HONEYVILLE – Crystal Hot Springs in Honeyville is adding a $3 million pool to give patrons more options when they visit the popular resort. They closed their campground during COVID, and it remains closed. The campground provides added parking area.
Crystal Hot Springs is a popular recreation spot 11 miles north of Brigham City, located at 8215 N. Hwy 38 in Honeyville.
The hot springs is still attracting hordes of people. General Manager Adam Nelson said it is more worthwhile to increase the capacity for paying customers and parking than camping.
“The camping area was less than 5 percent of our bottom line,” he said. “We are adding another pool so we can give more people an opportunity to use our facility.”
The new pool will have arms that will give people more privacy and a water feature that they hope customers will enjoy.
“We are planning to do more pools when we can,” Nelson said. “I’ve been all over the world visiting hot springs and this is the best one I’ve ever seen.”
The mineral content and the cold-water spring next to the hot water spring are unique features.
“We raised prices thinking it would reduce the number of people using the pools,” he said. “We need to have more pools to accommodate the people who want to use the hot springs.”
The three hot tubs and soaker pool will be closed for renovation starting on July 17 and will reopen August 24, 2023.
“We plan to keep adding pools when we can so we can to give more people a chance to use them,” he said. “Our employees are so invested in this place they all have ideas on how to improve it. I have to put the breaks on what they want to do, not because they aren’t good ideas but because we don’t have the resources to keep expanding right now.”
The hot water comes from 8,000 feet below the surface of the earth and is estimated to be 22,000 years old. The water temperature ranges from 120 to 134 degrees Fahrenheit.
Almost 50 feet from the hot spring surface is a cold spring that produces water at 65°F – 75°F.
The cold spring has a slightly higher rate of flow than the hot springs, with 9,200 gallons of water every five minutes.
Both springs produce enough water to drain and fill the pools during the night, so it keeps the pools clean. The water flow at Crystal Hot Springs is the most of any hot springs in the world.
There is a photographic history of the hot springs that hangs on a large wall going pack to the changing room, going way back to the Freemont Native Americans. When they disappeared, the Northwest Band of Shoshone used them.
Once a year, the Northwest Band of Shoshone Nation return to the springs to spend time together and tell stories of their ancestors. During the time the railroad was being built, Chinese railroad workers came to the area to soak in cedar tubs.
Wounded soldiers from WWII were bused from the Brigham City hospital to soak in the springs for rehabilitation.
They have more people visit in the winter than any other time of the year. On most days there will be seniors, all the way down to toddlers taking advantage of the warm pools.
Crystal Hot Springs has 46,093 natural minerals, produced by 2.4 million gallons of hot water in a 24-hour period.
Today, as in ancient times, the pools attract both locals and tourists from around world as they take advantage of the warm waters and healing properties of the springs in Honeyville.
Gee….with the new improvements hopefully the price increases even more than it already has…currently at $18 per person. I used to really enjoy going there. Not any more.
“I have to put the breaks on what they want to do”
*brakes
The raising of costs to “reduce the number of people using the pools” is NOT a good business strategy!! Your goal is to provide more of the product for the demand, in which constructing more pools is the right way to go. If you want to increase profits, a good way to do that is to charge more for an adults only pool. I personally would pay more to use one that doesn’t have children in it (Yes, I have children. I also know they are annoying to adults by splashing and peeing in the pools).
Having said all that, it is a natural resource that should be available to more people, not less! It was free, until someone decided they were going to “own” the free land that has access to the springs, and now charge everyone who wants to use the natural resource.
I quit going to Crystal Hot Springs for a number of reasons, number one because of the disgustingly oily pools from peoples body oils, there is not enough water flowing out of the pools to flush out the oils. Other reasons are that none of the pools have any type of shade over the pools, the temperature of the pools is not consistent at all compared to other places I have been. Sometimes you can only get a luke-warm or cold shower when leaving the facility. Next on my list but by any means not the last is that twice I have got a fungal skin infection from there and have had to go to the doctor for medication. I go to another hot springs that has over 2.5 million gallons of water in a 24 hour period going through the pools that keeps the pools clean and clear with no oily scum. You can actually see the water exiting the pools.
We actually started driving to Lava Hot Springs, when they raised the prices. The left coast refugees have way more money than we locals do. They are pretty much a rip off for what they charge.
This place is disgusting!! Way over priced and just a bunch of senior kids as supervisors. What a joke, no thanks