The trip to Conundrum hot springs was hard work, but also well worth it, both along the way and when you reach the springs. The route I took with my friends in August was from Aspen.
The Hot springs are about 8 ½ miles out, so we had to plan ahead in order to stay the night. We packed our large backpacks with all sorts of items: garbage bags, spare clothing, towels, food, matches, Swiss army knife, water purification drops, sleeping bags, poop bags (provided at the trailhead), water bottles, and one of us had to carry a tent. The weight of our packs got to us quite quickly, especially as it was raining out when we began our trip. The thought of walking almost nine miles sounded much less fun than we had planned, but after half a mile or so, we began to get used to the load.
The rain cleared up, and we took the time to take photos of the gorgeous scenery. There were wildflowers galore on either side of the trail, a stream, and of course the mountains that surrounded the trail all made for great photos. In addition to the photo breaks, we took many other general breaks so we could eat and rest. We were all a little scared that we wouldn’t be acclimated to the elevation and that one or more of us would get altitude sickness. We all drank a lot of fluids, ate a lot of food and didn’t over exert ourselves to help minimize this risk. Taking those precautions worked well for us.
Naturally, the rain didn’t hold off forever, and it started to come down again after we were a couple hours into our hike. We had no idea how far we had gone, but knew we had a long way to go. Then we started to fell hail coming down so we all rushed under a tree. We were safe from the hail, but still miles from the campsites, and as the day was moving on we were getting tired. The hail subsided, and we continued our march.
Now there are several stream crossings along this trail, and most of them are quite simple. Step on a couple of large rocks and avoid the water flowing past. Done. There was one crossing that wasn’t quite as accommodating. This one was a very shallow creek of extremely cold water. It couldn’t be crossed by just stepping on the largest rocks, so off went our shoes, and on came the pain. It was wide enough so that you could really feel the cold throughout your body while you were crossing. It was definitely one of the least comfortable parts of the trip.
As we made our way further up the trail, we continued to get rained on and took breaks underneath trees more often. We were not making good time at all. By the time we got to the campsite area (still ¾ mile to the hot springs) it had been 6 hours. We set up our tent quickly in the rain, as we were all in survival mode. We were wet, cold and getting weak. We had no way of starting a fire as everything around us was soaked.
Our tent wasn’t warm, but it felt great compared to being outside. We ate, enjoyed one beer each, and then put our extra food into a bag that I would eventually hang about 100 feet away from our tent. I wasn’t looking forward to going back outside with the rain still coming down, but thought getting wet wouldn’t be nearly as bad as waking up with a bear next to you. While I was hanging the “Bear bag”, there was a woman a short distance away who was laughing. Then I started laughing, and so did one of my friends. I don’t know if it was the mix of beer and high elevation, but in a situation that wasn’t exactly funny, we had a pretty good time. We eventually walked over to a fire they had started and continued our laughter-fest while cooking a can of beans and drying off. They had been camping nearby for a couple of days, so they put a tarp over some wood early in the day, anticipating rain.
As we walked away from their fire and back to our tent we really realized how cold it was outside. This reality really came to life for us when we got into our sleeping bags in our tent and we were all still cold. None of us got good sleep that night.
We woke up in the morning ready to start a fire, but still didn’t see anything dry, so we gave up after about 10 minutes and started our walk to the springs. It didn’t take long for us to get there, as we just followed the trail past the tree line and then saw some signs for the springs. We saw steam coming up from a small stream and knew we were there.
There were a few people inside the large pool, and we quickly joined them. They were all in their early 20s, and had a lot to talk about. The story I enjoyed most was how one of guys in the pool them shat himself during a skiing accident. I didn’t expect such an honest story to be revealed, but I suppose he had nothing to lose by telling us. It felt amazing to be in the warm water, especially after spending the night in the cold. The warmest part of the pool was toward the center as it was a little cooler towards the edges. We stayed in for about an hour, watched the sun rise over the mountains, and said our goodbyes.
We walked back to our campsite, packed everything up, and made our way down to the trailhead. The weather was much better today, as I was shirtless for a while as it was getting kind of hot. We didn’t feel the need to stop quite as often and we made the trek down in less than four hours.
By the time we set foot into the car we were exhausted, but couldn’t stop talking about how cool it was to be in such a beautiful, remote area. I would love to hear stories from any others who have gone to conundrum hot springs, or questions from those who would like to go.
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