Taking the Kids: Visiting a hot springs

The Native Americans got it right. So did the down-and-outers making their way across the country in search of jobs during the Great Depression.

Native Americans have known the benefits of mineral hot springs for thousands of years. They named this area of Wyoming— now the tiny town of Saratoga, just three hours from Denver — the “place of magic waters.”

Centuries later, pioneers, and then traveling itinerant workers during the Depression, would stop to soak their aching feet and clean up. Thus, the ignominious name Hobo Hot Springs. Today, these pools are free and open 24 hours a day with the Saratoga Hot Pool water temperature ranging from 101 to 110 degrees.

“We go and soak and then jump in the freezing (North Platte) river and keep doing that,” said Sean Hightower, working as a wrangler at the nearby Medicine Bow Lodge & Adventure Guest Ranch.

Before white settlers moved to southern Wyoming in the late 19th century, the land around the natural hot springs was neutral ground between Native American tribes who frequented this area for the healing waters.

Nearby, Saratoga Hot Springs Resort, just 50 rooms, first opened some 145 years ago as a log store and today is considered the state’s premier mineral hot springs.

“I think it is one of the best hot springs destinations,” said one visitor from Denver, who has visited m any hot spring s in Colorado and elsewhere. Besides the large pool, there are individual teepees over smaller pools for soaking, as well as a spa. The hotel was first built in 1884 but after it burned down, the state of Wyoming established the Saratoga Hot Springs State Reserve (50 cents a dip!). It was rebuilt in 1950. With new owners in 2008, it transitioned to a four-season resort. There is a craft brewery next door ideal for dinner.

The state has more than 1,300 hot springs, most in Yellowstone National Park that can be seen, but are not for soaking. (Here are eight good Wyoming options, including Hot Springs State Park in Thermapolis.)

Hot springs and hot springs resorts seem to be having a moment. The U.S. is home to more than 1,600 hot springs sites, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There are more than 250 developed hot springs in the U.S., according to Hot Springs of America. (You can search based on location.) Hot springs properties are adding more wellness options (think massage or mud baths, for example), as well as renovation and expansion, according to Jessica Meath, executive director of Hot Springs of America. As Native Americans knew, soaking in mineral-rich hot springs can help many ailments from joint pain to anxiety and more.

A growing number are kid friendly, particularly in Colorado. Glenwood Hot Springs Resort has a Sopris Splash Zone with mini water slides and a Shoshone Chutes open-air tube ride. The resort has more than seven expansive pools on the property, including the original historic pool which is the “world’s largest hot springs pool” that has been drawing visitors from all over the world since 1888. The just opened new pools provide five different soaking experiences at varying temperatures, including cold water therapy pool.

Also in Glenwood Springs, the 16 geothermal pools on Iron Mountain Hot Springs’ legacy side, are now a National Natural Landmark.

Mount Princeton Hot Springs Resort in Nathrop, Colorado, has just opened new double waterslides, winding their way down from an elevation of 8,250 feet.

Located in downtown Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Old Town Hot Springs offers hot springs-fed pools, two waterslides, a climbing wall and a fitness center. The swimming and soaking pools of Old Town Hot Springs served as a gathering and bathing place for the Ute Indians who first settled in the area. In the late 1800s, it was a social spot for the early homesteaders. We have loved visiting Strawberry Park Hot Springs outside of town (get reservations!). It’s in a wilderness setting. You can stay in a rustic cabin, a covered wagon or even a train caboose complete with bathroom, solar lights and more. There is camping in the summer.

The Colorado Historic Hot Springs Loop showcases 23 of the state’s premier hot springs.

Idaho boasts 120 soakable hot springs, likely more than any other state, from developed to natural and riverside to mountainside. Lava Hot Springs has an aquatic center with kid-friendly slides. Stay in a Conestoga wagon at Downata Hot Springs. Check out the zipline at Heise Hot Springs where animals as well as Native Americans soaked to alleviate their ills.

You can soak within national parks. Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort, within Olympic National Park, offers rustic cabins.

Of course, many offer full resort amenities. The Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia, has a big water play area complete with a big family pool, two water slides, lazy river water play zone and more. (Nights this summer offer discounts, and kids may eat free.)

We’ve loved our visits to the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn in California, just an hour north of San Francisco, where all of the pools at the spa and the resort are mineral pools. (Water yoga, anyone?) It proved to be a great getaway with an adult daughter. Take your pick of more than 50 treatments, including individual mineral baths, mud wraps, body scrub and more. The historic hotel sits atop an ancient thermal mineral spring boasting five naturally heated geothermal mineral pools for year-round enjoyment. (Save up to 25 percent with the Endless Summer Memories package.)

I’d also like to return to Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Resort and Spa, about an hour outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, another good bet for teens or grown kids. (Kids 12 and under are only welcome in the large pool.) Ojo Caliente is one of the nation’s oldest health spas and one of the only hot springs resorts with four healing minerals: Arsenic, Lithia, soda, and iron. I especially loved the private outdoor tub with its own Kiva fireplace. Take your pick of a suite with your own soaking tub, a historic hotel, cottages or even a vintage trailer.

“It’s the perfect (family) set up,” said Erica Galvez, spending the weekend at the Saratoga Hot Springs Resort with her husband and four kids from Cheyenne, Wyoming. “Even if the air is cold, the water is warm. The kids love it.”

Grown-ups, too.

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(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The fourth edition of The Kid’s Guide to New York City and the third edition of The Kid’s Guide to Washington D.C. are the latest in a series of 14 books for kid travelers published by Eileen.)