It looked like such a beautiful day that I decided to go for a drive. I identified three small peaks in the Thermo Hot Springs quadrangle and mapped out some routes. I figured taking Lund Highway would be the fastest, but I wasn't sure how well-traveled Schoppmann drive would be, so I penciled in a couple of additional routes if I needed to backtrack.

Iron County road crews recently graded Schoppmann drive, and it had the smoothest road base of all the routes I selected. It's not often I can travel at 60 mph down a dirt road, but Schoppmann drive, with its smooth clay surface, allowed me to travel at will.

Blue Knoll is a large lava-based hillside, and my route passes to the west. I somehow missed my turn (or there wasn't one) that ran near Old Rambler hill and Brown Knoll. I soon ended up near a sign for the Dominquez and Escalante Expedition Trail and the Thermo Hot Springs Site.

Thermo Hot Springs warranted a mention in the Dominquez-Escalante Journal from October 10, 1776. The water is hot at the source, so use caution when placing a hand or fingers into the water. Someone has created a gravity-flow system that leads to two tanks for bathing. The first is to catch and further cool the water; the second for bathing.

The water was the perfect temperature; however, the algae made it less than ideal. I climbed into the tank but decided not to sit or stay. Ideally, cleaning the tank and allowing it to refill would make for a nice day trip. Walking further down the road, I walked around the second flow to see if it also had bathing tanks set up. I didn't discover any, but steam was coming off the center of the pond, so I assume it is hot as well.