"Darkness must pass
A new day will come
And when the sun shines
It will shine out the clearer"

J.R.Tolkien

I keep telling myself this. While I consider myself to be quite adventurous, I feel the despair of the winter blues often. Sometimes, I find myself pacing the house, feeling anxious because I just feel SO stuck. (First world problems right?) Don't worry friends, the spring is coming...it's can't be winter forever.

We had to make our way to Southern Utah for a funeral and I thought that there has got to be something along I-15 to do. While the sweet little city of Mona came to my mind, I didn't think it would be that fun in the mud and snow, so I did a little research on Pinterest. (Thank goodness for Pinterest right?!)

I found that just 5 miles off of I-15 there are some hot springs. The night before, I was couldn't sleep because I was so excited for something new and exciting! I kept talking about it all the way down. My husband was probably sick of me reminding him to pull of in the city of Meadow.

Hot DANG right?

The instructions we found weren't super specific, but I figured in such a tiny town that it can't be that hard to find.

It's a short walk from the parking lot through the muddy road to the springs. It was oddly warmer that day, I didn't even get cold walking through the mud in just my swimsuit. Like I said, I loved the mud, it only made me all the more excited to get to the hot spring!

There was quite the crowd there. Even some people scuba diving!

It was amazing friends.

Nothing like gazing out at all the mountains seeing the snow while sitting in your swimsuit.

The water was plenty warm. I've read that it's 80 degrees and 100 degrees. Since I don't carry a thermometer all the time, I have no idea. But honestly, the kids were just fine as long as they were in the water.

I've found myself asking the scuba divers if they wold take some photos with my camera...since I wasn't diving down myself.

I'm kicking myself that we didn't bring goggles.

The side we were on had some kind of rock ledge that we all stood on. It was about 4 feet deep. The water was kind of murky and quite a bit of moss, but I didn't feel stinky or gross after.

While we were walking out, we talked about visiting the second pool, mainly because someone had mentioned that there are fish in that one! Luckily, the second one was a dirt road that wasn't a muddy mess.

Second Pool

This one was WAY bigger but not was warm.

There were tons of little fish. On closer inspection, I found that multiple species and lots of neon colors. Obviously, they are not local to the area.

There is also a dock...purely for the joy of jumping off into the pool.

Of course I took complete advantage of this pool. I had it all to myself. So I jumped and jumped and jumped off the dock.

Over.

And Over.

And Over again.

It was exhilarating!

I actually don't love to swim, I'm more of a floater, but for some reason this made my heart so happy. It definitely lifted some of that awful winter blues.

I was quite sad to leave. But, we still had 2 hours on the road and it was getting darker and colder.

Apparently, there is a third pool (shown on the maps below) but I have no information about this one. We will of course be back.

Cache Valley Cheese Factory | Beaver Creamery

We made one more stop in Beaver.

I'm always surprised that people don't know about the creamery there. Back in the day when I used to eat lots of ice cream and cheese, we'd stop here all the time. It's always busy and a favorite of all the super cheap college kids traveling back and forth.

Especially, since there are FREE squeaky cheese samples!

I sent my husband in, thinking he'd just get his sample. Instead, he came out with pink ice cream (Almond Divinity) and a bag of squeaky cheese. Little Aiko could hardly contain herself, she's loving everything pink.

Man, even thought we were making this road trip for sad circumstances, making these quick stops along I-15 made this trip so much more fun!

Just to recap where we stopped:

1. Stop in Mona, at GayDean's Sweet Art Bakery. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Plus, their prices are pretty dang good and delicious. (Don't forget to stop at the Young Living Lavender Farms  I'd recommend warmer weather activity.)
2. Meadow Hot Springs
3. Beaver Creamery

We'd love to see your adventures! If you go hashtag #thesaltproject, we want to see you there!