not your grandmother's resort

Hot Lake Springs, La Grande, OR

Judd and I wanted a get away for the long weekend. Hearing that we liked mineral springs, a friend at work had recommended Hot Lake to us. He said to be sure and check out the history before we went. We did. We were not deterred by reports of hauntings or lack of restaurant. We portaged our own wine and dinner and our big kid "I don't believe in ghosts" chants and went anyway. La Grande, Oregon sits in a very big valley and it requires going over a mountain pass any which way you go. I have a phone app to tell how much snow is on which mountain pass and all reports were "clear roads" and a rainy forecast. We chose the not-highway and went the windy back (scenic) road. We started seeing snowbanks from the last few snows and in Elgin, the road markers were those orange 10 foot poles already packed with 5 feet of plowed snow banks. And then the rain switched to snow while we were having tea time at the Elgin Outpost. We swerved into the driveway when I saw the sign that said PIES. We purchased an entire apple pie and they warmed up a couple pieces to have with our mulled wine. Judd even ran into one of his students who was out for snow fun. My car has studded snow tires. Good thing too, because we came across several places where you have to carry chains or traction tires to continue over the pass.

We arrived at Hot Lake Spring before 3:00-check-in. Peacocks, guinea fowl and a cat came to greet us. The building looks like a hybrid of an old brick VA hospital and the Overlook Hotel which inspired The Shining. We were informed : "We don't do early check ins." So we asked if we could visit the museum until check-in time. They were very happy to escort us to the theater, an actual theater, with a running movie of how the family met, how the family developed their bronze foundry, how, in 2003, they unified their family to buy and restore a dilapidated resort from the 1860s which had been, in turn, a resort, a sanitorium, an asylum, and back to a resort.Turns out this month, this family is moving and we're the last visitors to see the museum and art here. All the personal artifacts are being moved. The only other guests this weekend are a couple volunteers who are here to help pack up things for the move. An organization called Veterans Restorative Care Center is taking it on in a project to help disabled Veterans.

After the documentary, we led ourselves on a tour of the history center/museum--the second floor is the owner's private collection of memorabilia from every war/conflict from the civil war to World War II--many, many old uniforms and guns. I walk faster through history than Judd so I was done sooner. The third floor is all Native American artifacts. A lot. More arrowheads than you've ever seen in one place. With our overnight status, we were allowed to roam the halls of the entire resort (unless there was a guest in the room) and explore all the ancient things. We had also seen some You-Tubes during our research of the place, saying it was well known to be haunted. Judd and I were on the out-look for paranormal activities. We creeped ourselves out badly--mostly on the third floor where the old surgery/hospital used to be.

After check in, we did explore halls and rooms and porches and elevator shafts, looking for ghosts and history. We had been assigned to the Huffman Room as it appears to be the most funkily decorated suite in the house, but the radiator was so loud and squeaky that we asked for a quieter room. They found us the McMahan room (because the radiator was broken.) It was perfect and the supplied space heater was quiet as well. Our adjoining room was warm and we could sit and play cribbage at the bistro table or recline in the easy chairs and watch a Netflix movie. We had brought enough noshing to sustain us for dinner. The other half of that pie we bought at the Outpost helped. All the radiators run on the hot spring water so it must cut down on the heating bill.

About sunset, we decided to try the hot mineral baths. This was the primary reason for our trip. Turns out about 2/3 of the tubs were not in service. Our choices were: the Brick Tub, the White Tub or the Rock Tub. They are all outdoors but the brick one is enclosed in a brick cubicle-- protected from the rain and wind, but no view. The White Tub is a fiberglass hot tub and tends to be cooler. The Rock tub is just what it says, about a double sized hot tub area constructed from cemented rocks--looks more au naturel, holds the heat longer. In fact, they have two hoses running: they add cold water when the temperature gets too hot. The water from the springs comes out as 208 degrees! They add the hot hose to the white tub that cools off overnight. And then they periodically switch the hoses to regulate the temperature. Judd and I paraded through the lobby in our hot pink and pale pink robes that come with the room. It was chilly getting there but after 40 min in 105 degree water, it was very comfortable walking back (albeit harder to dodge the peacock poo in the dark.) It was a rainy, foggy night but we could still see the snow on the surrounding mountains and hear some dumb geese who haven't gone far enough south for the winter yet. We soaked upon arrival, twice on Sunday and once before departing on Monday morning amid a slight dusting of snow. However, getting out of the Grande Ronde River valley over the Blue Mountains proved to be the scariest part of the weekend. It was snowing and foggy and a million tractor trailers in various stages of putting chains on or taking chains off were on the edge of the road or going painfully slow in front of us, spraying our windshield with mud. At some points I could not see one car's length in front of us. But we're back in Walla Walla now, sitting outside in the sun at 42º. We're all chill and exfoliated from our spa weekend. Not going to let some haunted inn get in our way.

FUN FACTS from the hotel brochure:
"The spring is the largest spring of its kind in the world; it releases 3 million gallons of water a day and fills the 8 acre Hot Lake."
"The mineral waters contain sulfur, calcium, aluminum, magnesium sulfate, sulfides, phosphorous and iron."
"Hot Lake was referred to as a Holy Ground by the Native Americans."
"The elevator in the brick part of the hotel is the second oldest elevator on the west coast."
"The x-ray machine used at Hot Lake pre-dates the X-ray machine on display at the Smithsonian Institute."
"Hot Lake was well established as the Mayo Clinic of the west."
"Under Dr Phy, arthritis, tuberculosis, alcoholism and venereal diseases (especially syphilis) were treated at the clinic."

Judd and I got all healed up from what ails us.......wouldn't YOU like to know?