Friday, October 6, 2018
Several months ago Greg and I booked a three-day-weekend fall getaway at the Clear Lake Resort in the Willamette National Forest. Unfortunately Friday, the first day of our weekend, was extremely rainy. It was far too wet to do any hiking, so we decided to visit Belknap Hot Springs.
The soaking pool is behind the lodge, not too far from the river:
For a short while we had the pool all to ourselves:
That didn’t last long, however, and soon we had plenty of company. They weren’t the problem, however. At some point in the past hot springs management made the unfortunate decision to add an RV park to the grounds and one of the spots is right on the other side of the fence from the pool. Someone with a huge RV arrived, backed into the spot, and then idled their engine for 30 MINUTES while they moved forward and backward over and over to level the trailer. Finally the noise pollution was more than I could take and I went over the fence and yelled over to the guy. He couldn’t hear me at first because of his loud pickup. When I asked him to please turn off his truck he made no apologies for the noise and said he would turn it off when he was done getting set up. Great. Thanks for nothing, buddy.
After we were done soaking Greg stayed inside while I did a bit of exploring, crossing the footbridge over the McKenzie River:
On the other side of the bridge is the source of the hot springs (it’s piped across to the pool):
After our soak we headed to Clear Lake to check in. We knew our cabin would be rustic and it was:
There are rowboats for rent here. It was not great weather for being out on the lake, but that didn’t stop some people:
The cold damp weather kept us inside for the rest of the afternoon and evening. We were glad for the stove in the cabin to keep us warm.
