Upper Halfway River Hotsprings
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The Road Chose Me Volume 2: Three years and 54,000 miles around Africa
The view while soaking. Not bad. Not bad at all.
The Road Chose Me Volume 2 OUT NOW!!
The Road Chose Me Volume 2: Three years and 54,000 miles around Africa
please contact me regarding upper halfway. I am a spring keeper in that area.
Thanks,
Graymatter
Hey Graymatter,
I was wondering if you might be able to give me directions to Upper Halfway Hot Springs. I have been to most of the other Hot Springs in the area and have been going to St. Leons since I was three. any help would be most appreciated thanks
Hey Forest,
If you’ve been in and around that area for so long, surely you can find them yourself! do some more searching online and you’ll get there.
Also checkout the third edition of Hotsprings of Western Canada by Glenn Woodsworth – I’m pretty sure there are directions in there.
Oh yeah!? Who put in the high line over the river oh keeper of the springs?
Hi,
I hope this works….! I live in Burton,and have always been interested in the Upper Halfway Hot Spring…..used to be just a rumor when I was touring around 20 years ago. But now that I have made my home out here, I’d like to find out more about it.
Thanks
Hey Pierre, they certainly are real and a very good soak. I don’t imagine the road is plowed in the winter, so you’ll have to wait for spring to make an attempt. The 3rd Edition of “Hot Springs of Western Canada” should be on the shelves right around then, and I have it on good authority there will be directions to Upper Halfway in that.
Good luck and happy soaking!
maybe those that built it did not want it in the book. so hope keeper of springs keeps it quite
Hey Creator, I have a very strong feeling there will be directions to this sping in the up-coming 3rd edition of ¨Hotsprings of western canada¨
I’m planning to go to Halfway River after Sept. long week-end. Have been numerous times, and found it excellent. However, the notion of upper hot springs drives me crazy (and I am not a crazy kind of person). How do we (my girl-friend and I) find it? Detailed directions please!
Regards, Jim
Hey Jim,
Great to hear you are getting out to Halfway! Ask around at that spring, talk to friendly locals, and do some searching online.
Trust me, you will enjoy Upper Halfway so much more after you put in some effort finding it.
I also suggest you keep your eyes open for the Third Edition of Hotsprings of Western Canada, due out any day now.
Dan, take it easy. These people come from all over to see this place. They’re already online searching…
This thread is very unfriendly.
Hello, There is another lower spring on Halfway River. Not as large as the others. However the view is much better. I grew up at St Leon. The lower spring is definitely not in the Hot spring book. Allan
Hey Allen,
That’s very interesting information.
Do you mean there is a third spring?
(i.e. everyone knows about “regular Halfway river”, a few of us go to “Upper Halfway River” and now you are suggesting there is another one entirely?)
CooL!
Hello Dan, As a child I learned to swim in Halfway River. More springs? YOU BET.
However to find them you need to take your shoes off and wade. the If you stay rather high up on the South bank and walk towards the lake, from what you call the lower springs, for about 500 feet you can follow a game trail down to the bottom of the canyon. There is a very beautiful falls. Stay out of the falls pool. We had and needed scuba gear last time I played underneath that cascade. When you have the falls in sight stay on the south side and take your shoes off. The 1st spring is in the gravel.
Back to the top of the canyon. Again on the west side. From your pictures the second spring is probably covered. Its right at the canyons mouth. In the past some years it was a large spring. other times almost dry.
Then there are a number of small hot springs in the creek gravel again on the South side. There is kind of a random chain leading up to the larger spring, “everyone knows as the halfway springs.
a couple of notes. Halfway occasionally flash floods. It can and does change course within its narrow valley. During low water , its fun to wade in. During high drowning is a real hazard. The old prospector and trapper Mr George LaForme told me he had a trappers cabin near the upper springs. I never looked for it and George passed on a long time ago. Bet its still there.
Hi Allan,
I once followed the trail you are talking about down from the “lower pools”. I probably went down a couple of hundred feet, then turned around. I always wondered if there were more pools down there
Wow, a cabin near the upper spring would be amazing. I wonder from what year that information dates? I know the springs were widely “discovered” during a wildfire in the area.. possibly the cabin was burnt down then?
All the best for the upcoming soaking season!
-Dan
Dan,I am currently a long ways from St Leon. Myself and the younger generation of St Leon folks are still in touch. spread all over Canada. Blue River BC Nakusp, Nanimo , Grand Forks, Calgary, Montreal, Vernon, Rigaud, and other places. George and his generation
including my parents are long departed. The last time George Laforme talked about trapping would have been about 1965. We were helping build his cabin on the lake.I know he also trapped on St Leon Creek.
I know where the cabin was there. It still exists but has a massive cedar laying across it. As to the cabins on Halfway, I suspect the first set are still on the Northern side . He told me he used the abandoned internment camp on occasion. I never found his #2, he told me it was on the North side somewhere below the canyon.
His #3 was on the South side below and near a big hot spring a good days snowshoe above the lower springs. George died at his home on Bowen Island about 1997.
Dan, Have a great soak for me. Please remember a trappers cabin was deliberately tiny. In reality an emergency shelter. Walk that trail again, and remember George. Allan Daem
Thanks for the great info and thoughts Allan.
I’m also a long way from that area right now, currently living in the Yukon.
All the best for your future soaks.
-Dan
Hi Dan! Amazing series of adventures you’ve had. It’s a delight to browse this blog. Now, you seem reluctant to give away any info about the Upper springs but after four trips to the Lower ones (and an entire wasted day thrashing about in the bush) I was hoping you might be able to e-mail me some hints! I’m headed back to the area shortly by myself and would dearly love to find these mountainside springs. In the same vein as Allan’s generous info about the lower-Lower springs, I hope you can help! (And yes, I’ve been on the google – but with no concrete results.)
The bridge into upper halfway has washed out, and the river crossing is tricky and dangerous as far as I know.
People on Soakersforum.com still go there, you might get more recent information posting there.
i.e. http://www.soakersforum.com/3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2604&p=23168&hilit=upper+halfway#p23168
Good luck!
-Dan
hi there! I am wondering if there are any rustic winter cabins open for the winter months around st leon hot springs
Hi Raechelle,
I’m sorry, I have no idea. You could try contacting Nakusp Tourism to see if they know of anything…
Good luck!
-Dan
Hi!
Thanks for all this info.. do you happen to know if the hotsprings are usually flooded in May? I wanted to go there tomorrow for the long weekend. Not sure if conditions are safe though, and it’s a bit of a trip. Thanks v much!
Thanks!
Hi Liz,
Sorry, I have absolutely no idea what conditions will be like.. don’t know about snow on the road, or the hike or anything.
Good luck!
-Dan
Hey wondering about the warning regarding temperature after the snow melt has dried up. How do these springs go in the fall? If there is enough rain could the pools be cool enough to go in???