Mist mountain hot springs trail

  • Hike length: 6.3km
  • Elevation gain: 570m
  • Difficulty: Hard
  • Highlights: Green meadows, wildflowers, windy terrain, natural hot springs with crazy views

Mist mountain springs trail, one of my favorite hikes. A hard hike just to have a bath in nature’s hot tub 😊 The meadows are windy but filled with all colors of wild flowers. A few steep sections but totally worth it.

The first section is in the forest but it’s pretty short. Then it opens up to wide green meadows filled with wildflowers in the summer and pretty windy terrain. The views at first peak are crazy beautiful. After the first peak, there is a steep downhill to the path that leads to the hot springs. Usually there will be ice/snow in this trail at one of the sections not too far from the first peak. After this snow section there is a steep uphill, a small forest section and near the hot springs another steep downhill which is the toughest part of the whole hike. The terrain around the hot spring is very slanting and need to have strong foot hold around there. We have seen many bags rolling downhill from this area. There would be a wait to get into the pool, but people usually are aware of the waiting hikers and give way to others pretty soon.

Hot springs: there are 2 small pools, and the water comes through a small tunnel section into the first pool. Photos come great from the second pool. Water is warm (not too hot) and feels great.

Below I have the details of the trail and the journey:

View just after Treeline
meadows
View of first summit
First summit views
View from First summit
The steep downhill on the right from the first summit
The entire trail from the first summit to the hot springs. Hot springs are at around the blue arrow marked area
The steep downhill from first summit
Loose rocks filled trail
Another amazing view of the valley
Snow section (in July) to be crossed, then a steep uphill and s small tree section
Final downhill section to the hot springs (pretty steep section) and you can see the slanting terrain here
Boys in the second pool, pic taken from first pool
From a very photogenic rock near the pools !!
Windy !!!!

Short video of the hike –

All the wildflowers we saw on this hike –