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Utah hot springs: Crystal Hot Springs and Belmont Hot Springs
Utah has many natural hot springs, mostly in northern Utah, and most have at one time been turned into a resort. Today, however, there are only two springs operating commercially.
In Box Elder County, near Honeyville, is Crystal Hot Springs — a resort that turned 100 years old this year. Located 60 miles north of Salt Lake City, the resort opened in 1901.
Today the 36-acre resort is a year-round destination with hot and cold springs, ranging in temperature from 140 to 52 degrees.
Chinese workers constructing the transcontinental railroad were probably the first to enjoy the hot spring water. A fire destroyed the resort in 1938, but it was rebuilt and today features a large outdoor pool, several hot pools, a water slide and camping.
The namesake of this resort was the crystals formed on rocks by the hot spring water as it gushed out of the mountainside. Indians who knew of the hot springs had some burial grounds near the site. Crystal is billed as the world's largest hot and cold water springs that run side by side — just 50 feet apart.
Today the 52-degree cold spring fills a 300,000-gallon pool, while the 140-degree hot springs fill three hot tubs and a mineral pool and also flow down the 340-foot waterslide. Pool temperatures range from 85 degrees to 112 degrees. The waterslide is the main attraction for teens here. It runs year-round but only weekends in the winter.
Crystal Springs is off I-15 Exit 375. For more information call 801-547-0777.
Belmont Springs is a 600-acre resort with some 50 hot ponds and 71 RV hookups. It also offers scuba diving and is the site of a lobster-raising business. The resort is near the Malad River in Plymouth, about an hours drive north of Salt Lake City.
It has three hot tubs open year-round. One of the hot pools has run-through water that is not recirculated.
The hot springs were discovered in pioneer times, and a pioneer trail passed nearby. Settlers even ended up segregating the hot pools, allowing Indians in one and only whites in another.
The tale of a large wagon being lost in one of the deep hot ponds persisted from pioneer times to a few years ago, when scuba drivers actually found it. The wagon has been removed.
Redclaw lobsters raised in some hot pools are sold worldwide.
The resort is off I-15 Exit 394, near Plymouth. For more information call 435-458-3200.
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