The Hot Spring:

  A lot of love has been put into Skinnydipper Hot Spring to create the wonderful pools located half a mile up a very steep hill.  Three wonderfully constructed rock and mortar pools have been carved into the hillside above the south fork of the Payette River.  The 160 degree F source water along with a cold water source is piped to all the pools in a complex system of source and drain pipes.  The temperatures are controled by valves at each pool so any temperature is atainable.

  The first pool you reach on the trail, and lowest pool is the largest pool of the three.  It is commonly called the "party pool" because it is big at about 15 feet in diameter.  The pool was dug into the hillside with a rock and mortar dam on the far side and a rock and mortar bench built around some of the sides of the pool.  The hot water cascades out of a pipe into the pool so the water is mixed and stays at an even temperature.  There are two drain pipes and cleaning supplies hidden in the bushes to clean the pool (volenteers regularly clean these pools).

  The uppermost pool is the smallest, big enough for about 3 people and is usually kept the hottest.  It has cold and hot water pipes with valves.  The overflow and unused hot water flows into the middle pool, which is also the middle in size.  The water temperature in this pool is controled with a cold water inflow pipe.  Overflow pipes and underwater drain pipes connect the middle pool with the "party pool".

  Most of the work for Skinnydipper was volenteer built in the late 90's and is still maintained by some of the original builders.  The entire path is maintained by some people while different people maintain and clean the pools.  To make these pool so wonderful people put in a lot of work and still hike up concrete and pvc to fix and continue to upgrade these pools.  Unfortunatally because of how nice this spring is and the proximity to a highway the sping has been abused, vandalized, and violence has occured.  Because of this local athorities posted signs closing the spring at night.  These rules should be respected and all trash carried out because if not the spring could be closed and the rock and mortar structures destroyed (like what happened at Rocky Canyon Hot Springs).