So my husband and I, along with some very good friends of ours decided we wanted to do a “hot springs” trip. Now We had all been to Banff hot springs and as enjoyable as that was, it wasn’t the type of experience we were looking for this time. So right away we crossed the glorified pool type hot springs off our list. Instead we were looking for something a little more hippie!! Through a little online research I found two hot springs that sounded promising! Lussier Hot Springs and Ram Creek Hot Springs. They were only about 40 minutes from each other or so google map told me. So this past may long weekend we set out on our adventure.
After an approximately 7 hour drive from the Okanagan we arrived in Skookumchuck. We had a couple quick stops along the way one of which was in Creston where we stopped at the Kokanee Brewery for some quick photo op’s.
When we finally arrived in Skookumchuck we quickly set up our tent trailer and hit up the Burger Barn at Springbrook camp ground, we throughly enjoyed our Skook Burgers with a side of potato salad…. yummy!! This was followed by a campfire, some wine, good conversation and wonderful company.
The trailer was very cold despite the brand new heater. It was noted by the lady at the desk that everyone out there goes to the Okanagan for long weekends and very rarely do they get people from the Okanagan, especially in May.
In the morning we had a hearty breakfast, packed a lunch and headed out on our journey to find the hot springs. We headed along highway 93/95 then turned up Whiteswan Forest Service Road… What a view!! Picturesque snow top mountain view, cliffs from the road straight down to the river, it’s a drive not for the faint of heart. We arrived at our first stop, Lussier Hot Springs. This hot springs is part of a provincial park so there is a warning sing no pets, alcohol or nudity. We left Duchess our dog in the truck and hoped others were as obedient about the other two rules!!
After a short walk down the path we got to the spot, 3 cascading pools. The top one was the hottest! took a long time just to get my feet used to the high temperature, but so worth it once my body adjusted. The second and third were much cooler as it was May and spring run off had the ice-cold river water mixing into the hot pools. There was a girl there who I joked was “Lady of the hot springs” she was going around the middle pool and blocking where the cold water was getting in. She eventually got it warmed up and we sat in there for quite a while. The sun was shining, despite the cool air we tanned in our swim suits without getting cold at all!! Could have stayed there a lot longer but we were hungry and lunch was in the truck. We also had another hot spring to find.
Now the direction to Ram Creek hot spring was to continue along Whiteswan Forest Service Road then turn up White Ram Forest Service Road. We had been asking around about Ram Creek hot springs because it was supposed to be much more remote. Many people said it was hard to get to that the road may be washed out or even blocked, but if you had the right vehicle or if you were willing to hike you could get there, well we were ready for our adventure.
Again, amazing drive spectacular views but alas, we got to our road closed sign and a huge pile of dirt that would have been possible to drive over, but not in our brand new truck. So we put our layers on, packed snacks and water, our bathing suits and towels and of course Duchess and started out on our 4 km hike. Soon we came to the river that washed out the road, had to leap over at a few spots and Josh had to carry me a little way so my sneakers didn’t get soaked. There was more road blocks further up, so we were very happy that we decided to hike in, we also enjoyed the hike especially since we had sat in the truck so long the day before and would be returning home the day after. One hour and 5 minutes into our walk we finally arrived to the hot springs, we changed into our already wet swim suits and got into the “warm” springs. The water was cooler than the middle spring at Lussier and there was no difference between the temperatures of the two pools. But we enjoyed ourselves, took some pictures and watched Duchess play in the water and make friends with all the other bathers. We didn’t stay for too long, quickly got changed and then hiked back to the truck. We collected some wood for our campfire and made our way back to the campsite after a long, relaxing, but also tiring day!
We enjoyed good food, steak, potatoes, veggies and danishes for dinner and played dominos till we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer. Another cold sleep for me, although not as bad as the first night.
The next morning we got packed up and planned to take a little more time driving home, making a few stops along the way. We gave our Burger Barn Chef a lift to Cranbrook as he was in need of an emergency dental visit. We then stopped in Yahk, shopped at the Yahk Soap Co. then had ice cream and wondered a little path down to the river, it was so enjoyable we could have stayed a little longer but it started to rain and was very cold. The next stop we made was in Castlegar where we finally gave in to mine and Josh’s craving for Arby’s. Then we drove to the Hugh Keenleyside Dam. I remember my grandfather telling me about this dam and how he’d done some work there, so I really wanted to check it out, unfortunately it was closed but we still got to see it and take some pictures.
Well that pretty much sums up our hot springs trip to Skookumchuck, I loved it, I would do it again, but if I could change anything it would be to allow more time to explore the beautiful country, there is so much to see!!!
