HOT SPRINGS AND COLD BREWS

The little blond girl kept watching the eight of us, all employees at Yellowstone, in the tepid pool at Chico Hot Springs. We were playing ‘keep the beach ball in the air” (there must be a shorter name for that game but I don’t know it). The wind grabbed the ball and hurled it her direction. Leaving her Mom’s side, she leaped into the air and handily volleyed it back to our group.  “You’ve got a great arm, there,” I told her.

A few minutes later another gust blew our beach ball her direction again. Again she volleyed with precision. “Care to play?” I asked. She obviously wanted to join in this raucous game and I knew my fellow Xanterra employees would be mindful of her disadvantaged size. What I didn’t know is that she plays league volleyball at home and could smack that ball better than most of us.

Chico Hot Springs, a lovely historic destination resort in Pray, Montana, is a place where not only nature and old-time luxury come together but where people from all over the world relax in the hot pools, eat great food, dance to talented local bands (country of course) and meet and greet others who are doing the same. That’s probably the best quality of Chico – the willingness of guests to let their city reserve be pierced so they can enjoy Chico’s good old community party.

I had never heard of Chico Hot Springs until I decided to move to Yellowstone. A friend in Tucson knew about it and told me about it as soon as she heard I was moving to the Park.  My son had heard of it, though, calling it “Montana’s best” and declaring “everybody in Montana knows about Chico.”  As a student and then a struggling young political organizer in the wilds of Montana, he never had sufficient cash to visit Chico which is tucked into the mouth of a beautiful canyon in Paradise Valley 40 miles above Yellowstone. It was the first time for both of us when I booked a room in the Main Lodge (now my preferred lodging out of the greatly varied and numerous accommodation), two nights before I was to show up for my new job at Yellowstone.

Chico has been around a very long time.  The first written record of the existence of Chico was in Miner John S. Hackney’s diary dated January 16, 1865. By the late 1880s two wooden tubs in the small wooden building had been built to accommodate guests. By 1900, the ‘modern’ Chico was born when the Main Lodge, which still exists today, was opened for guests to the Springs. Over the next few years, a larger hot springs pool and several smaller ones, some for the exclusive use of the ‘ladies’, were built to accommodate Chico’s growing popularity. I’m guessing that the popularity of Chico closely followed the growing popularity of that ‘new National Park way out West’. It must have been the perfect place for the well-heeled first guests to soak off the dust and dirt of the more primitive Park.

Beginning with the last months of the World War I, Chico made substantial renovations. A large rectangular pool took the place of the smaller pools and the hot springs lobby (now the Saloon – an excellent establishment) was constructed.  Eventually a rounded roof was constructed over the entire complex which collapsed on 70 swimmers in the 50s. Only two swimmers were injured but because of the popularity of the now open-to-the-sky pool, the roof was never rebuilt. Today, a ‘shade’ roof extends over the smaller and hottest of the two contemporary pools, a benefit on those ‘hot’ (temperatures in the 80s are considered ‘hot’ here) dog days of Southern Montana’s summer.

The two pools offer distinctly different activities. The ‘hot’ pool averages 103 degrees year-round while the larger ‘swimming pool’ stays around 96 degrees.  Water heated to 96 degrees feels very much like skin temperature – it is not cold and not hot but perfectly suited to swimming lazy laps. It is also the place 'community' pool games are started which generally wind up involving the entire good-natured pool population in retrieving the pool beach ball for the earnest players. 

The hot pool invites bathers to drop their cares, relax their minds and muscles and tune in to the community ambiance that exists at Chico. Last night, while I soaked in the hottest part of the pool, I talked with two couples from Hawaii (the wives had the spa brochure tightly clutched in their perfectly manicured hands), heard one local talking about 'sustainable economic growth for Wyoming' with two bored-looking young women and watched young parents carefully introducing hot water to their infant with an older grandmotherly type urging them to 'be careful'. In another corner of the hot pool, a couple was expressing their love for each other very publicly (most likely fueled by the brews in the plastic cups they clutched in their hands).

Unlike other commercial hot springs I have visited (Banff comes to mind), Chico really IS a community asset.  Most Friday and Saturday nights locals flood the Saloon to dance to the tunes of local (and very good) bands. It is the community’s ‘swimming pool’ where the person next to you could be a summer resident, a full-time rancher or your waitress at the restaurant in Livingston. It is this critical difference – Chico’s importance as a community watering hole – that makes it so very different than your other commercial hot springs and spas. Just the sort of place that a young tween is invited to join in on an adult game of ‘keep the beach ball from touching the water’.

It's not all community, though. The mineral hot springs, with a long reputation for its ‘healing powers’ must have been a natural lead-in to offering full spa services including massage, facials, and mud baths, giving Chico the right to claim itself a ‘full-service resort’. The modern spa building sits on a hill overlooking the Main Lodge, just a few steps away from the Main Lodge and Lobby. You can have your private, self-indulgent moment at Chico.

The Main Lodge has a spacious, wood and trophy decorated lobby. Comfortable western chairs and sofas beckon weary city folk with the urge to sit a spell. The Main Lodge offers European-style rooms on the second and third floors with toilets in small rooms which are separate from the bathing rooms. These smaller rooms start around $53 and are worth every penny. Rooms with attached baths are also available for up to $93 in the Main Lodge. The rooms on the second floor lead right into a long hall which ends directly at a corner of the hot pool. These are my favorite; soak until you don't want to anymore and then drag your relaxed feet down a hall to your room where your comfortable bed is waiting for you. Perfect.

 Other lodging is available as well, including full luxury cabins and more modern rooms in other lodges. Prices run a bit higher than the Main Lodge, from $129 to the well over $200s.  Families can even reserve chalets and cottages, up on the hill above Chico's gardens for even more money. And during the summer, every single one of those rooms and cabins are booked 100% of the time. Like Yellowstone, everyone wants to go to Chico.

Even completely occupied, though, the only place you really sense there are a LOT of people is the Dining Room in the Main Lodge. The Chico Dining Room has been offering world-class dining for many years.  The locals use it for all kinds of special occasions. It probably has seen more engagement and bachelorette dinners than most establishments in the area.  The chef flies in fresh fish (the trout and salmon don’t have too far to go); all baking is done on-premises; the vegetables and herbs are often from Chico’s own beautiful kitchen garden (it’s in back of the Event Facility and worth visiting); and Chico’s wine list would satisfy the pickiest wine aficionado. The Dining Room is pricey and the service is impeccable. You need to make a reservation in order to avoid eating what might be fashionably late for New Yorkers but is way past their bedtime for most rural Westerners.

Never fear, though, if you don’t fancy spending $$$$ (the code in the guide books for get your credit card out), you can eat in the Saloon or pool-side Grill. My favorite meal is the Saloon’s Bison Burger and home fries chased down with on-tap Cold Smoke Scotch Ale from the Kettlehouse Brewery in Missoula.  I can usually walk away more than satisfied for less than $15 including the beer. The Grill has even less fancy options – it is the ‘fast food’ joint for the young ones.

Chico is a four-season resort. It offers horseback rides in the spring, summer and early fall. You can take a dog-sled ride in the Winter (and then warm up in the Hot Springs). Hiking, river-rafting or kayaking, fishing and even hunting could be arranged with local guides. I mostly take a good book, enjoy the Hot Springs and take little bitty walks around the beautiful grounds until I feel righteous enough to head once again to the Hot Springs.

If, however, you are looking for a marble-floored, high-class Ritz, don’t go to Chico. You just might not be able to get the hang of wearing comfortable clothing and forgoing your makeup. You might just not ‘fit in’ to the relaxed culture of the West. But if you want to hobnob with locals and people from all over the world looking for the same thing you are – a good time in a relaxing and beautiful setting at a fair and most reasonable price, Chico might just be perfect for you. And maybe you, too, might be urged to join in a game of ‘keep the ball from hitting the water’ in the tepid pool. Only, of course, after your muscles have had a long soak in the hot pool during which you kept cool with one of Montana’s excellent microbrews from the Saloon.  Yee haw!