Our Cabin: 2000

2008

The best natural hot springs in the world! Strawberry Park Hot Springs, outside Steamboat, is one of the many reasons we wanted to build here. We've been coming here since 1985, when you paid by depositing the money in a tin can nailed to a post, and there were no improvements.

The hot water comes out a little ways up the hillside, at something like 180 degrees, and flows down where it is mixed with cool water from the creek to achieve a good soaking temperature for the pools.

The owner has made many improvements since then, and they have been brilliant. He's kept everything natural and rustic and befitting this idyllic mountain setting. No lighting. A real teepee for changing since suits are now required during daylight hours. Even a hot waterfall... best massage you've ever had, sitting on a rock under a hot waterfall! The pictures below say it best.

Back in the day, when the last two miles of road weren't plowed and you had to ski in, we rented the cabin overlooking these hot pools for a couple of nights. You basically had this paradise to yourself, especially in the evenings, back then because nobody ventured out this far on skis at night.

So, we were cooking up some dinner one night (you had to pack everything in and out... on skis), after dark, and we heard some rumbling, and then saw two huge lights about eight feet off the ground and eight feet apart... coming at us!

It turned out to be a Snow Cat (a snow grooming machine for ski slopes) bringing tourists in for a dip in the hot water. It rumbled to a stop right below us, and just above the steaming hot pools. A hatch on the side of the vehicle opened upwards, and a line of folks with towels in hand came streaming out and down to the pools... enveloped in wisps of steam. Wow... dinner theater!

Ray Bradbury couldn't make this stuff up. All alone at night... we thought. Cold and snowy. Steam rising up to the starlit sky. No lights but for the stars. Stillness, except for the rushing water below.

After getting his wards situated and started with their soak, the driver and tour operator came over to say hi to us. He stuck out his hand and said... I'm not making this up... he said "Hello, my name is Jupiter Jones."

Back in the day, though the place was not yet improved, you could rent a little cabin overlooking the hot springs, and have the place mostly to yourself during the winter. One year, we got all geared up and loaded down with our supplies, only to discover they had started plowing the road. Yes!

But still, you didn't want to get caught in there after a heavy snow, or you might be in there for longer than you had wished. The 'road' is dirt... rutted, narrow, and plowed whenever they get to it. And there is a very steep hill at the end, leading down to the parking area above the pools... 25% steep! 25% steep going UP on the way out, as well! On a clear, dry, summer day, Jan's old blue Volvo still needed a bit of a rev up the hill to get out of there. In winter... well, we had chains, but didn't go to the hot springs if we thought we'd need them.

One night we stayed in quite a while, and it had been snowing lightly, but we had the chains already on the old Volvo, so we weren't too worried. And I mean OLD Volvo... about 20 years old with 300,000 miles on it. We finally got out and trudged up to the parking lot, and happened on what looked like an episode of Ice Road Truckers!

Brand new 4 Wheel Drive vehicles were getting almost to the top of the hill and sliding right back down, 4 wheels spinning. They would slide back down, sometimes sideways or backwards, and try again. It was rather comical, at least to us.

We calmly got in our 20 year old Volvo and crawled right out of there!

Well, we did stop at the top and shovel some sand around to help all these folks get their nice, expensive, 4 Wheel Drive vehicles out of there. And we really did try not to act smug!

Old Blue became legend. It really did... we subsequently heard people telling about that old blue Volvo that helped all those powerful new cars get out of there.

And herewith, perhaps our favorite story from our countless visits to Strawberry Hot Springs. It was a night in January, snowing, and well below zero, sometime after midnight. There were maybe fifty or so people spread around in the various hot pools, soaking and softly talking. A rather sedate bunch, except for a group of young men having some beers and a good time...they weren't terribly rowdy, but they weren't there for meditation either.

There used to be a beautiful, huge, evergreen tree right beside the hot water at the west end of the pools. The steam would rise up into the branches of the tree and then freeze, over and over, all winter. Rather spectacular with the steam rising up through the branches, and the starlight playing on the snow and ice.

The creek and hot pools are nestled down in a little valley, with hills and trees all around. So, on this night, it wasn't until about midnight that the full moon made it up over the trees to the east. And shone on this evergreen tree.

Absolute silence!

A million rainbows danced around a million icicles.

Even the young men with the beer became silent, all eyes on this magnificent show.

Wow. Just wow!

2007

The waterfall is hot water from the hot pool above. There's a rock under there you can sit on, and get an incredible hot water massage on you neck and shoulders. Or you can sit behind the waterfall for an unbeatable steam room experience. Or you can take photos of your three favorite girls...