Hot Springs!! in the Western US (Part 1)

For the past six months, I’ve been traveling the Western U.S. on what became an accidental, deeply personal vision quest, one which I’ll unpack in future posts. But the heartbeat of this blog is simple: I was seeking out destinations and resorts with geothermal mineral springs, literally following the Earth’s heat.

I traced the California coastline, zigzagged through mountain towns, spent a month in Idaho, a month in Montana, Wyoming, as well as nearly two months all around the Lake Tahoe area. I also made my way around the geothermal hot spot and epicenter that is Yellowstone, stopping at as many hot springs as I could find along the way.

I am not a huge fan of rustic hot springs, other than Mystic Hot Springs, which I always thoroughly enjoy stopping at when driving through Utah. In general, I prefer hot springs resorts where I know that cleanliness is a priority.

Some pools felt genuinely healing. Others felt like “chlorinated snake oil,” marketed by profit hungry resort owners as therapeutic waters while diluting and/or chlorinating the springs into something closer to a lukewarm motel jacuzzi located off a major freeway, than anything remotely restorative. And yes, I’m defining that by both the dead-giveaways as well as what staff tipped me off on: the sharp chemical smell and diluted, thin water that leaves your skin feeling stripped instead of silky. To top things off, some included an occasional reality check like paying extra for a “mineral pool upgrade” only to find a used band-aid sitting on the edge of the tub. I literally walked right out of that place.

Now, I don’t mind a rich sulfur smell (honestly, it feels more authentic, and it often comes with that smooth, silky-water feeling I mentioned earlier), but the smell of chemicals? No thank you. The more authentically sourced springs - the mineral-dense, organic, and unmistakably alive waters - those feel like I am running my hands through liquid gold.

In this series of blogs, I’ll share what I learned on the road: which hot springs to avoid if you’re seeking true therapeutic benefit, which locations deliver that deep, restorative soak, and which experiences left me feeling the most grounded, clear, and healed—body, mind, and spirit. For example, in Calistoga, that meant a family-owned healing haven where the entire staff felt like family (more on that in Part 2).

Even though Yellowstone is geologically young in comparison to Earth’s origin, it’s anything but quiet. It’s a highly active, localized hotspot—powered by unusually hot mantle heat that feeds an ongoing volcanic system and the vast hydrothermal plumbing that bubbles up as hot springs, mudpots, and geysers. And since we love hot springs, I spent a couple weeks in and around Yellowstone, as well as across Wyoming and Montana.

A useful metaphor is to think of Yellowstone as one of the most active burners on Earth’s stove right now. It holds the world’s largest concentration of geothermal features, with more than 10,000 thermal features, the greatest concentration of geysers anywhere on the planet, and roughly half of the world’s active geysers. Everything felt more alive in that region.

Geothermal hot springs can feel “healing” for a really grounded reason: you’re combining warmth, buoyancy, and mineral-rich water in one experience. Yes—relaxation is a huge part of the medicine. But there are also natural benefits that come from soaking in mineral water.

Sitting in hot water—whether a hot spring, hot tub, or hot bath—can act like a gentle “heat therapy” session for your body: as your core temperature rises, blood vessels dilate, circulation increases, and the nervous system shifts toward a calmer, more restorative state. The heat helps muscles loosen and can make stiff joints feel more mobile, while buoyancy takes pressure off your body and invites a deeper downshift in the nervous system (hello, exhale!). In clinical terms, this is balneotherapy (therapeutic bathing), and research suggests it may improve pain and quality of life for some people with conditions like osteoarthritis and other musculoskeletal aches—though results vary and it’s not a magic wand. It works best in conjunction with other healthy lifestyle changes.

This controlled heat stress also appears to spark cellular protection pathways (including a heat-shock response) and measurable shifts in immune activity/inflammatory markers after hot-water immersion, which may help explain why people often report feeling looser, clearer, and less inflamed afterward. Additionally, passive, controlled heat can nudge the body’s metabolism, including energy and glucose regulation, with some studies and reviews even suggesting that repeated hot-water immersion may improve insulin sensitivity in certain groups (for example, people with type 2 diabetes), even though specific responses can and will vary by person, condition, and protocol.

“High mineral quality” refers to a spring’s unique chemical and elemental profile: different waters contain different dissolved minerals, and when you’re submerged, the body can absorb some of these compounds. These healing minerals can include sulfur compounds, bicarbonate, magnesium, lithium (hold off on that lobotomy!), silica, and other trace elements—depending on the geology the water has traveled through. Some dermatology reviews suggest that thermal/mineral waters may help improve inflammatory skin conditions (like psoriasis or eczema) in certain settings, possibly through anti-inflammatory effects, microbiome shifts, and support of the skin barrier—again, not as a cure, but as a meaningful supportive therapy for some people. It’s also important to note that if the water is too hot, it can actually exacerbate skin conditions or increase skin permeability in a way that can invite infection. At Wellbnb, we walk the middle path in every regard.

If crystals are your language, think of high-mineral hot springs like crystal medicine in liquid form—not in the woo-woo “magic potion” sense, but in a beautifully literal Earth sense. The same minerals people hold as crystals—silica-rich stones, sulfurous compounds, magnesium-bearing minerals, trace elements—are born from geology with orderly, crystalline structures. Over time, heat, pressure, and water break those structures down, and the spring becomes the Earth’s way of steeping the mountain—a slow infusion of the land’s chemistry into the water. We are built from the same elements.

That said, the minerals in a hot spring aren’t actually “ground-up crystals” floating around like glitter; they’re mostly dissolved ions and compounds carried in solution. But the poetic comparison still lands: crystals are the solid archive of Earth’s minerals, and mineral springs are the liquid form. You’re not just soaking in heat; you’re bathing in the geology itself—an ancient, mineral-rich dialogue between rock, water, and body.

As powerful as hot springs can be, it is always essential to hydrate, limit soak times, and avoid very hot temps. Your goal should be to “restore and activate,” not to “boil and irritate.”

Stay tuned for Part 2, where I’ll share detailed reviews of specific hot springs resorts.