CAREY, Idaho — As sunshine crept across the dark lava fields at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve on a recent Sunday morning, the slanting beams of light revealed beer bottles and trash strewn around a beloved hot spring just outside the preserve’s boundary.
When Sandee Byington pulled into a parking area for the spring along Highway 26, she was dressed in black spandex and a colorful head scarf. A silver medallion hung around her neck. She was craving a mineral-rich soak and some time in the sun.
Byington is a cancer survivor and attuned to her mineral intake.
“Vitamin D. I can feel it,” said Byington, her arms stretched out, face turned into the light.
After more than 30 years of soaking at this place known by three different names — Carey Hot Springs, Milford Hot Springs and Desert Rose Hot Springs — Byington is accustomed to finding a beer can or two around these treasured waters.
But on April 6, Byington felt gut-punched when she arrived at the springs to find it appallingly trashed.
She happened to have a black Sharpie, some construction paper and enough other materials to post a makeshift sign. It read: “What the bleep! Trash doesn’t belong here. We don’t want it looking like a dump.”
Byington joined two other Blaine County locals picking up trash in an ad hoc counter assault on this massive harsh to their collective mellow.
The makeshift garbage crew that came together that morning carried on the work of hot springs lovers around the West. Over the years, trash dumping and other unseemly behaviors have doomed once great hot springs hangouts.
“I was mad at first,” said Byington, now smiling and laughing, as the garbage disappeared into large black trash bags. “I feel like there's been a different crowd here and that's why, and maybe they don't understand.”
Byington is not only a devoted visitor to Carey Hot Springs and other wild soaking spots, she’s also a spa professional who works at Four Seasons Spa and Pool in nearby Hailey.
“We sell hot tubs and chemicals and everything,” said Byington, who prefers allowing the minerals from natural hot spring water to seep into her skin.
Still A Hot Spot
Carey Hot Springs emerges from black basalt along Huff Creek where Craters of the Moon lava fields advance to the base of sagebrush hills near Carey.
Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is a geological forebearer of Yellowstone National Park. The two are linked by the Yellowstone hotspot, a volcanic system that approximately 10 to 11 million years ago, was located beneath what is now Craters of the Moon.
As the North American tectonic plate moved southwestward, the hotspot's activity shifted eastward, eventually forming the Yellowstone Caldera.
Today, Yellowstone tourist traffic spills over into Craters of the Moon. Online posts include glowing reviews about Carey Hot Springs. One visitor got right to the point, “If you do visit, please be sure to LEAVE NO TRACE!”
The last thing anyone wants to see when rolling up to a wild hot spring. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
Jonathan Wagoner — who goes by both Wag and Wags — settled into a relaxing soak after helping to remove 100 pounds of trash dumped at Carey Hot Springs. This treasured spot sits between the Idaho town of Carey and Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
Before she left Carey Hot Springs on Sunday, April 6, longtime soaker Sandee Byington put up this reminder. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
Carey Hot Springs regular Joel Sweat. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
Aquarium fish apparently dumped in a warm pool that’s part of Carey Hot Springs. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
Pale blue waters surrounded by lava rock make for a pleasant oasis at Carey Hot Springs. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily)
Hometown Pride
The memories of a lifetime spent soaking at Carey Hot Springs came back to Joel Sweat that Sunday morning. While Byington constructed her sign and another hot springer — Jonathan Wagoner from Ketchum — picked up trash, Sweat recalled memorable moments from the springs.
“We used to come down here in high school, hang out, bring all the girls out,” remembered Sweat, who can see his grandfather’s ranch from the springs. “We had a couple of guys walk right off the top. Couple too many drinks. Fell in a hot pool right there.”
Sweat comes to the hot spring on quiet mornings to unwind and think about next steps in his ongoing push to enliven his small hometown of Carey. He’s renovating what was once a community hub — a local grocery store and gas station — and renaming it Joel’s.
There’s also his car restoration business, but all of it is a bit sullied by a dispute over water. Sweat said the canal running past his future grocery store and gas station is seeping onto his property and causing structural damage to the building.
“The canal is directly right against my building,” said Sweat. “I’ve got 4 inches of sunk concrete inside the building.”
In this case, it is water passing through — not people — causing a mess.
Chukar Paradise
Before Jonathan Wagoner learned to brine his chukar, he thought the meat of this wild sage land bird came across as too gamey. He’d tried the mask that taste by turning chukar breasts into nacho meat.
So on Friday, April 4, Wagoner brined some chukar and partridge he’d shot with his dog Henry and cooked a birthday celebration dinner for a friend. He browned the chukar and partridge in a skillet and served it with sauteed zucchini.
The weekend unfolded perfectly from there, with skiing under bright blue skies at Sun Valley on Saturday.
Then came the big closer for a perfect Idaho mountain getaway: A soak in Carey Hot Springs.
When Wagoner parked by the highway and saw the trash, he let out a sigh and thought about the big plastic bags stashed in the back of his pickup. Wagoner does snow removal, and now something much nastier had to go.
“Yeah, I got a little mad when I saw it. But then I went into solution mode. It’s a lot easier to get into a solution. You can waste your time complaining, but it’s better to be proactive. I was just like, ‘Hey, this is a way to be the change,’” said Wagoner.
Wagoner’s high school friends back in North Carolina call him Wag. His pals in Idaho call him Wags — and they all appreciate his skills as a cook and adventure guide.
“I love Idaho,” said Wag. “We still have probably some of the best access to wild places in the West.”
Wag then recalled a time he came face to face with a muscular mountain lion while hunting chukars outside Carey. He offered the story as proof that Carey and the surrounding open spaces are not trashed, but instead wild and worth protecting.
Wag and the others on trash duty that morning found a soiled diaper, a condom, plus full cans of corn and salmon. It was a gross mishmash of garbage.
Glass beer bottles were everywhere. To those picking up the mess, this broke a simple and unspoken rule for hot springs: no glass.
Wag figures he helped remove more than 100 pounds of trash.
While picking up the debris, which included several pairs of underwear, Wag found a bottle opener carefully stashed in the basalt where it could be retrieved for the next trash-the-place beer bash. It gave him great joy to forever remove the opener from its hiding place.
Partied Out Precedents
About 200 miles northwest of Carey Hot Springs near Garden Valley, Idaho, is Skinny Dipper Hot Springs. It sits above the South Fork of the Payette River at the end of a steep climb.
The Bureau of Land Management closed Skinny Dipper because in addition to packing out soiled diapers, condoms and drug paraphernalia, local authorities also removed at least one dead body.
Local BLM manager Brent Ralston told KTVB News in 2022 that it’s up to the public to come up with a plan to safely reopen Skinny Dipper.
“The BLM has left the door open for those types of proposals, but we haven’t received anything that will be a viable option,” said Ralston.
The BLM extended the closure for five years in 2021, according to news reports.
Like a roster of promising students who tragically flunked out of college because of drugs and alcohol, the “got trashed” list of hot springs in Idaho and Montana is alarming.
There’s Jerry Johnson Hot Spring south of Missoula, Renova Hot Springs near Whitehall and others around Montana that succumbed to an onslaught of trash and trashy behavior.
Wag didn’t let the thought of future closures at Carey Hot Springs get him down. The private landowners who allow soakers to enjoy the springs remain hands off for now.
After the trash was loaded into the back of Wag’s truck, he returned to the waters for a proper soak.
Wag spotted chukars on the hillside above, and he watched transplanted tropical aquarium fish flicker in the clear water.
Like beer bottles, the fish were dumped here. Like Wag, they seem to enjoy the place.
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
