Lava Hot Springs
is a city in Bannock County, Idaho, United
States. It is part of the 'Pocatello,
Idaho Metropolitan Statistical Area'. The
population was 521 at the 2000 census. Located in the mountainous
valley of the Portneuf River on the old route of the Oregon
Trail and California Trail, the city has become a popular
resort location, noted for its numerous hot springs
amenable to bathing and a turbulent inner tube run through part of the town.
After a busy day of boating on Bear Lake and a sleepy warm drive
to Lava Hot Springs, we were in the mood for some pizza for dinner. Armed with
some good recommendations from the staff at our KOA and a local shop we popped
into The Royal Pizza Parlor for the famous lava stone cooked pizza. The pizza
was VERY very tasty! The real highlight of this pizza is the amazingly thin and
crisp crust all topped with a perfect amount of toppings. The slice of lemon
that they serve with your pizza is a nice addition. After dinner, we went to
the local deli that has a huge selection of candy and ice cream. DaddyJ
enjoyed some pralines and cream, CubJ some huckleberry and SparkJ had birthday
cake ice cream.
Since there is a massive fire ban due to the extremely dry
conditions in both Lava Hot Springs and Bear Lake, when we returned to our KOA,
we enjoyed a family game night instead of our usual reading around the fire. We
started the night out with a National Parks Yatzee 4J’s tournament. SparkJ won
the night in a tight match with only 5 points separating the winner from fourth
place! After that DaddyJ and I showed the kids how to play checkers. I confess that
after getting off to an overly confident start, I failed to keep a good eye on
what DaddyJ was up to and lost horribly. Perhaps it was good for the kids to
see how being over confident can lead to trouble, LOL. To end the evening, the
kids entertained themselves with their own Tic-Tac-Toe tournament. CubJ was
victorious.
This is a very interesting KOA. They have some sites that are down
in a lovely section of large trees beside the river. Then, they have the new section where the
regular Kozy Kabin’s and several tent/motor home sites are just off the highway
and below the train tracks. The highlight of this section is that it is beside
the brand new, very deluxe washrooms, laundry and outdoor kitchen. The family
that runs this KOA has had a stroke of genius and made seven large bathrooms
inside of the wash house. Each one has basin sinks on granite countertops,
fresh tile floors and large walk in showers! I assure you that these washrooms
are nicer than many a mid-range hotel room.
While the many trains (seven to nine each of the three days) that
pass by were more than we expected from the listed “occasional train” and the
shock of being directly off/below the highway were not our favourite it was
overall a good KOA stay. Had I know that we would be in the new few trees,
highway brakes of big rigs section at the time of booking, I would have sprung
for one of the fancy lodges (they have a kitchen, eating area and washroom in
addition to beds) that have a FANTASTIC deck looking over the river. Sadly, we
were not able to move into one during our stay despite the staffs efforts, as
they were already rented both of our nights.
What really rounded out the Lava Hot Springs KOA was the
cleanliness of the whole campground, the friendliness of all of the staff, the
involved owners taking the time to greet guests, the fresh new kozy kabin
complete with air conditioning and the fantastic shower facilities for cleaning
up after a day on the river. So all in all, if you are in Lava Hot Springs, stay
at this KOA in the older section and use that outstanding upper washhouse!
Butterfly, that is what our rented four person river tube looked
like! We had a fantastic time on the river. One starts out entering the river
at a rather calm point at the park. The ride begins with a small section of
bumps and gushes leading into some little lulls that pull you along lulling you
into a dreamy state. Then you are off on
a small turn where a camp ground over looks you and occasionally some good
humoured campers wipe out a garden hose and spray you into a faster section! It
was like the real life version of using the water guns on the bumper boat
riders at Calaway Park. After that, you start heading into the channels when
some of the Hot Spring water floods into the river. This has the advantage of
warming up the water further while speeding up your ride. This is where the laughs
really begin! After that there are some good gushes of water and slow patches
to catch your breath. It is a fantastic ten minute ride DOWN THE RIVER, dunt
dunt dun.
After you exit the river, you have a short walk over a few blocks
back to the starting point. This proved ideal for our needs as we would only
have CubJ in his cast cover for a total of 45 minutes a session. The risk after
that is that it can cause vascular damage. Think of this thing a giant vinyl
oven mitt that you pry his arm into, then suck the air out of and can immerse him
in water for a tonne of fun. With the ten minutes on the water, followed the
walk back, we were able to get in six runs in two hours!
Following our first set of six we headed into the official Lava
Hot Springs centre. This could be the most lovely hot springs set up I have
been to. They have five pools all graduated in temperature. Unlike the Jasper
Hot Springs, there are no cold ones. The temperatures range from 110˚f down to 102˚f,
in stone pools that are shaded in sections. Some of the pools even have small
pebble bottoms that feel fantastic on the feet. This was a great way to spend a
few hours relaxing and giving CubJ’s arm a break before heading back to the
river.
We then enjoyed two more hours running the river on our tube. The
hardest part of the whole thing is negotiating your exit from the river which
is NOT a graceful thing! To end our fun day on the water, we headed back to the
hot springs to relax. What a FANTASTIC new activity taking tube on the riverin
Lava Hot Springs was.
We spent our evening relaxing after a shower, gorging ourselves on
dinner, another rousing family game night and a movie on the iPad in bed for
the LittleJ’s! SparkJ was once again the winner of our National Park’s Yatzee game
and CubJ the winner of the Tic-Tac-Toe tournament. The littleJ’s laid on the
big bed and watched Toy Story three laughing together until all the fresh air
and river fun had them sawing logs in the little log kozy kabin!
I can honestly say that our time in Lava Hot Springs was fun. I
would defiantly recommend spending a day on a tube in the river and soaking in
the hot springs to anyone in the area. Thanks for all for the laughs trying out
a new activity, the yummy pizza and the fun family game tournament memories.
With the three big legs of our journey over, we would be heading back to Great Falls via the Helena IHOP the following morning.
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