{"id":20700,"date":"2025-03-20T22:28:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T02:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/?p=20700"},"modified":"2025-03-21T10:37:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T14:37:47","slug":"chico-hot-springs-pine-creek-falls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/chico-hot-springs-pine-creek-falls\/","title":{"rendered":"Chico Hot Springs & Pine Creek Falls"},"content":{"rendered":"
Position: 45\u00b020’16.6″N 110\u00b041’31.5″W<\/a><\/h6>\n

\"2025-03<\/a><\/p>\n

Chico Hot Springs Hotel has been in continuous service since 1900. Its white clapboard and green trim has catered to legions of holiday-makers and celebrities. Actor Jeff Bridges met his wife, Susan, there 50 years ago. Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw were guests. So were we. It is a damn pleasant place to spend a few hours.<\/p>\n

Overnight stays are cramped in an early 20th<\/sup> century way. The small rooms are functional. Beds are “full” sized, i.e. a good foot narrower than a queen. The brass bedsteads keep you from falling out the top or bottom in case of an earthquake. About a quarter of the rooms have an en suite bathroom with a shower and a toilet. For the rest, it\u2019s a trip down the hall to a shared facility.<\/p>\n

Did I mention that the hotel is on the National Register for Historic Places? There are many such hotels and buildings in America. If you have a chance to stay in one, you should. Aside from bragging rights, you catch a glimpse of a bygone culture. A more community-oriented one. One where no one had very much and the opportunity to use an indoor lavatory was considered a luxury. Some of the places that fit these criteria, and that we recommend, include the Crater Lake Lodge<\/a>, Timberline Lodge<\/a>, and Chico Hot Springs Hotel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Plunge<\/h6>\n

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Chico\u2019s main event is its Olympic-sized soaking pool fed by natural geothermal hot springs. Temperature in the large pool, known as \u2018The Plunge\u2019, is a human 96F. The small pool is a little warmer at 106F. The restorative waters are flushed out and refilled each day. The Plunge used to have a rounded wooden roof covering it. Back in 1957 the roof suddenly collapsed and injured two swimmers. Given there were 70 people in the pool at the time, it could have been much worse. The roof was never replaced and that\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n

Transitioning out of your clothes and wading into the pool is a little chilly this time of year. Warmth rises from your feet to your knees as you step in. Soon you flop down and, buoyed by the mineral-rich water, you lay luxuriating on your back. Floating there, you look up at a nearly full moon slipping in and out of the clouds above you. Everything is warm and cosy. Such reveries aren\u2019t easy to come by. They are worth finding.<\/p>\n

In cold weather the warmer pool draws people in and keeps them there for hours. Should the heat and humidity become too much, take a break and order a tequila sunrise at the service window. There\u2019s a snack bar, too. That\u2019s mostly for warmer weather, when visitors spend an entire day relaxing and letting their cares and woes flow down the drain. Europeans might scoff at the crude facilities. Screw \u2018em, I say. If you\u2019re over 65 it only costs $8.00 to soak for as long as you like.<\/p>\n

Supper in America<\/h6>\n

Dinner on the other hand is another transaction. Chico\u2019s restaurant comes with a good reputation and wallet-emptyingly high prices. This being America, the reward for paying $50 for a steak is that you get far more of it than you can reasonably eat in a single sitting.<\/p>\n

Cut to England c. 1983<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Living in London in the 1980s, I, like the rest of the country, read <\/em>Delia Smith\u2019s Complete Cookery Course<\/a><\/em>. Delia, for those of you who don\u2019t know her, was Britain\u2019s answer to Julia Child. Only a little more updated. Her many achievements included baking the cake on the cover of the Rolling Stones\u2019 album <\/em>Let It Bleed<\/a><\/em>. In her book Delia proposed that one should plan on four (4) ounces of meat or fish per dinner guest. She also provided a practical guide to how much wine to buy for a dinner party that went something like this: <\/em><\/p>\n