Camping in Lava Hot Springs
Located on the banks of the Portneuf River, Lava Hot Springs will have you begging for more and wishing you could stay another day. The best place to stay, if you’re in an RV or tent camping, is Cottonwood Family Campground. The owners are warm, friendly, and very helpful. This campground is located at 100 Bristol Park Lane. Make reservations early as it fills up fast! (208) 776-5295 will get you in contact with some of the best hosts in the business. This park boasts full hookups and sites that offer a view of the beautiful Portneuf River, towering Cottonwood trees, and a pet friendly environment. We were lucky enough to score a campground site that was close to the river and every night fell asleep to the sound of the river flowing by.
There were a couple of disadvantages you should know about. Cottonwood Family Campground sits below a train track and the trains come through quite a few times during the day and night. Also, the Cottonwood trees caused some problems for those that suffered from allergies. There is an upper park that has gravel and fewer trees, but still a great view of the river this is a great alternative. There are very few sites that offer grills, so make sure you bring your own. Supplies are easily refilled in town, which is a two minute drive, or at the registration building which houses limited grocery sales, lots of ice, a game room, and my favorite, dollar books for sale. There are also clean restrooms and shower facilities that can be accessed through a code that is given to you on check-in. Lastly, we suffered with the mosquitoes, so make sure you load up on the deet!
The town of Lava Hot Springs is the place you want to be! It is a five minute walk from the campground and well worth it. You’ll find tubing, wonderful mineral baths that range from 104 degrees to 112 degrees, an Olympic size swimming pool with water slides and diving platforms, and the best hamburgers in town. Floating down the Portneuf river was the main attraction for our group and the best thing we did was to bring our own inner tubes and blow them up there. If we hadn’t of done this, we would have been spending a small fortune on tube rentals which are available from small roadside vendors throughout the town. The second most popular attraction was the hot pots. For a family price of just over $30.00 a day we were able to spend as much time as we wanted in the swimming pool and hot pots. The best time to hit the hot pots was night time when a cool breeze and sometimes a light drizzle made the experience delightful. You will meet people from all over the world so venture out and talk to your neighbor while you’re enjoying the benefits of the minerals and steam in the hot pots.
My last word of caution would be that the river is running very fast, and we did experience some bumps, bruises and scrapes. If you can find someone who has gone before that will offer to take you down and show you the ropes you will have a great time! We did find that it was a little to dangerous for young children. Our solution was to hit the pool morning with the young kids, and hit the river in the afternoon with the brave ones. Then of course, we all hung out at the hot pots at night. And, of course all of this adventure was launched from the Cottonwood Family Campground.
