69. Visit Diamond Fork Hot Springs

June 15, 2017

69. Visit Diamond Fork Hot Springs

This was one that I added to the infamous Bucket List months after I got here. Legend had it that hidden in the Spanish Fork Canyon were some picturesque destination hot springs. Some of my friends even completed the 3 mile hike in the dead of winter with feet of snow, to warm up at the end in the springs. After hearing those stories I knew that I had to do it. (A little bit of adventure FOMO but who's judging?)

See why I had to do it???

I ended up going twice during this past winter semester. The first time we went up around sunset on a Friday night. It was so crowded that we couldn't find a place to park. We were highly unprepared and paid for our mistakes (for example trudging through a foot+ of snow in flip flops), and we also **didn't bring flashlights.**

The hike was much longer than we anticipated and there were a few times where we convinced ourselves that we had accidentally left the trail, but we persisted and miraculously started to smell our destination. It was a cold night, though not too bad, and when we arrived we were excited to soak in some nasty hot water. But to our chagrin, all of the carfuls of people from the parking lot had arrived before us and were taking up precious space. (Young men's groups, families with babies, BYU students, photographers, and even several groups of foreigners). There are several different pots that you reach first, and they range from just pretty warm -> too hot to put your toes in. When we got there the only ones that had space for us where the ones at either end of the spectrum. And no one left for hours, even though it was 1 AM (looking at you, families with small children). But that was all fine and we still had a blast! I knew that I had to come back though.

So my second trip to the Diamond Fork hot springs was with my sweet roommates to celebrate the last day of class for the year! We went in the middle of the day on a Wednesday, and it was perfect. Almost all the snow had melted (in April)(side note we still have snow, and it's mid June), and we enjoyed the beautiful hike up to the springs that I hadn't been able to see the first time. The river is gorgeous. Diamond Fork Canyon has become a future destination for me.

This time there were only a few bathers and end-of-school-celebrators and we had plenty of room in whichever pot we chose. Even then we never got one to ourselves, but who cares. It was the perfect way to celebrate the end of my first year at BYU and the end of living with the sweetest, most incredible roomies ever.