Detours

Since I was traveling alone on my weekend trip to visit Matt I decided to take a detour, drive a a few extra hours and stop at one of the places on my someday "I'm going to go there" list: Mystic Hot Springs. My desire to stop was two-fold; I like to soak in natural hot springs any time I can, and my interest to visit Mystic was piqued by the fact that the owner is fellow lampworker. Could there be a better combination?

Mystic Mike, the owner, is a lampworker, and an artist who who worked for Grateful Dead. The springs definitely have a bit of funky, hippy feel to them. I'm a big fan of funky so I enjoyed my soak there. There are a couple of largish pools down by the building, and up on the hill there are a series of old bathtubs fed by the continuously running hot water. I sat in one of the bathtubs, enjoyed the spectacular view of the Sevier Valley and had a nice chat with a fellow springs enthusiast.

Mike is a very sharing lampworker, a group of kids from Wasatch Academy (a Utah boarding school) was there, and Mike was doing lampworking demos for anyone who wanted to watch. He makes off mandrel pendants using borosilicate glass, so it was really interesting to watch him work. I've never worked boro, and I'm not very good at off mandrel work so for me it was an interesting lesson.

I had a great afternoon, and was glad I drove the couple hours out of my way. I really like exploring new places.

The view from the tubs.

The soaking pools.