Hunting Down Idaho's Hot Springs In A Tesla

“Idaho is known for potatoes and hot springs,” enthused Mark Sevenoff, co-owner of Western Spirit, a bicycle touring business that has been guiding clients to the Gem State’s backcountry soaks for 25 years. I was speaking to him at a bicycle-testing event in the mountain resort of Ketchum, Idaho. Getting to the town from Boise with pedal power would have been the greenest choice, but for our husband-and-wife hot-spring-hunting road trip we figured renting a Tesla would be the next best thing, and certainly faster.

The Tesla’s satnav insisted we travel from Idaho’s capital city to Ketchum via Interstate Highway 84. This long way round routing was so we could replenish at Tesla Supercharger stations. Ignoring the nagging—but kickstarting some range anxiety—we set the nav for a 195-mile drive via the Ponderosa Pines Scenic Byway, a mountain road lacking any electric car power-ups. In theory, we had a 280-mile range, but would that hold when hill climbing? We’d soon find out.

(We sourced the Tesla on the peer-to-peer car rental service Turo. “Other renters have run out of battery power on freeways,” the owner told us when we handed back the car at the end of the trip. “Getting a battery-dead Tesla on to a tow truck isn’t easy, or cheap.”)

Idaho has 130 soakable hot springs, more than any other state, and we wanted to visit three of the best on this journey, our first experience of driving an electric car, and our introduction to driving on “autopilot,” Tesla’s controversial autonomous driving mode.

An hour after leaving Boise we reached Springs of Idaho City, a luxurious day spa. Springs, built up by hands-on entrepreneur Kurt Gindling, has sulfurous showers, private hot tubs and a “swimming” pool filled from the mountainside. It was too toasty for lengths; even widths were quite the effort. Bobbing—with the aid of a “floatie” or two—seemed to be the do-as-the-Romans-do option.)

“Two-thirds of our clients are older women,” pointed out Gindling. Thanks to sugar-water-filled feeders Springs also attracts hummingbirds. “There’s plenty of feed to go around, but they still fight among themselves,” added the spa’s owner, referring to the flitting of tiny birds, not the seniors, who can choose to be served with salads and smoothies as they languish in the pool.

The hot water that supplies the pool and the private hot tubs—“clothing is optional once you’re out of sight around there,” we were advised with a smile—is therapeutic, asserted Gindling, fetching a minerals testing report from a national lab.

Unlike the geothermal springs in nearby Yellowstone National Park, which are heated by underground magma, Idaho’s hot springs are heated by the colliding tectonic plates of the Idaho Batholith, a thick masse of igneous rock.

When Idaho City was still a gold mining town—it was founded in 1862 but mostly panned out by 1870—an enterprising local undercut the town’s Chinese laundry by washing clothes in the geothermally heated water, Gindling told us. He also claimed that the gold discovered by the area’s first miners—higher in value than the gold found in California’s’ 49er gold rush or the late-1890s Klondike spree—helped swell the Union treasury during the Civil War. This “aided in the preservation of the United States,” states an interpretation panel at the start of the town’s self-guided Bricks and Boardwalks tour.

Back on the road

Refreshed, we left Springs and headed to our first natural hot springs, the pools at Kirkham campground, 40 miles further up the switchbacking highway. Like many other hot springs, these can be detected by a sulfurous smell sometime before they can be seen.

Located at the South Fork of the Payette River, Kirkham’s hot springs can get busy although only a few people were there when we rolled in, silently. The clue that we’d hit the right spot—apart from that trademark sulfur smell—was seeing folks seemingly sat in a raging river. After we’d parked the Tesla—there’s a $5 parking fee—we headed past one (very hot and full) pool and down some wooden steps to locate the first of nine further pools of varying size and water temperature.

Close to the river, warm water drips out of the hillside like a wide shower, the steam from which confounded the camera on my iPhone. Pro-tip: when taking photos under steaming hot springs use an SLR with a waterproof covering.

Climbing to Galena

Another pro-tip, and mentioned below, is to bring towels and robes. We brought neither so had to air dry during an unseasonably cold June day—sprinting to the Tesla we were glad Elon Musk equipped his cars with heated seats. We set ours to three bars each.

But heating burns electricity so how had we done with our use of battery power? Surprisingly well, mainly because we finally figured out what the green lines on the digital dashboard meant. These lines were black when accelerating or climbing, but went to nothing when coasting and then to green when decelerating, braking or descending. Miles eaten up by the clock were miraculously gifted back to us thanks to the Tesla’s regenerative braking, the same sort of dynamo technology that micro-replenishes golf cart batteries.

By descending conservatively, we generated enough mileage of our own making that our range anxiety evaporated. We made it to Ketchum with 30 miles left “in the tank,” enough to reach the final hot springs of our summer road trip. Sadly, the Frenchman’s Bend Hot Spring, about 11 miles out from Ketchum, and between rocky outcrops of the Smoky Mountains in the Sawtooth National Forest, was flooded so the three hot pools we had been heading for were hidden by high water.

Not to worry, Sun Valley Lodge’s outdoor pool, just outside of Ketchum, is kept at a very pleasant 98F, and there’s also the indoor spa. The hotel even has its own Tesla charging point. Perfect.

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PRACTICAL INFORMATION

WHERE TO STAY—AND RECHARGE—IN BOISE

The funky Inn at 500 Capitol boutique hotel is situated in downtown Boise with views over to the state legislature building and offers guests the free use of Electra townie bikes. We parked the car—for free–in the hotel’s valet parking lot because the valets were none too keen on learning how to park a Tesla even though the darn things can park themselves.

Also free—there’s a recurring theme here—are snacks and sodas in reception. Guests also get an alcoholic beverage of choice when checking in.

The nearest Tesla Supercharger is some eight miles away off a freeway ramp. Unlike at many other Supercharger spots, there’s no gourmet coffee shop within walking distance. Grrrr.

WHERE TO STAY—AND RECHARGE—IN KETCHUM

Sun Valley Lodge is a recently renovated ski hotel built in 1936 at the dead-end of a spike from the Union Pacific Railroad—this is now the bike path to Hailey—and it was once the resort of choice of Hollywood stars and others given free accommodation in return for publicity. Ernest Hemingway, who finished For Whom The Bell Tolls in Suite 206, was one such guest. An out of place mention of Sun Valley in this literary classic is evidence of his freebie stay. (He later moved to live in the town, and—not such a good PR story—in 1961 he blew his head off with an English-made Boss 12-gauge shotgun in a house today owned by Ketchum library.)

There’s a school named for him in the town but otherwise, Ketchum makes little of its Hemingway connections, leaving it to others to commemorate him: his grave in the town’s cemetery is usually decorated by fans with half-finished bottles of hard liquor. There’s little else to see in town although on Sun Valley Road there is a memorial bust overlooking one of his favorite river views. This is close to Trail Creek Cabin, where Hemingway spent New Year’s Eve in 1947 with Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman.

Keen Hemingway fans can ask to visit the hotel’s Hemingway Suite. This features a replica of one of the great man’s typewriters, and the room is—roughly—in the original location, but the 2017 renovation saw the hotel’s interior “taken down to the studs,” the resort’s PR manager Kelli Lusk told us on a quick tour. The wood-slatted exterior is still the same although guests are surprised to discover the “wood” is, in fact, artfully colored concrete.

For those who prefer spa comforts to Mother Nature the 20,000-square-foot Sun Valley Spa has a Himalayan Salt Soak where, for 30 minutes, you can lie back in a tub of hot water in which two pounds of exotic salt has been dissolved.

There are two electric car charging points in Sun Valley’s valet parking lot, including a Tesla-specific one. Fill-ups are free. A greener option can be found in town—Ketchum’s Ore Wagon Museum sports solar panels, so the free recharging is from pure sun juice.

EQUIPMENT TO PACK

You can, of course, dip your pinkies to gauge the temperature of hot springs—not a method to be recommended in Yellowstone National Park where many pools are scalding—but true hydrophiles pack a digital meat thermometer then geek out at the temperatures they find. 110F? Wonderful. 125F? Mix with cold water—pack a bucket for this use—or risk being broiled.

Accessing many hot springs requires stepping on and over sharp rocks and into cold pools, or across streams. Flip-flops won’t do: instead, pack water-specific sports shoes.

Towels and toweling robes would also be a good idea because there’s no guarantee that mountain weather, even at the height of summer, will be warm enough for skin and swimwear to air-dry.

WHEN TO GO

Some of Idaho’s hot springs can be visited year-round, but most are best in summer, fall, and winter. Spring snow melts overwhelm many hot springs, diluting heat to nothing. Late snow melts—including the one this year—mean some hot springs may not be worth visiting until late June or early July.

OTHER WAYS OF SPRINGING IT

Don’t want to drive to find these hot springs and more? Ride a bicycle, instead. As well as supported guided tours led by Western Spirit you could organize your own, longer tour. The Adventure Cycling Association unveiled the Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Route in 2014, and intrepid riders can follow a 517-mile route, with the option of adding on a tougher 245-mile extension.

According to the nonprofit, the route guides riders over and through the “breathtaking” landscape of central Idaho:

From blue ribbon trout streams to sub-alpine terrain and cozy mountain towns, riders will pass through some of the most spectacular country the West has to offer, with the opportunity to indulge in the highest concentration of soakable hot springs in North America.”

FURTHER READING

The Complete Guide to Idaho Hot Springs is worth getting. It is out of print but can be found online in the usual places or in secondhand book shops in Boise. Over 312 pages it has detailed listings of hundreds of hot springs, featuring latitude and longitude, seasonality, when first used, and nudity information.

For reaching off-the-beaten tracks hot springs topographical maps—paper or app versions—are advisable.