salmon habitat in roadless areas, and Steelhead and Salmon anglers spend over $60 million dollars annually in Idaho.

Even though Idaho has the most roadless land in the lower 48, Governor Kempthorne is drafting a petition that could potentially open up millions of acres of inventoried roadless land for reasons that include energy exploration and old growth forest harvesting.

There is still time for your voice to be heard!

Governor Kempthorne is accepting comments until March 1, 2006. You can e-mail your comments to roadless@osc.idaho.gov or send them to:

Governor Kempthorne
c/o Office of Species Conservation
P.O. Box 83720
Boise, ID 83702-0195

My research has concluded that the hot springs listed below are all located within Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs) in Idaho. As such, their fate is currently in the hands of the Governor.

Boise National Forest
-Moondipper
-Pine Burl
-Bull Creek
-Bull Rack
-Tenmile
-Lynx Creek
-Weatherby
-Here Comes the Sun

Caribou-Targhee National Forest
-Bear Valley Creek

Clearwater National Forest
-Jerry Johnson
-Weir Creek

Payette National Forest
-Cable Car/French Creek
-Cluster
-Secesh
-Buckhorn
-Penny
-Mollys
-Vulcan

Salmon-Challis National Forest
-Owl Creek

Sawtooth National Forest
-Lightfoot
-Skillern
-Willow Creek

Take more action - sign petitions in favor of roadless protections and adopt-a-roadless-area!