Baker Hot Spring

An easily accessible soaking pool in a forest glen surrounded by cedars and Douglas fir. After being jostled on the bumpy forest road that leads to the parking area, you’ll savor the hushed quiet of the footpath that passes through a grove of old-growth cedar trees. The ten-minute walk ends in a cathedral of Douglas fir, maple, and cedar that surrounds the 15-foot-diameter soaking pool. Baker Hot Spring can easily hold a dozen or more bathers, and unless it’s really crowded you can stretch out and even paddle around a bit in the 2-foot-deep water. The hot spring water bubbles up in several places in the gravel bottom of the soaking pool. The pool temperature is about 104° F. at its hottest, but cools down slightly away from bubbling inlets. There’s a strong odor of sulphur in the water, and the sulphur smell will linger on your skin and hair long after you return to your car. If left undisturbed, the water in the pool is crystal clear, but usually bathers stir up the sediments on the pool bottom. The water then takes on a unique bluish-gray milky color.