Mystic Hot Springs, Utah - 07.16.22

I pulled out of Colorado a couple of days ago for the Utah segment of the haul. I picked a location on the map that was put in my ear long ago and now it is time.

Running through the canyon lands is just beautiful. I was squirming to stop and crawl around the rocks but I have way too many miles ahead of me and it’s the middle of July so another time. I just drove fast through with a lot of “wows.” Not the normal wow… but “wooooooowwwww (inhale) oooowwwwwww”

When I made it to I-70 I turned West and have never been through this part of Utah. They say if you’re seeing nothing then you’re not looking. Welp… there’s a whole lotta nothing and “they” have never been on I-70 west through Utah.

I did stop to get water out of snack cooler #2 and have a wee on nature at the San Rafael Swell Reef look out pull off. Lovely stuff… I guess “they” are right. I took my “Durango” adventure pic and stretched my legs and kept murmuring “man, it’s hotttt…” A cutie young couple was tiptoeing towards me from the parking lot. When I reached them, the young bloke said “sir, is there any poisonous serpents here we should look out for?” For the life of me, at that moment, the word “serpent” would not register. An image of a scorpion came to mind. Then “awwww, snakes!!” I said “no… it’s the heat of the day and just don’t put your hands under any rocks” they thanked me and tiptoed past.

I figured they asked me cuz I look like a ‘Durango.’ “Durango, man child of the desert!!” The reality was that I thought… “I don’t actually know fck all, and I don’t know if any poisonous serpents are here.” I hike at dusk alone in mountain lion country, walk face first into thunderstorms, and drive POS jeeps into unknown jungles in Central America by myself without alerting anyone to where I’m going. I’m not sure I should be in charge of the safety of the youth of America. Anybloop, I’m sure they made it back, serpent bite free.

“Serpents?!?” too rich… I am heading into Latter Day Saints region. Take a peek at story from 2021 in Idaho Falls and my experience with the LDS Inn and me taking some LDS.

Anysoup, i finally landed at my destination for the evening. Mystic Hot Springs. Smack in the middle of Utah farm and country… and the country folks that reside there. The flag waving kind of folks. Mystic is known for their springs and hippie school bus stays. I love experience and it’s an experience staying in a hippie bus (even though I stayed in one just the night before). Mine was called “Nature” and had a whale painted on it. Groovy.

Really… it’s just too hot for doing much. No Hot springing, no hiking, no smiling… just heat. Anyone walking around smiling in the heat, has likely just exited the marble simposium and left all of their marbles behind.

I grabbed some snacks at the local drive-through… total small town with adorable farmer teens walking out to take your order by hand. I asked the young gent what I should get and he pointed his face towards the sky and thought about it… (six seconds, seven, eight and nine…) “a double!!!” he said. And I said “then that’s what I’ll have” and he looked quite proud to have assisted, and that made me happy, and the double was perfect and tasty and I’d hire him any day to be my snack consultant.

The bus/camp/mobile home park was… was… was an experience. I very much liked it and would go back but it was a little more “carnie” than “hippie” just say’n. I found out that the cost of the bus did not include a soak, which completely annoyed me. So… I went to the free one, Red Hill Hot Springs down the road. It was filled with very vocal humans and it was just to warm out so I hiked around with my ‘lost all my marbles at the marble symposium” grin and took pics and kicked around the red dirt.

There was a band in the evening and I enjoyed that and meeting a few folks and was exhausted and snored like nobody’s business in my whale bus.

I did book a morning soak because I will pay up for hot springs experience (with the exception of Glenwood Springs, eff you guys! See story on Grand Mesa Oct 2020). As I waited for my morning soak time, I read the graffiti inside my bus and thought of the Chris McCandless story and being very alone with one’s thoughts. Pensive moment…

Then! Then! 8:30am struck and time to soak!!! My earlier annoyance of having to pay for a separate timed soaked was quickly diluted when I understood that I would not be with the ‘general population’ of carnies and inmates in the springs area. I had most of the pools/tubs to myself most of the time. I came across only six others during my entire soak. Spring fed claw foot tubs on the hill were all kinds of cool.

I can’t remember who it was that told me about the place but they insisted I had to go and I now can confirm that I needed to be here. I plopped from tub to tub until I found the right one and then finally… zen. Cleared my head, a mindful moment of enjoying life for no other reason than to just be alive. I lost track of time and space… and my name… am I Durango or Thaddeus? …doesn’t matter. It’s a profound moment… and such things are irrelevant. Just be.

#OgdenUtahNext

#JustBe

#GeneralPopulation