This was published 6 years ago
Chico Hot Springs Resort review: Absaroka Mountain Range, near Yellowstone National Park, Montana
A winter's night dip at Chico Hot Springs pool.Credit: Jesse Lenz
The mercury has plunged to minus 40 but I'm wearing only board shorts and it's mighty fresh out as I skirt my way around the edge of the pool.
From the water's surface, clouds of steam rise into the night air. Bathers congregate over beers, soaking up the ambience beneath the stars while the sound of bluegrass drifts over from the nearby bar.
The thermal waters feel close to nirvana as I wade in up to my neck, the surrounding mountains barely visible through the vapour. Getting out again is going to be a test of sheer willpower.
Chico Hot Springs' pool offers a heavenly soak in winter.Credit: Jesse Lenz
If this experience is pleasurable now, I can only imagine how it must have felt for the original pioneers who settled here in the late 1800s.
I'm at Chico Hot Springs Resort, a property that lives and breathes its colourful heritage. Situated at the foothills of the Absaroka Mountain Range, near the border of Montana and Wyoming, it was established in 1900 to cater to the gold miners who flocked here in search of riches.
Since those early days, the hotel has had only five owners and is one of Montana's oldest continually operating businesses. Today it's retained by Seabring Davis and her husband, Colin, who after being partners in the outfit for 21 years bought the property outright in 2014.
Their love for the hotel's legacy is evident at every turn, there's a unique, cosy feel, not especially fancy but with genuine character. Upstairs in the Main Lodge, the crooked-leaning, low-ceilinged corridors are lined with framed, sepia toned photos of early settlers.
A reception with fireplace and comfy leather sofas stands between a saloon style bar – which backs onto the hot springs – and a more upmarket dining room serving hearty dishes such as rack of lamb or wild Alaskan king salmon.
The Main Lodge is a three-storey Victorian-style inn with 48 rooms but the property is also surrounded by rustic log cabins, chalets and cottages, an assortment of accommodation that ensures you don't need to have, ahem, struck gold to stay here. But its other ace card is its proximity to Yellowstone Park, the world's first National Park and among America's most spectacular. Using the hotel as our base, we frequently make the 25-minute trip – even in winter there's never any shortage of things to see, from wolves and birds of prey to hundreds of wild bison roaming free amid a snow-blanketed landscape.
But the resort is always a special place to come back to, somewhere you can relive the adventures of the day over a cold beer and a hot spa. "We want our guests to feel like this is home," says Seabring Davis. "Chico has gone through so many transformations since it was established, but our goal is to maintain the spirited character of the founders and honour its historic roots. It's still quintessential Montana: the people are friendly, the valley is beautiful and the water is hot."
TRIP NOTES
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FLY
Virgin Airlines operates frequent direct flights from Sydney to Los Angeles with ongoing connections to Bozeman via Salt Lake City. See virginamerica.com
TOUR
Grand American Adventures offers a 7-day, Yellowstone Winter Wildlife tour. Trip includes five lodge nights and one hotel night, professional tour leader and local guides, private vehicle and snow coach. Maximum group size 13, beginning and ending in Bozeman. Tour starts from $3989. Departure dates January 8, 2018 and January 29, 2018. See grandamericanadventures.com
STAY
Chico Hot Springs Resort offers cabins and hotel on the outskirts of Yellowstone National Park. Basic cabin rooms from $US71 a night. See chicohotsprings.com
Guy Wilkinson was a guest of Grand American Adventures.
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