JOE: This place was pretty sweet. Not just Symes Hot Springs Hotel & Mineral Baths, but the whole little town of Hot Springs, Montana itself. It was a charming old historic feeling area and it had an amazing co-op grocery store in it, too! Rachel, Joy, and I just had to swing through this place on the tail end of our gigantic road trip adventure before we left Montana and I'm sure glad we did. Symes proudly boasts being one of the last surviving Grand Hotels of the old West and it really is just that. While we didn't stay the night, we did walk the grounds a bit and of course had a dip in their pool and hot soaking tub. This must have been a most welcome destination back in the days of cowboys and the wild, wild west. 

The hotel offers 31 rooms and even has jacuzzi sweet that is fed by the mineral waters. There is also 15 cabins and a convenience apartments (not sure what that means?) as well. Their website also informs me that the bath wing still has four of the original clawfoot tubs in private stalls for bathing, too. There is a new two-person jetted tub and a jacuzzi steam that you can rent by the hour. They also have a day spa that features Swedish massage.And on top of that they have an annual Hot Springs Blues Festival which I bet is super fun. And while this little ranching community and town is pretty well off the beaten path, I would certainly recommend heading out to it if you were anywhere even remotely near there to soak yer bones in these healing waters. As I mentioned above, the town itself is pretty charming for its tiny size and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and selection of wholesome goods the co-op in town had. This visit for us only lasted about an hour and a half as we were just popping by to check it out and still had many hours of travel on the road towards home that day. It would be sweet to stay there for a night or two and have the opportunity to have stayed in one of the last "Grand Hotel's" of the old West! Willy Cosmo is going to dig this place one day, too...

Symes Hot Springs Hotel & Mineral Baths
209 Wall Street ~ PO Box 651
Hot Springs, Montana 59845

JOE: This was a fun one, we really dug Norris Hot Springs. Rachel, Joy and I had been on the road for a week already and covered some 2,000 miles of driving, not only that but we had also dealt with our car breaking down in the desert of Lost Hills, California in 104 degree pummeling heat which lead to us spending an unanticipated night in Bakersfield, CA on the 3rd of July. We were headed down to LA for Independence Day and had already enjoyed a nice soak at one of the four hot springs that was to be a part of this epic road trip adventure of ours at Stewart Mineral Springs near Shasta n' Weed, California. The other two were Crystal Hot Springs in Honeyville, Idaho and Symes Hot Springs in Hot Springs, Montana.  I have to say, Norris Hot Springs is pretty great and I'd like to go back and visit there again sometime. We stayed the night there and so we were able to enjoy several soaks though I know we didn't really get a taste of all that this place has to offer. For one, they host live music in their geodesic dome that overlooks the soaking area there during the warm months on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and we were there mid week so we missed out on that. The other thing about that place is there are tons of fun activities within a half hour or so of it including rock climbing, kayaking, tubing, fishing, swimming, and touring caverns as well. We were on a pretty major road trip and only had the energy to soak and relax and enjoy a quality dinner at Norris but next time around, we'll check out a whole lot more!

This adventure was of course two years ago and I'm jogging my memory as I write about it and reflect on our stay there. I remember enjoying a delicious meal and a tasty locally brewed beer at the cafe/restaurant called the 50 Mile Grill, they call it that because a lot of their produce and most all of their food comes from their own gardens and local farms which is super sweet. They have a nice dining area and the setting of this little Hot Springs, as you can see above is really quite lovely. Rolling hills in a high desert area of Montana. The closest big city is Bozeman which is about a 40 minuted drive away. This is a very family friendly place and definitely worth checking out. The soaking pool is more warm than hot but the waters are still quite nice to soak in. They have floaty tubes to make your lounging while soaking a more enjoyable and relaxing experience. As you can see below, Rachel and Joy were kicking back doing just that.

This is going to be a fun place to visit with Willy Cosmo one day. I look very forward to it. He's going to love it. We sure did. After driving hundreds of miles almost every day of our trip, this was a very welcome resting place to soak our bones and relax with some good quality food and a very peaceful setting. We highly approve of Norris Hot Springs and encourage you to check out the Water of the Gods, too!

JOE: Well this place was a trip and a half! Crystal Hot Springs is located about one hour north of Salt Lake City, Utah in the city of Honeyville. It proudly boasts having the highest mineral content of all Hot Springs and Mineral Springs in the continental United States. Here's the numbers on that:

This place was pretty awesome. It's not the kind of resort where you necessarily get all zen'd out (though you can, of course) as it is one of the most family friendly, laid back hot springs I've ever been to by far. It has two water slides for jimmy crickets, sake! With that said, the water is mighty potent, let me tell you. It's high mineral content makes it a produce a mild odor and makes you very buoyant which is fun because then you can really just float and lounge out while you soak. Joy absolutely loved the water slides and thankfully she was just old enough to enjoy them on her own. I went down with her a time or two and then she was brave enough to give it a whirl herself. It's definitely a great place to take the whole family.

This was a fun place to stay and I would recommend you do so if you're ever in the SLC area. They have several camping sites and RV spots to rent out as well and that is what we ended up doing. We camped out and the camping area is in a nice clearing above the grounds with a great view of the mountains and sunset, too. There's not much in the form of restaurants or any other activities close by though we did end up going to a bowling alley about 20 minutes drive from there for dinner the night we were there. That was fun, it was an air conditioned run of the mill bowling alley with pizza and beer and during that hot spell, it was a very welcome place to cool off and bowl.

In all this place was really quite enjoyable. We look forward to going back one day and bringing Willy Cosmo along, he's going to love it. It's casual, laid back, family friendly, and a whole lot of fun. The healing waters of this place are exceptional, with the highest mineral content in all of the US of A, you really are in for a treat when you visit Honeyville, Utah and go to Crystal Hot Springs.