Visit to Terwilliger Hotsprings at Cougar Reservoir

(Near town of Blue River, 40+ miles east of Eugene on Rt 126)
December 9, 1999

The fog has been lifting, and there is a nice view of the waterfall near the entrance.  

Notice that they have released a LOT of water from the reservoir, usually there is a lake here!  

The first time I visited here, in the early to mid-90's, there wasn't a sign marking the path.   You had to look for people with towels coming out of the underbrush!  Now there is not only a sign, but a trash can, which has cut down on the litter tremendously.

Don't worry, it's not all uphill, though there is a fair bit of elevation change gradually occurring.

Various scenes from along the path, heading towards the springs.  Though to be fair, I took them while leaving, since there was too little light under the trees while I was walking in!  

And a bit too much rain, which let up later.  I did turn and face toward the springs, so the directions are correct!  :-)


As you can see, trees fall across the path with some regularity, but the path is kept clear!  

Some of the sections are cut into benches at one or two points along the way, a nice touch.

This stump reminds me a great deal of some of the coral heads in Bonaire.  I halfway expected to see small fish darting along the top.

Here we have a pleasant bank with ferns, 

and a fern closeup in the tradition of my late Uncle Carl.

The last bit of walkway approaching the springs.  

The Friends of the Springs group (I forget its exact name) had a sign mentioning they were putting out gravel on the paths to help keep the mud down.  The handrails were VERY helpful last time I visited, in May of 99, due to the extreme muddiness!  The gravel is working nicely.

Civilization!  Well, they are composting toilets, not flush toilets, but their presence was opportune.  Interesting detail-- there are buckets of powdered peat moss, and a sign asks you to put a scoop of the moss down the toilet after you are finished.   This apparently helps the composting process.  Fair warning-- there is not a lot of privacy up at the top of the trail, though mercifully everything is tastefully concealed from fellow hikers down below.

Ahhh....the pools!  And happy people!

Actually, I took this picture as I was leaving, after getting permission from the folks in the pool.  I had the pool that the gentleman (Hi Jacob!) is in all to myself during my visit.  Some other folks came and went while I was there also.  I chatted a bit with Jacob-- on my visit in May of 99, he and someone named Yochanon had been discussing identifying Eastern dragons by the number of their claws (imperial vs generic) and aspects of Kabbalism.  You meet all kinds of interesting people at hotsprings!

There are a series of pools dug into the hillside, partially walled by deadfall trees and partially by rocks.  The hot water comes at 20 gallons per minute, approximately 140 degrees, from cracks in the rock and pours out of a hole in the rock.  

Cold water seeps into the pools via the cold stream that runs down the side of the hill.  

There's a bucket hidden from view by the big tree at the cold stream, for loonies like myself to pour over our heads as an impromptu cold plunge.  Woo hoo!!! I am AWAKE!  :-)

The topmost pool is quite quite hot, and the 2nd pool next to it is also very warm.  I was afraid that all the rain would have cooled the pools too much, but the 2nd pool was quite comfy.

The two next pools, which I am calling the middle pools, are much cooler, though usually still nice.  

In May the top pools were prickly hot and these were toasty.  On this visit, I found the top middle pool nice, probably about 95 - 98 degrees, but the 2nd middle pool was probably only about 70 degrees.

 

By the way, all degrees are in Farenheit.  Sorry, we are a backward little cosmopolis here in the States and I'm old enough to have never learned the metric system by heart!  It makes me feel unworldly and quaint, and not in a good way, but I digress...

There are actually a series of pools below the middle pools, but they are more shallow, tend to be mucky on the bottom, and are much cooler. 

On my first visit to Terwilliger, I had spent the previous day playing by the hot puddles at Big Bend, on the banks of the river.  I had neglected to take certain precautions, ie sunscreen, and unfortunately had to spend my time in the very very bottommost pool due to sunburn.  I was quite grateful for the colder water on that occasion, in late summer.

Well, all good things must end, and I did have to get to Seattle before it got too, too late. Here's our friend the waterfall again!  

On the way out, the fog had lifted enough for me to see the snow on the mountaintops across the reservoir.  Very, very nice. 

A large hawk or small eagle flew by, but alas I had put the camera away moments ago! 

The End!  Next time, Mike just HAS to come!