Meadow Hot Springs, Utah

 We recently visited Fillmore, Utah for the Old Capitol Arts and Living History Festival. I knew there were a few things to do around Fillmore that warranted spending more time, so I arranged to drive separately and spend the night. After the kids spent another hour or so at the festival, we left and went  to Meadow Hot Springs, west of nearby Meadow, Utah. The hot springs are listed in Millard County's travel guide, and a quick search on the Internet gave some better driving directions and also a caution that these hot springs have gotten very popular so are often crowded. They are located on private property, but the landowner permits public use.

When we first arrived, we were the only ones there, and a wildfire to the southwest was capturing our attention.

We parked and followed a very rutted road to a lovely-looking spring. From our research, we knew there was a hot spring, warm spring, and cold spring. With no steam rising, I was guessing this was one of the cooler ones, and Desert Boy tested it.

It was warm, so we decided to keep wandering around before we get wet. The wind was blowing, so I knew once we got wet, when we got out we would get chilled.

This warm spring just looked great from so many angles, so I couldn't resist another photo of it!

We headed north and found the cool spring.

It would be perfect for hot summer afternoons. This was a cool, windy fall afternoon, so we headed back to the warm spring.

We had seen other cars arrive and realized that the hot spring was near where we parked. We decided to enjoy the warm spring first, as we had it all to ourselves, plus it's easier to go from warm water to hot water. The kids asked if they could jump in, I gave the okay, and they were flying through the air!

I followed, and soon we were diving below the surface with goggles, trying to find out what was hidden in this hot spring.

It was a lot of fun exploring, and the water felt great.

The kids definitely love the water!

We wrapped up and ran to the hot spring.

The hot spring looked a lot smaller than the photos we had seen showed, and there was no rope across the middle of it. You have to be careful getting in, as there are rocky projections under water. It's about 20 feet deep (according to the Utah dive website, where they talked about diving the spring). It felt great, and we enjoyed it for a bit before a big group arrived.

Here's a view on Google Earth of the Meadow Hot Springs. The yellow thumbtacks indicate the individual springs.


Meadow Hot Springs is close to Meadow, Utah. To get there, from the I-15 Exit, take Utah Highway 133 about 1.5 miles south, and turn west on an unmarked gravel road (it had flagging on it when we were there). If this road goes over the interstate, you're on the right road. It's five miles from the turn off to the hot spring. Please don't leave trash and respect the spring so that it can stay open!

We had been warned that there might be a lot of garbage in the area, but fortunately it was clean. After our soaking, we left a donation in one of the canisters, and then headed out for our next adventure.