BALNEOLOGY: THE practice of using natural mineral spring/water for the treatment and cure of disease.
If you’ve ever spent time in an outdoor hot tub at night under the stars – with the jets off – experiencing the soothing warmth of very warm water, a cool breeze caressing your face, breathing clean crisp air, all under the majesty of a starlit sky, you will have come close to understanding what it is like to bathe in a natural hot spring.
My love of the natural hot spring experience began in 1989 when my husband and I quit our jobs and embarked on a year and a half adventure armed with a first edition copy of Bill Kaysing’s book, Great Hot Springs of the West. We set out in our Toyota Forerunner with our mountain bikes, canoe, and my Atari ST home computer. Our mission was to take the Alcan highway west and north through the US and Canada to Alaska, hitting as many hot springs as possible. We planned to take 3 months to do this, and then take the Inside Passage back to Seattle in time to fly home and get married on October 2, 1988.
Our first stop was Yellowstone National Park, home of the geyser, Old Faithful, and hundreds of other types of hot springs, mud pots, and things that bubble and boil. Those are all examples of water types you don’t hop into. However, Boiling River Hot Springs, located by the Mammoth Hot Springs entrance to the park, is a perfect example of those you do.
Nowadays, the National Park Service has a webpage inviting visitors to “Swim and Soak.” Back when we were on our adventure, all we had was our hot springs book guiding us to look for a certain parking pull-off and trail “to the left.” As the park describes it, Boiling River is where thermal waters mix with the Gardner River near Mammoth Hot Springs. Now, soaking is only permitted during designated hours and clothing is required. Here, like many federally or state-owned springs, there are now warnings about organisms that can enter your body through your nose and mouth.
Back in the days of our adventure, natural hot springs were a free for all – and many participants were “all free.” As we wound our way through the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon Territories, the Northwest Territories, and Alaska, we stopped at dozens of sites, guided by the GPS data and maps from Kaysing’s book.
We quickly devised a rating system based on four main principles:
- Was the spring developed or natural? We almost always spurned the former as the outdoor aesthetic was usually destroyed and we were dirt poor.
- Was the depth of the pool deep enough to keep us warm? We left on our adventure in July and drove north to Alaska where we had snow on the ground in August. With the surrounding air temperature quickly plummeting, we needed to be submerged from the neck down. However, we weren’t opposed to lying on our backs under shallow water to achieve this goal.
- What was the clarity of the spring? Some sites have beautiful large water features, like Boiling River at Yellowstone. However, many are just smallish, cloudy, questionable-looking pools that even the most enthusiastic lovebirds would think twice about entering.
- What were the crowds like? In the evening, these sites can get pretty crowded, usually with a lot of partying, naked people. We didn’t mind a few of these, but too many and our quiet bath with Mother Earth would be destroyed.
With these criteria in our pocket, we had a glorious time, back then and throughout the thirty-one years we have been married since, as we have continued our quest to visit hot springs around the world. Over the years, as our means have improved, we’ve sampled some of the great spa towns produced by early European settlers in our country – like Hot Springs, Arkansas and Palm Springs, California, and in other countries, like Saturnia, Italy, Tabacon, Costa Rica, and Budapest, Hungary, the latter of which is where this post is being written.
The “taking of waters” as a health cure has been a practice used for bathing since the Bronze Age – about 5000 years ago. It is evident in all of the ancient cultures, Egyptian, Roman, Greeks, Turkish, and Middle Eastern. The different water qualities, mineral compositions, and temperatures advertised through the ages for soaking or ingesting have been used to promote health to humans since the beginning of time.
In the United States, a “back to nature movement” has fostered a renewed interest in these natural places, though the concept of “spa” has come to include other healthful practices, like yoga and meditation and not just soaking in primitive, undeveloped, hot mineral springs.
According to NOAA, there are over 115 major geothermal spas in the USA and many more smaller ones, along with thousands of hot springs. The majority of these are located in the volcanic regions of the Western United States.
From a Western medicine perspective, there are no sizable double-blind studies proving the health effectiveness of these water features – if there were, insurance and pharmaceutical companies would find a way to exploit these natural remedies. Failing reproducible, laboratory proof, where does the evidence lie for the popularity of their healing?
Much could be written about this – and has been. I contend that soaking your body in warm water, surrounded by the bounty and beauty of Mother Nature is good for our bodies and our brains, and that the connection between the two contains a symbiotic healing cycle. When we feel good, our health is better. When our muscles and bones and aches and pains – and whatever else ails us – is tended to in a luxurious soak in a natural hot spring, hot tub, or bath tub, We FEEL BETTER. Feeling better produces all kinds of happy chemicals in our body that can help to heal whatever ails us.
If the travels in your life take you out west, down south, or to another country, Google the area you are visiting to see if there are any natural hot springs. Try to visit one. At a minimum, you will have fun trying to find it and see something new in the process – probably a beautiful natural setting, down some back road, and then farther down a meandering path. You may see a sign, or a cluster of cars, or a few naked soakers. Once, we saw Big Horned Sheep on the side of the path to our destination – and I mean RIGHT on the side of the path. Prepared to be surprised and delighted, and enjoy!