You’ve tried everything to feel better.
The supplements, challenges like 75-hard, and squeezing in a yoga class when you can. You might even have a bathtub that never gets cleaned, and occasionally enjoy a candlelit self care soak.
This was me just a few years ago before I got seriously into hot springs.
As a writer, I’ve always led with curiosity… and I really wanted a natural way to heal myself. Even though I was in my mid-twenties, I constantly felt fatigued and anxious. As I started to work through my relationship with capitalism, interdependence, and purpose, I would escape to the forest any weekend I could.
Surrounding myself with trees and sun worshipping made me feel alive again. Then, a trip home to New Mexico led me to the Gila Wilderness for the first time. I lived in the land of enchantment my entire childhood and had barely dipped my toe into its thermal waters.
Seeing me now as the wilderness woman, you’d be surprised to hear that the first trips to hot springs were more like pit stops. I didn’t yet have the understanding of their reverence and mineral richness, but I could tell I felt better.
Which Minerals Are Abundant In Hot Springs
The big three minerals you’ll typically see potent in a hot springs cauldron are: Sulfur, Magnesium, and Lithium. While I’m not a scientist, I have visited over 60 hot springs. So, I feel I can attest to these being the most common minerals that really pack a punch of healing benefits.
Waters will usually have a milky coloring when a pool has a high amount of magnesium or lithium. And, of course you can smell the sulfur when she’s present.
Rotten egg smells are a good sign that you’re close to a hot spring. The human nose is remarkably sensitive to sulfur compounds, allowing us to detect them in very low concentrations, like those found in natural gas leaks.
Thankfully the sulfur and minerals in hot springs are never harmful in my experience. In fact, many will go to hot springs caves to breathe in the vapors of the waters.
One of my favorite experiences to test out different minerals is visiting Ojo Caliente Spa in New Mexico. While I’m usually a wild hot spring girly, I love Ojo because they have pools separated by different mineral contents. And, they have signs that note that the arsenic helps with digestion, lithium with muscles aches, and sulfur will make your skin feel so smooth.
Would You Drink Stinky Water?
I was shocked to see clinics all over Italy that serve a regimen of hot springs water to drink. But, many tout the benefits of a good ‘terme’ water cleanse.
In Italy, drinking from ‘Terme’ (thermal spas) is primarily done for its therapeutic properties, often as part of a drinking cure. The waters are believed to stimulate the intestines, stomach, and liver, and are used to treat various internal disorders.
What’s Floating in The Water?
One of the most common remarks I hear from people who haven’t been to many hot springs – ‘doesn’t the water feel dirty’? Well, first of all I feel people are way too afraid of some dirt.
As long as people are respectful to the waters,
– please don’t wear sunscreen/oils, eat in the springs, or use it as a shower –
The floating things you’re seeing in the water are likely minerals. If you see white bits floating, it may be rich in tufa. Minerals like calcium and sulfates from deep geothermal origins rise to the surface and cool, and as these minerals crystallize, they leave behind trace particles of tufa.
How to Soak Safely
Bring even more drinking water than you think you need. Like double.
And, pay attention to how your body feels by the half hour. For me, if the pools are above 104 degrees I’ll want to take regular breaks.
Many hot springs can take long hikes to get to, and you don’t want to be stumbling silly because you’re wiped out. I’ve been there, it’s not cute but it happens.
Happy soaking and thank the waters for their mineral goodness! These are gifts from the Earth that keep on giving, and it’s up to each of us to care for hot springs.