Juntura Hot Springs

Oasis Cafe in Juntura

Dry thistle. So I thought it was pretty.

Note road entering and leaving river. We did not drive across.

Malheur River

Ugly River Shoes necessary for wading rivers

I don't really know if that is the name of these hot springs which are on an island in the middle of the Malheur River a few miles east of Juntura. You have to know where you are going to find them. Of course, John knew since he is a hot springs aficionado. We went yesterday, stopping first at the Oasis Cafe in Juntura for lunch and on the way back for one of their fabulous milkshakes. However, one has to pause on reading the hand lettered signs on the door of the cafe:  Restrooms for customers only; We cannot accept any trash; We have worms. Hmmm. We found the road into the hot springs and met a couple walking out whose battery went dead in their giant truck while they were listening to the radio in the middle of nowhere. Of course, we had jumper cables and they were soon on their way which left us the sole use of the shade of the lone juniper to park our truck. One has to wade the fast moving river to get to the island. John did but we had to find me a slower moving spot to wade across since I'm such a frail thing. I didn't take the camera across the river because John was afraid I'd take a tumble in the water and loose the camera. So no hot spring photo but just imagine the big pool at Mickey Springs and that is what this one looked like. By the time we left the temperature was 102 degrees. That milkshake sure tasted good.