One Hour in Hot Spring @ Saratoga, WY

On Saturday (01/09/11) afternoon I spent about an hour in hot water spring located at Saratoga in Carbon county of WY. Even though there are over fifty identified hot water springs (tatopani) in Nepal, I have never been to any of them. There is a popular saying in Nepali. "Najik ko dewata lai hela" meaning we don't pay attention even to god if it is close to our place. This might be true in my case and there were many reasons for not visiting such touristic places in Nepal. This time I managed to visit tatopani kunda in Saratoga with few friends.

Water of the spring was very hot. It took me a while to be able to go into the water. I don't know the exact temperature of the water at that time. Some of the hot water bathers were guessing the temperature about 130 degree F. Water close to the source of spring was hotter then towards the exit. Later on I enjoyed sitting on the hot water. Because of the steam coming out from the hot water, it looked like smoky. Water was little bit dirty with some alga and some other plants (I don't know what species exactly they are). The hot water pond was smelling something like sulfur or hydrogen sulfide gas. The spring must have contained sulfur. It was very good experience of such kind.

taking hot water bath with friends

Outside temperature was very low. Somewhere around freezing. There is a river called south plat river.  Some people were going to take bath in the river as well. One could imagine how cold was the water on the river. Most part of river was frozen with snow/ice and little water was flowing. This means water should be somewhere in freezing temp. Two of our friends were able to take a quick bath in the river water. I didn't try on the river. There were some other people. Crazy people. Taking bath in hot water (130F) and in cold water (~32F).

and this is cold water bath

Photo: Shashidhar Belbase