Bliss … thy name is Liard Hot Springs
If you’re a fan of hot springs … heck even if you’re not a fan … this is a place not to be missed. It’s one of the most beautiful and amazing hot springs I’ve seen!
The hot springs are part of Liard River Provincial Park and there is a campground close to the springs – or if you’re not camping there’s a lodge directly across the road. From the campsite or lodge, it’s about a 700m walk to the springs themselves. You’re mostly walking on a boardwalk through some meadows filled with flora and fauna not seen anywhere else in the region because of the thermal waters seeping out everywhere. In the 1940’s the area was known as ‘Tropical Liard Valley’.
Boardwalk to the Hotsprings
An ermine seen along the boardwalk – he/she had just caught a mouse!
Liard Hot Springs
The hot springs are minimally developed, with just a change room for each sex, steps leading into the pools and a few benches in the water. (*Be careful … they’re slippery!) The side opposite the steps is surrounded by vegetation right down to the water.
There are 2 pools – the first one ranges in temperature from scalding to boiling and you can only stay in for about 10 minutes before your skin begins sloughing off and you’re cooked completely thru. (not really but it feels like that!) The other side is only at a simmer and feels quite cool after the first side.
The damn separating the pools
At the pools, there is a short walk to the ‘hanging gardens’ which is pretty basically a bit of a hill with porous rock where there’s plants growing and hot water flowing out of the bank. Pretty … but not what I’d envisioned.
The hanging gardens behind the pools
The cost for the hot springs is $5 for adults and it’s open 24 hours a day. There is no other services there … no showers, no electricity and no sewer for you RV.
It wasn’t too crowded when we were there – beginning of June – but I think further into the season it can get crowded.
Still … WELL worth a stop!
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