Choose a weekend, like Memorial Day weekend, for low-impact outdoor fun in Hot Springs, Montana. Bring your WanderMan. Maybe last year you two went to the Sasquatch music festival, that glitter-sprinkled four days in the scenic Columbia River Gorge. Affirm that you’re not too old for neon wristbands or overpriced margarita slushies served in plastic guitars. Decide to create your own festival this year: SlackSquatch.
Pack summer reading, including the marriage memoirs you’ve been reading and that stack of fashion magazines piling up on your coffee table. Don’t forget your Crocs, your fleecy tights, and a couple of swimsuits. Marvel at Montana’s big fat skies as you drive along the Clark Fork River.
Chat with the people who soak in the pool at Symes Hot Springs, especially the second-grade teacher from Kalispell, and the banjo/slide-didjeridoo player from the band that’s playing at the hotel that weekend. Wish you’d studied more Russian as the women with pageant hair or head scarves edge into the pool. Soak in the hot mineral pools until you’ve achieved the texture and disposition of a lasagna noodle.
Smell the lilacs in bloom all over town. Eat a mean homemade black bean burger for lunch at Fergie’s Pub; come back that night for the pizza. Find treasures in the small but surprisingly well curated vintage clothing store in a row of small antique shops behind the springs. Improvise a fitting room as you wait for the owner to come back (you can also pay at the hotel front desk if nobody shows up ). Schedule a massage with Sandra, the hotel’s massage therapist.
Your rustic room (no TV, no cell phone reception, though there is wifi in the lobby) may start to smell a bit like a musty towel. But that’s the price you pay for hanging up suits, towels, and terry cloth robes after taking the waters twice a day. Affirm that this faint sulphur aroma is a sign of your outdoorsy-ness (even though you opted for a room instead of pitching a tent in the lawn outside).
Consider exploring other Montana towns with hot springs. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Check out Global Zen’s latest Montana post, too.
Vintage travel poster is from Calico Skies.
