Hot Springs PIX starting now!

Here's Road GG leading to Valley View (yes I know where the hot springs are in these pictures) -

and where I often encountered the small but shaggy Scottish breed of cattle.

In the beginning I was very good about swimming my laps 

in the morning at the swimming pool.

And on a particularly nippy morning I always had the option 

of warming up in the sauna, adjacent to the pool -

though I MUCH preferred the old, wood-heated sauna.  Sadly that's been taken down, and here's all that's left of the foundation.

Sadly I was never able to increase my daily number of laps to the extent that I did last year - and it's possible <g> that disappointment (but more likely due to the fact of later mornings, when it was too crowded to swim by the time I arrived) played a part in me more or less giving up entirely.  Besides, it's much more fun to just soak and relax!

This is leaving the swimming pool and heading to the Apple Pool (just out of view behind the foliage on the right), where my morning soaks often started.

That flagstone path is new this summer, and must have been nice during winter snow and spring mud.

The Lower Apple is to the left, the Upper to the right.  

Nice view from the west end of the LAP of the waterfall, 

with steps into UAP in the background. 

Here is Tom, soaking in the Lower Apple (the Upper is too hot for him) 

on his birthday - 

in his birthday suit, of course!

The UAP is actually smaller than the Lower,

though it looks deceptively large in this shot.

None of the color in any shots have been altered or saturated - 

this view in the UAP is actually what I captured!

That's my bag and towel hanging on the railing of the LAP, with the waterfall just out of view on the right.  In the background is the open air Pavillion, which has a large raised fire pit for cooking, as well as a 'regular' kitchen.

These are the stairs up to the Pavillion 

from one of the level 'camping' spots for a large RV.

Here's a picture of one RV parked in said spot, with the smoke from the Hayden Pass fire visible that first day.  While it certainly looks like it's right over the ridge, once down in the valley it was easily apparent that there were several ridges between us and the fire.  As the crow flies it was about 8 miles away at the closest point, and (barring VERY unusual circumstance) not going to cross the ridges and burn downhill toward us, which of course was quite a relief.

Here we are, soaking on Tom's last morning, when he finally donned the infamous sun shirt from Thailand - so I wore mine.  Mostly I needed it for sun protection in the Party Pool during my afternoon soaks, though it saw more use when I loaned it to others.

To their great dismay, dogs are not allowed in any of the pools.  Here are three dogs waiting by the Apple Pools for their people to rejoin them.

The views from the pools were much better toward the end of my stay, when the sunflowers were in bloom.

This is Jackie (from Yorkshire, England) sitting in the LAP, with the nearby swimming pool visible in the background.  I really would have liked to get a macro close-up of her hummingbird necklace, but the camera just would not cooperate.  

This doe is underneath the apple trees between the swimming pool and the apple pools.  Since all the reachable lower branches have been stripped, she is no doubt looking for any that might have fallen.  The deer are quite comfy around people, though this year I saw considerably fewer despite my lengthy stay.  Not sure if there were actually less of them around or if there was just more water/greenery higher up so that's where they were hanging out.

That's it for my first installment of pictures - things to do before I head to the gym and get back into my regular schedule.  Will be "interesting" to see how difficult today's workout will be.  No doubt <g> I will be feeling the effects tomorrow and/or Sunday!