Day 15: Rest Day in Stanley, mountain view hot springs

June 26, 2025

Today is a much-needed rest day at Mountain Village Resort in Stanley. I plan to do as little as possible and rest as much as possible.

I got up at 8 and walked across the road to buy breakfast cereal and a jug of milk at the Mercantile. No greasy omelet today.

I looked around the resort at various times during the day. There's not much to see. One side of the road has the big lodge, restaurant, and bar on a bluff overlooking Spring Creek. The other side of the road has the big Mercantile store and Sinclair gas station with the Sawtooth mountains looming behind. On the way into Stanley I passed the smaller Redfish lodge which overlooks the Salmon river. Stanley is just a tiny village but it has multiple upscale lodges.

The Mercantile offers dinosaur rides. 150 pound weight limit.

Mountain Village Resort is by far the biggest lodge in town and it has something the other lodges don't have-a private hot spring. At 9:45 I went to the hotel office to get instructions for my 10 AM hot spring appointment. They told me where to go and I walked 1/3 mile from the lodge to the hot spring. It's only accessible by walking. At about the halfway point is an excellent view of Valley Creek and the Sawtooth mountains from a minor hilltop.

Trailside view of Spring creek, Stanley village, and Sawtooth mountains.

The trail ends at the private soaking tubs owned by the resort. I have a 10-11 AM reservation for the shared Osprey tub, the original tub. As expected, nobody else signed up to share the tub with me. I had the tub to myself.

Adjacent to the old shared tub is a new log cabin that houses two new hot spring tubs that are rented for $50 per hour. It appeared that most soakers pay for guaranteed privacy. That allows me to enjoy the shared tub for free and in privacy.

New private Sandhill and Bluebird pools on the left. Old shared Osprey pool on the right.

Each hot spring tub has a rear entry door and a large door facing the creek and mountains. The large doors can be closed for privacy, but I doubt anybody does that because then they lose the amazing mountain view. The two new tubs have vertical rolling garage doors, which is kind of odd on a log cabin.

The shared "Osprey" hot spring pool. Curtains are for changing cubicles. No shower.

All the tubs have similar mountain and creek views. My tub was 105F which is a bit hotter than I prefer. I soaked with my arms out of the water. The water is odorless.

The hot pool is 4 feet deep with a sand bottom. Deep enough that a ladder is needed. The pool has a ring of benches that are high enough to leave feet dangling. It's deeper than a typical hot tub.

After a couple minutes sitting in the pool I decided to stand closest to the big door to enjoy the widest view of the Sawtooth mountains. I spent most of my hour standing in the pool close to the door, enjoying the view.

My tub is directly in front of the cold plunge pool in the creek, so I saw the private soakers go back and forth between their hot tubs and the creek. In between those episodes it was my private hot spring overlooking my private creek and mountains.

View while standing near the rear of the tub.

Wider mountain view while standing in the front edge of the Osprey pool.

The cold plunge has possibly the best Sawtooth mountains view. I scheduled my soak for the morning to have a good sun angle on the mountains.

Great Sawtooth mountain view from the cold plunge in Valley Creek.

Just before I left the area I looked into one of the vacant private tubs. They are quite new, maybe built only a year or two ago. The curtain is for a dressing cubicle, not a shower. My free shared tub is only available for hotel guests, but the private tubs are available to anybody who pays $50.

One of two new private soaks that cost $50 per hour. Shallower, doesn't require a ladder.

I left the area at about 11 AM when my scheduled time was up. I walked a couple minutes beyond the private tubs to see the public outdoor pool. I soaked there back in 2008 but didn't soak today. My probe thermometer measured 99.6F in 11 AM sun with air temperature about 70F. This pool needs some solar energy to be hot. It's not a good night soak. It also has an outstanding mountain view.

I walked 500 feet past the private hot springs to see the public Valley Creek (Snake Pit) hot spring pool. It was 99.6F.

After the soak I walked back to the resort to have lunch. The Chinese lunch was so big that it was dinner as well. I took a 3.5 hour nap in the afternoon. Rest is my top priority.

I had in mind to walk half a mile to the main village to explore a little bit. But I never got motivated to go that far. I don't regret it. I needed the rest.

Today was very sunny with a high temperature of 77F. My room doesn't have A/C but the room temperature only rose to 71F. My room is upstairs, but it faces east with good shade from a cottonwood tree. Naturally cool. Stanley is 6290 feet elevation, the highest overnight destination of this tour.

On an advertising video screen in the restaurant.

I saw many cyclists at the lodge yesterday, associated with a multi-day van-supported tour called Climate Ride. I never looked it up. Today I appear to be the only cyclist at the lodge. I saw a few raft company school buses in the morning. The lodge was fully booked for both nights of my stay. Stanley is a popular tourist destination.

Mountain Village Resort is different from most of the lodging I have seen during this tour. This resort is full of outdoor oriented people. People are here for hiking, raft trips, and fishing. The guests are noticeably thinner and fitter than tourists I saw elsewhere during the tour.

Another unique thing about Mountain Village Resort is the international workforce. I saw many black Caribbean workers, mostly women. I saw many eastern European workers, women and men. Stanley has a population of 122 people who are very wealthy and not looking for work. The nearest town is Ketchum which is a 1+ hour drive and also full of millionaires who aren't looking for seasonal work. Out of necessity, the resort hires foreign college students who are eligible for a work visa. And the resort has a dormitory to house the foreign workers. I saw this before at Mackinac Island in Michigan, Denali National Park in Alaska, and Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. They have to import seasonal workers because no workers live nearby.

Today I walked a mile to soak in a "new" hot spring, but the bike stayed in the room. I accomplished my goal of resting. I need to be well rested because tomorrow is the longest and hilliest day of the tour.

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