Today I am introducing a new series entitled “Why I Love the West”.

The American West is the ultimate destination for extreme budget travelers.  Besides the cost of a car and fuel, you can learn to scrape by on practically nothing with free camp spots and plenty of no cost sights to keep you entertained such as hot springs, hiking trails, super strange desert art, and loads of bizarre-o geology.  Not too mention some relatively low cost sights like national parks, small town diners that serve up a cheap yet mean breakfast, and happy hours at western bars that feature ridiculously large, cheap drinks, and a cast of eccentric regulars.

The Poolside Bar at Norris Hot Springs

I am totally obsessed with natural hot springs.  Utah, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and Eastern California are geothermally active gold mines for naturally occurring hot water springs.  Plus the peculiarities of the west usually manifest themselves well at these springs.  Visiting any hot springs in the west comes with two warnings – make sure you test the temperature before entering the spring (temps can be too hot sometimes and boil your foot right off) and be prepared to see any number of bizarre happenings (naked old people, hippies engaged in energy work, and ancient healing rituals).

Lowers Pools at Fifth Water Springs Utah

The Upper Pool at Fifth Water Hot Springs

My favorite hot springs are those found near rivers.  The moving water keeps the springs clean and you get the option of dipping in the cool water when you get too hot. The river is usually damned off by rocks to create little pools and in some cases pools are built into the bank of the river with rocks and cement.  My absolute favorite hot spring is located about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City – Fifth Water Springs. A 2.5-mile hike takes you to a series of hot springs with a gorgeous waterfall backdrop.

Beware the stagnant pool, many springs are simply holes in the ground with water piped in from the source – such as South Canyon Hot Springs Colorado.  Conditions often times vary in these springs and are dependent on the amount of work put in by the unofficial springs caretaker.  Nevada and eastern California have a ton of these types of pools and some are amazing and some are darn right disgusting.

South Canyon Hot Springs in Colorado

I spent the last weekend in Montana and found the cutest little commercial hot spring just west of Bozeman. Norris Hot Springs was super clean, the perfect temperature for winter soaking, only $5 to enter, and had a poolside bar offering up a good selection of microbrews, local wines, and even mimosas.  The hot spring also has live folk, bluegrass, and Americana music every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night.

Enjoying Mimosas Poolside at Norris Hot Springs

Check out Soak for some information about hot springs found all over the west.  It is not the most user friendly website but it will help you locate springs all over the US and then you can scour the web for more detailed information.

Penny Hot Springs Near Carbondale, Colorado

Just got back from a weekend trip to Goblin Valley in Southern Utah.  Goblin Valley is near the San Rafael Swell, a crazy geological feature located in south-central Utah.  The Swell is a huge upfolding of sandstone and shale that supposedly has similar features to Mars.

Winding Through Little Wildhorse Canyon

The greatest things about the Swell is that over the last million years or so numerous flash floods have eroded the weaker layers and carved out a ton of slot canyons and crazy looking rock formations.  The bummer part of the swell is that it is “managed” by the Bureau of Land Management meaning that the area has no wilderness protection so it is being torn up by ATVs and oil diggers.  The area was proposed to receive National Monument status but GW Bush never acted on the proposal.

Environmentalism aside, there is something about all that wide open space and bizarre-o rock formations that just makes you want to dance.

We spent the morning dancing from rock to rock and then met up with some friends from Salt Lake and explored Little Wild Horse Canyon, a popular beginner slot canyon just a few miles from the entrance to Goblin Valley State Park, while trying to conserve our energy for our go at the Goblin Valley Trail Race the next morning.  I tend to travel to beautiful places for trail races and utterly tire myself out by race morning.

Posing in the Narrow Slots of Little Wildhorse Canyon

A barely above freezing desert morning inspired me to run faster than I have ever run before simply to warm myself up.  I managed to maintain that pace until I puked up candy corn a mile before the finish.  The Halloween themed race had fully stocked bowls of candy corn at all their aid stations and I regretfully grabbed a handful at the last station.  I am not really one for setting race day goals, but I really want to finish a race smiling and I thought this might be the one…

Happy to Have Finished the Goblin Valley Race

Running Through the Spooky Formations in Goblin Valley

Dancing in the Desert

]]> http://dirtbagwriter.com/2009/10/running-and-dancing-with-goblins/feed/ 3 http://dirtbagwriter.com/2009/09/new-beginnings-weary-eyed-intern/ http://dirtbagwriter.com/2009/09/new-beginnings-weary-eyed-intern/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:01:09 +0000 Writer http://dirtbagwriter.com/?p=345

Started my internship today weary and googly-eyed – I must have looked like I slept in my car last night. It would have been nice to get to town a few days before but I somehow couldn’t manage. Quite simply, I didn’t want go. Leaving Salt Lake and all my lovely ones was way harder than I could have imagined – it actually made me physically ill. I waited until late Sunday afternoon and then packed up Ruby, drove 6-hours, and crashed in a wayside all scrunched up in my backseat.

I am starting to wonder if my dirtbag days have sailed. I woke about 5 times in the back of Rubes because of various leg cramps and rain drops somehow managing to squeeze through the window crack and drip precisely onto the center of my forehead. Then as I tried to get the window up I managed to set off my car alarm disturbing all the other wayside sleepers.

I felt like I was getting too comfortable with comforts. I guess that might be my best reason for leaving.  But now I am wondering what the hell is wrong with comforts. I guess there is only something wrong if your need for comfort gets in the way of being brave and following your dreams.

Full of doubt today for sure – and wondering if I simply traded one office job for another. Starting a new ‘job’ is always so awkward and weird. It is like you want to look busy but you really have nothing to do and you fill your water bottle from the bathroom sink because you don’t want to disturb the super busy looking people with yet another seemingly unimportant question. Trying to stay positive and trust that I will take away valuable things from interning and living outside of my comfort areas but sometimes it just plain sucks.

I wake slowly with my feet dangling out of the back of the car.  It takes me a few moments to recall where I am after digging myself out of the stack of pillows and blankets I had piled over my head to hide from the rising high altitude sun.  I reach for my glasses and see that I had parked the car at a perfect angle last night.  Sweeping views of the distant Wind River Range are framed perfectly in my open-aired bedroom window – my Subaru hatch.

I rise and take in the incredibly fresh air, a welcome relief since California fires have yet again made the air in Salt Lake totally suffocating.  Another layer is a must this morning as the wind whips wildly across the Wyoming plains.  I make lunch and stuff my climbing pack full for the days adventure.

I simply reheat my leftover coffee from the night before like I so often do as my thoughts drift back a few years to my first morning waking up in Ruby and to frozen solid coffee. It was Christmas Eve morning and a whim the night before had sent me packing up the new Subaru and heading south to the red rock desert of Southern Utah.  Just days old I had already affectionately coined her Ruby and was trying not to obsess over the fact that I simply could not afford such an impulse adoption.

Uncertainties with school and relationships had left me longing for the calming comfort of the red rock desert. Having never traveled to or camped in the desert alone – I was scared yet determined.  I wanted a different life.

Tired and weary from too many thoughts, I found a campsite along the Colorado River and crawled into the back of my new wagon.  I put on my hat and gloves and crawled into my not-made-for-winter sleeping bag.  As the heat dissipated from the car, I wedged a few extra blankets around the bag and looked forward to morning.  Amazingly, I slept better than I had in months.

The sun didn’t rise over the tall sandstone cliffs until late morning.  I crawled to the front seat, turned the key, and watched the thermostat read a chilly 17 degrees.  I craved a sip of my coffee from the night before but it was frozen solid.  I started the car and headed off towards town in search of a warm brew.

I was not one to have a car define me but Ruby propelled me into something new.  I spent that day hiking and discovering the Needles, now my most favorite place on Earth. I grieved my past and recent losses while wandering through the most beautiful landscape I had ever seen.  Although my new life was not yet apparent I was curious and couldn’t wait to see what was in store.

Now just two yeas later me and Rubes have already shared a lifetime of experiences together. I shed my pack, crack open a Pabst, and hop on her back to watch the late sun cast all sorts of colors on the Winds.  The ice-cold beer soothes my fingers that have been shred to pieces by the sharp limestone of Wild Iris and then the full moon rises and soothes something deep inside me.  I retreat to the tent tonight and whisper goodnight to Ruby and thank her quietly for all the adventures and bravery she has inspired in me.