BAGBY HOT SPRINGS, OREGON

Bagby Hot Springs is located about two hours east of Portland, Oregon, in the Mt. Hood National Forest. It is an exceptionally beautiful "world class soaking opportunity". The pools are at the end of a 1.5 mile hike through a lush rain forest. Be sure to lock your car and take all valuables with you since there have been an increasing number of auto-break-in's over the past couple of years.

DIRECTIONS:

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Norman Goetz wrote the best directions I have seen.]

Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997
From: Norman Goetz (norman.goetz@reed.edu)

The road is 2-lane paved all the way to the parking area at 2000' elevation. If there is a chance of snow at that elevation call Estacada Ranger Station at (503) 630-6861 for road conditions.

Take I205 to the Estacada exit, and follow Oregon 224 to Estacada. You could stop at the Estacada Ranger Station on the right as you enter Estacada and buy a map if you wish. Continue on through Estacada on OR224 about 25 miles and pass Ripplebrook Ranger Station. All major intersections beyond Ripplebrook are signed to Bagby at or just beyond the intersection. 1/2 mile past Ripplebrook is the Timothy Lake junction. Bear right on Forest Service Road 46. In about 3 miles turn right onto FS63. In about 4 miles turn right on FS70 and go about 6 miles to the parking area. The hike is an easy 1 1/2 miles, and is regularly done by flashlight as the trail is wide and easy to follow.

There are two other routes into Bagby, which go over 3500-foot passes which are not always plowed and so are subject to winter closure by snow. From US 26 southeast of Government Camp, take FS42, the Timothy Lake/Skyline road, west to Clackamas Meadows and bear right on FS57. Soon you will see Timothy Lake on the right, and cross the dam that forms it. Within 200 yards of the dam, take the downhill gravel fork of the road, which is still FS57. You will return to pavement in about 7 miles and eventually reach a 3-way intersection with FS46 to the left and OR224 to the right. Turn left onto FS46 and follow the directions above for OR224 to Bagby. This route is closed by locked gate from Dec. 1 to April 1 every year for snowmobile use, and in heavy snow years may be closed longer.

From the south Bagby can be reached from OR22 via FS 46. From Salem, go east on OR22 to Dertoit, OR. Just after you cross the long bridge as you enter Detroit, turn left at the gas station onto FS46. Stay left at the two turnoffs to Breitenbush Hot Springs and follow FS46 up over the pass. Watch for the intersection with FS63 going off to the left; it is not signed to Bagby from the south. Then follow the directions above to Bagby. This road is sometimes plowed in the winter for logging operations, especially until OR224 is repaired in 1998 to carry log trucks again, but it is unpredictable.

Norman

FRIENDS OF BAGBY HOT SPRINGS is a group of folks who love to hot tub it. They have members from all over Washington and Oregon whose primary interest is to protect and nurture the hot tubbing facilities at Bagby Hot Springs. You can reach them at:

Friends of Bagby
P. O. Box 1798
Clackamas, OR 97015-1798

SITE REVIEWS:

Subject: Bagby vandalism
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001
From: Kelly Dutra (kdutra@iinspect.com)

Yesterday on a regular trip to Bagby and the beautiful Mt. Hood National Forest, I was saddened, mad and confused. How can such a great place be the target of such vandalism, car break-ins and littering.

I was shocked to see the many piles of glass where cars had once been. Could you imagine driving home without your window rolled up, in the dark and possible rain? All of you stuff stolen, along with everyone else's. How long would it take to break-in to 20 cars!

On one of the bridges a carving, about a 1/2" deep and 2 feet long, that will be there for a long time. It made me so mad I wanted to scratch it out, just so who ever put it there wouldn't have the satisfaction of seeing it. Broken beer bottles and misc. trash litter the trail and highway. I was in behind a truck full of what appeared to be teenagers getting beer out of the back of the cab while driving on a wet windy road!

This is a place where animals live, not humans. On the way out I saw 2 deer standing in the road doing deer things. It is sad that there are people out there that vandalize and have no regard for anyone but themselves, and also the people who allow this to happen. Have YOU ever been there and witnessed something happen that you didn't feel right about. Did you say anything? It takes all of us to make Bagby a welcoming place. Bagby is somewhere to get away from the trash, and carelessness of other people, not go to it.

Please be true to the forest and leave it the way you found it, at least. If you can bring a bag and help pick up the trash that others leave behind, summer is coming and it's only going to get worse if WE don't stop it.

Kelly

Subject: Bagby Car Breakins 3-24-01
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001
From: CaptainGreer@aol.com

Dear Friends,

A sad story to report. Upon returning from a camping trip my buddy and I stopped at Bagby Hot Springs. A pleasant hike through the rain to the tubs. After a relaxing soak we started to hike back through the dark. We ran into some folks in need of a flashlight on the trail and helped them back to the parking lot. Upon arrival, however, they found that their car had been broken into. Not only was the girl's backpack stolen, but the driver's side AND passenger side windows had been smashed. A hateful act of vandalism. Piles of glass littered the ground where at least four other cars had been hit and had already left. Of the remaining cars in the lot only my bus and another vehicle had not been hit. This all must have happened between 5pm and 8 pm on a Saturday night.

Hot springs are a gift and the friends of Bagby do a wonderful job preserving the peaceful setting up there. However, the unlit and unpatrolled parking lot is a different story. I'm not sure if there might be a volunteer group established to prevent breakins by monitoring the lot. In the meantime, keep this in mind and don't leave ANYTHING that would entice a vandal. It is unfortunate that this sort of thing occurs, especially in such a wonderful place. Safe travels.

matt

Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999
From: Kris Murray (murphtall@mindspring.com)

Bagby: Nice idea, but I personally didn't like it.
People were waiting in line and we soaked in a TUB in PRIVATE! I can do that at home. When I go to soak I want to soak with others and not have someone impatiently waiting for 'their turn.' It was, however, a nice hike.

Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998
From: Dick Williams (rjw@sky.net)

Carl,

I can report that the road to Bagby is open. An opening ceremony took place at 11am Monday 10-26-98 and two years after the destruction of the bridge and washout on Oregon route 224 the road is again open.

I drove up to Bagby Hot Springs and had a good drive, a great walk up the trail to the springs and a fine soak. What a great place - worth the trip from Kansas City to Portland just to visit Bagby. The fall colors were bright in the afternoon sun - just a prime time to visit Bagby.

The volunteers from Friends of Bagby do a great job of maintaining the site - no trash, the tubs and everything were clean and you just have a good feeling that you're in a peaceful, safe and beautiful place. What a setting. Hollowed out logs for soaking tubs, some in the open and some in private booths for privacy.

Easy mile and a half hike up to the springs from the parking lot. A couple of sthe highway igns seemed to be missing so for anyone following directions to Bagby watch the mileages as well as look for signs. I think the turnoff to hiway 70 from hiway 63 was missing a "70" sign. And be sure to have plenty of gas leaving Estacada enroute to Bagby. No stations beyond Estacada and it's no fun watching the gas gauge up and back. (as i did)

There's always been a way to Bagby even with 224 closed - it's just a shorter trip now from Portland with the highway repopened.

Dick Williams rjw@sky.net
Kansas City MO
10-27-98

Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998
From: MonkeyBoy (kthom@earthlink.net)

Found the place easily enough, coming in from the South through the town of Detroit on I-22. When I went (August 1997) this was the only way in as the road from Estacada in the North had been washed out and not yet repaired. I used a very good map from the U.S. Forest Service of the Mt. Hood National Forest, Oregon ($6.00 - call (503)668-1771). From Detroit I turned North on FS46 (which also leads to Breitenbush) to FS63, made a left turn (South) onto FS63 to where it forked with FS70. I turned onto FS70 and found the trailhead for Bagby Hot Springs. Large trash receptacle and toilets available, with space for maybe twenty cars. The hike up to the springs is quite beautiful, not arduous at all.

When you first come to the area you can see the main bathouse from the trail (see picture). Inside the bathhouse there are maybe 4 or five private cubicles with hollowed out logs used for individual soaking. Around behind these is a communal area with a large barrel hot tub and 4 individual hollowed out logs. Between the communal area and the private area is a large barrel filled with cold water. What you do is take one of the large white plastic buckets hanging around, fill it with cold water, and dump this in to the individual log or hot tub while hot water runs in through the spring's slue. There are slues feeding each log and the hot tub that can be stoppered up when you've got enough hot.

Continue to dump in cold water until you reach the desired temperature. (The next picture is of the communal area with individual soaking logs.)

While I was there, everyone was nude, soaking, walking around, smoking etc., until a group of high school aged kids (boys and girls) arrived and used bathing suits. As you can see in the picture, these two guys also elected to remain textiled.

If you hike a little further past the main bathhouse, you find a small building housing another open air hot tub all by itself. This one operates on the same system as the lower ones, but when I was there it was already filled so I didn't see where the cold water came from. Very peaceful and quiet, especially if the group of high-schoolers should become loud and rambunctions (This last picture is a very out of focus shot of the upper tub.)

Date: Thu, 11 Jan 96
From: rexs13 (rexs13@teleport.com)

Bagby is Great!!!

There are currently two developed springs supplying water to three "bath houses." The springs are (if memory serves me correctly) 138 degrees and 135 degrees with cold water available for cooling down the soaking tubs. The soaking tubs are made of cedar and are: 2 hot tub like cedartubs one in a shelter by its self and the other in a shared public shelter with the three original log tubs that remain from a fire in 1979; and 5 cedar log tubs (cut like canoes) in a shelter with partitions screening the tubs from each other and the outside.

Bagby is definately clothing optional most of the time, but when groups of children (or swimsuiters) are in the public area during the day, polite people follow the lead of the group that was there first or use another area of the site.

Drinking and drugs are discouraged and I am not current on policies regarding them as the last time that I was there (Feb. 1995) there was some discussion of a policy change due to flagrant drug usage. The best time to go to Bagby is during the week in the cooler part of the year if privacy is anticipated. Expect lines during the summer. A sign up board with a 1/2 hr. limit on soaks was in effect during 1994 (or was that '93). I quit visiting during peak times and seasons after that. Weekends can be loud as SOME people bring their boom boxes and compete with each other. Bring a flashlight at night.

Keep on soakin'.

rexs13

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