Lava Hot Springs - July 1-3

Julie here: I've been keeping an old-fashioned log since our technology was totally inadequate for the mountains and the remote places we've been visiting. I'm going back now to type in my impressions of the last week.

The surprise of our vacation has been this little resort town about 25 miles from Pocatello in SE Idaho. We saw a brochure advertising hot springs, a water park, and rental tubes for floating down the river and thought we had stumbled into kid heaven. The first night we stayed at a cute bunkhouse "the Yellow Submarine." Each cabin was named for a Beatles song and I thought of my roommate Val, who hung a picture of "the boys" in our dorm room. I fondly thought of them as our other roommates.

Jim already described the river ride, to which I would only add that it appeared one could go for miles on the river if one was willing to hike back with the inner tube.

The second night in Lava Springs we stayed right next to the river where we got out from the tube ride and across a foot bridge from the water park. This was really convenient for lunch and Ian's nap. It was not great, however, at night. It was like the Sturgis Falls of train routes with alarmingly loud whistles every 30-60 minutes.