Goldbug Hot Springs Trailhead

The trailhead for Goldbug Hot Springs sits at the end of a county road, 0.3 miles east of Highway 93 just south of the community of Elk Bend. The Bureau of Land Management, which manages the site from its Salmon Field Office, puts it 23 miles south of Salmon. A 2014 column in the Post Register says about 20. The first quarter mile of trail crosses private property on a public easement, and dogs go on leash until the land is passed. There is no fee.

The Post Register column puts the walk at a little more than 2 miles. About a mile up, between the second and third bridges, there is a developed pit toilet near a cluster of campsites. The writer found a good site just past the third bridge and warned that the camps are well used and that everything carried in should be carried out. Above that, the last half mile up the canyon turns steep, and in places it is loose and slippery. The writer gave two signs of arrival: the fourth bridge crossing and steam rising from the pools.

The pools are large and clear, constantly refreshed by incoming warm water. A cold creek runs close by. In spring its runoff turns it murky, and it can flood some of the hot pools with cold water. For that reason the columnist judged fall and winter the better seasons, or a cold summer night. Because the hike is moderate, he wrote, a visitor has little chance of having the springs alone, especially on weekends. He also warned that almost all backcountry hot springs are clothing optional.

He came up on a Friday in May 2014 with two other adults and two boys, reaching the trailhead close to 7 p.m. They made camp a mile in, ate dinner, and climbed the canyon by headlamp to find college students from Missoula, Montana, already in the water. By morning those students had gone. The party sat knee-deep in the semi-hot water, and the writer looked around at the others.

“Something about sitting in a wild hot spring brings a grin to your face,” he said.