Sunday Sep 17, 2023 - Chewelah WA to Anaconda MT

Another good night's sleep in the van in Todd and April's camp driveway. The kids were wearing out the dogs, Todd and Riley were planning out the fire wood workflow, coffee was brewing, it was going to be an active day here. April heated up a delicious quiche and after breakfast of quiche and turkey bacon we sadly said our goodbyes and headed down the road.

Deb here. The big dilemma was where to go next? Yesterday Todd made a convincing plug for the Canadian Rockies, pointing out that Banff was only a 5+ hour drive from Chewelah, with nice provincial parks for camping up that way. That sounded great, but when I checked my weather app this morning the forecast was for 2 days of rain, which didn’t sound so great. I mentioned this to Todd, and he suggested instead heading to a hot springs in Montana, which we decided was a good alternate plan.

The drive to Fairmont Hot Springs (near Anaconda, MT) was absolutely beautiful. We first  headed up and over Todd and April’s ski mountain (49 North), and then basically followed the Pend Oreille river for a long stretch. Within about an hour we crossed the WA border into Idaho, soon arriving at the sweet town of Sandpoint. Alyssa had told us to stop at the Bluebird Bakery, owned by a friend of hers, but she learned before we left that it was closed for the weekend. Sandpoint appeared to be doing well, with lots of folks outside enjoying the cafes in town. We stopped at a Subway on the outskirts of town to split a sub, and kept moving.

The Pend Oreille eventually emptied into a large lake (Lake Pend Oreille) and the beauty kept on going. Pinetree covered mountains, running water, boats, cabins… all of the things that remind me of the best of the Adirondacks and spots in New England.

Our sights were set on the Fairmont RV Park, within walking distance of the hot springs. I read that the park stayed open for registration until 6 pm, and we planned to arrive by 5 or so. What we’d neglected to factor in was the time change, losing an hour as we crossed into Montana and Mountain Time. I called the RV Park and he said he’d wait for us, so we continued on.

We arrived at the park just before 6:30, checked in, and walked to the resort to use the hot springs. What a treat! Fairmont Hot Springs Resort offers 2 huge outdoor pools and 2 huge indoor pools, along with a 365 foot water slide. There’s a cooler pool (still close to 90 degrees) and a hot pool (105) indoors and outdoors and we had a great time enjoying both of the outdoor pools. The area has natural hot springs that are 165 degrees, and then the resort balances that water with cold water. I swam a few laps in the cool pool and John chatted up a Montana couple in the hot pool. Very fun.

We walked back to the RV park at 8 and were both pretty weary. We made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, did Wordle, and off to bed.