Hot Springs of Western Canada: A Complete Guide, 4th Edition

By Glenn Woodsworth and David Woodsworth

Explore the natural glory of hot springs with the updated 4th edition of Hot Springs of Western Canada.

Hot springs are among western Canada’s most enjoyable attractions. Some are famous like Fairmont and Harrison and have posh resorts built around them. Some, like Hot Springs Cove in Clayoquot Sound, cascade through a series of natural pools. Many more are hidden away in the wilderness, known only to locals—or owners of this guidebook.

A perennial bestseller now in its fourth updated edition, Hot Springs of Western Canada is a comprehensive guide to roughly 115 hot springs located mostly in BC, but also in Alberta, Yukon, the western Northwest Territories and even near the border in Washington and Alaska. It covers access, conditions, history and noteworthy details of these enticing natural wonders. Additionally, there are numerous colour photographs and engaging preface articles explaining the science and history of hot springs. This guide is a must-have for anyone who enjoys a soothing soak, either in a popular park or in the privacy of the wilderness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Harbour Publishing
• Release date: Sep 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781990776458

Glenn Woodsworth

Glenn Woodsworth is a professional field geologist and has been mountaineering, rock climbing and exploring the backcountry of western BC for over sixty years, with an avocational and recreational interest in hot springs for over forty-five years. He has written, edited and contributed to several outdoor guides, including Dick Culbert’s classic A Climber’s Guide to the Coastal Ranges of British Columbia (Alpine Club of Canada, 1965) and Bruce Fairley’s Climbing and Hiking in Southwestern British Columbia (Gordon Soules Book Publishers, 1986). He has operated Tricouni Press with his wife, Joy Woodsworth, since 1993. He lives in Vancouver, BC.

Book preview

An illustrated map of British Columbia, Canada, with surrounding parts of Alberta, Northwest Territories, Yukon Territory, Alaska and Northwestern Washington. The areas of the map covered in this book are marked. There are red dots marking undeveloped hot or warm springs, and red triangles marking commercial hot springs.

Glenn Woodsworth & David Woodsworth

Hot Springs of Western Canada: A Complete Guide, 4th edition.Harbour Publishing

Copyright © 2023 Glenn Woodsworth and David Woodsworth

1 2 3 4 5 — 27 26 25 24 23

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca, 1-800-893-5777, [e-mail].

Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.

P.O. Box 219, Madeira Park, BC, V0N 2H0

www.harbourpublishing.com

Photos by the authors unless otherwise credited

Edited by Noel Hudson

Maps by Glenn Woodsworth

Cover and text design by Libris Simas Ferraz / Onça Publishing

Printed and bound in South Korea

Supported by the Government of Canada

Supported by the Canada Council for the ArtsSupported by the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council

Harbour Publishing acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Hot springs of Western Canada : a complete guide / Glenn Woodsworth & David Woodsworth.

Names: Woodsworth, G. J., author. | Woodsworth, David, 1967- author.

Description: 4th edition. | Includes index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20230458521 | Canadiana (ebook) 20230458661 | ISBN 9781990776441 (softcover) | ISBN 9781990776458 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCSH: Hot springs—Canada, Western—Guidebooks. | LCGFT: Guidebooks.

Classification: LCC GB1198.4.C3 W66 2023 | DDC 917.1204/4—dc23

For Mike Sato and Charles Rummel, who for decades have worked to promote a culture of environmentally sensitive soaking in Canada similar to that found in Japan,

and for Nick Janosy, for whom the journey to the springs is more important than the soaking itself,

and in memory of the late Gordon Soules, the publisher of Jim McDonald’s hot springs book and the first three editions of this guide.

Updates and Future Editions

Hot springs are ephemeral and can change with the year and the season. Logging roads and bridges wash out; new ones are built. Good pools get trashed; junky ones get fixed up by dedicated volunteers. In other words, things change.

Any guidebook is only as good as the information in it. Corrections and clarifications to material in this book are most welcome, as are descriptions of new springs and suggestions for future editions. Please send all corrections, new information, and suggestions to the authors at westerncanadahotsprings​@outlook.com, and maybe we will run into you at a spring.

Disclaimer

Although the authors have tried to make the information in this book as accurate as possible, information in any guidebook is subject to change and error. As well, this guidebook does not list all possible hazards or describe conditions as they may be encountered on any particular day. Neither the authors nor the publisher accept responsibility for any outdated information, omissions, or errors in this guidebook, nor do they accept responsibility for any loss, injury, death, or inconvenience sustained by any persons using this guidebook.

The information in this guidebook regarding travel on private land and use of hot springs on private land is given for information purposes only and does not imply any legal right of access. We do not condone trespassing. Neither the authors nor the publisher accept responsibility for the possibility that users of this guidebook may trespass on private property.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Fourth Edition

About Hot Springs

About This Guide

The Lower Mainland of British Columbia

Springs Best Reached from the Fraser Valley

Harrison Hot Springs Resort

Clear Creek (Ruth Larsen) Hot Springs

Pitt River Hot Springs

Springs Best Reached from Pemberton

Sloquet Hot Springs

Tsek (Skookumchuck, St. Agnes’ Well) Hot Springs

August Jacob’s (Frank Creek) Hot Springs

Keyhole (Pebble Creek, Lilwatatkwa7) Hot Springs

Job Creek Warm Springs

Meager Creek Hot Springs (Nqw’elqw’elusten)

Placid and No Good Springs

Other Springs

Vancouver Island

Hot Springs Cove (Sharp Point, Ramsay Hot Spring)

Mate Islands Warm Seep

Ahousaht (Flores Island) Warm Springs

Other Springs on Vancouver Island

Northwestern Washington

Sol Duc Hot Springs

Olympic Hot Springs

Baker Hot Spring

Scenic Hot Springs

Sulphur Hot Springs

Gamma Hot Springs

Kennedy Hot Springs

The Cariboo and Okanagan

Canoe Creek Warm Springs

Angel (KLO) Warm Springs

Rumours and Cold Springs

The West Kootenays

Canyon (Albert Canyon) Hot Springs

Halcyon Hot Springs Resort

Halfway River Hot Springs

Upper Halfway River Hot Springs

St. Leon Hot Springs

Nakusp Hot Springs

Taylor Warm Springs

Octopus Creek Hot Springs

Little Wilson Hot Springs

Ainsworth Hot Springs Resort

Crawford Creek Warm Springs

Other Springs

The East Kootenays

Dewar Creek Hot Springs

Buhl Creek (Skookumchuck) Hot Springs

Fording Mountain (Sulphur) Warm Springs

Wild Horse Warm Springs

Ram Creek Hot Springs

Lussier (Whiteswan) Hot Springs

Red Rock Cool Springs

Fairmont Hot Springs Resort

Radium Hot Springs

Other Springs

Alberta (and Saskatchewan)

Banff National Park

Cave and Basin National Historic Site

Banff Upper Hot Springs

Middle and Kidney Springs

Vermilion Lakes Cool Springs

Kananaskis Country

Mist Mountain Hot Spring

Jasper and Valemount

Miette Hot Springs

Kinbasket (Canoe River, Canoe Reach) Hot Springs

Saskatchewan

Temple Gardens Hotel and Spa

Off Highway 16: Prince George to Prince Rupert

Tchentlo Lake Warm Springs

Lakelse (Mount Layton) Hot Springs

Frizzell Hotsprings

Hlgu Isgwit (Aiyansh, Zolzap) Hot Springs

Burton Creek Hot Springs

British Columbia’s Central Coast

Klinaklini River Region

Canyon Lake (Sixth Lake) Hot Springs

Hoodoo Creek Hot Springs

Franklin River Rumours

Bella Coola Region

Sheemahant Hot Springs

Asseek River Warm Springs

Tallheo Hot Springs (Icp’iixm, Hot Springs Creek)

Nascall Hot Springs (Nuskw’lh)

Eucott Bay Hot Springs (Alhltl’liiqw)

Other Springs

North Coast and Haida Gwaii

Khutze Inlet Warm Springs

Klekane Inlet Hot Springs

Goat Harbour Hot Seep

Bishop Bay Hot Springs

Shearwater (Europa Bay) Hot Springs

Brim River Hot Springs

Weewanie Hot Springs

G̱andll K’in Gwaay.yaay (Hotspring Island)

Northwestern British Columbia

Lower Stikine, Iskut, and Unuk Rivers Region

Chief Shakes Hot Springs

Barnes Lake (Paradise) Warm Springs

Choquette (Stikine River, Fowler) Hot Springs

Sphaler Creek Hot Springs

Len King (King Creek) Hot Springs

Snippaker Creek (Julian Lake)

Hoodoo Mountain

Iskut River Hot Springs

Mount Edziza Provincial Park

Mess Creek Hot Springs

Mess Lake Cool Springs

Sezill (Taweh Creek) Hot Springs

Elwyn Creek Hot Springs

Other Springs

Sheslay River Hot Springs

Tatshenshini River

Off the Alaska Highway: Peace River to Whitehorse

Prophet River Hot Springs

Frog River Hot Springs

Toad River Hot Springs

Liard River Hot Springs

Deer River Hot Springs

Grayling River Hot Springs

Portage Brûlé Hot Springs

Southeastern Yukon

Larsen North Hot Springs

Larsen South Hot Springs

Pool Creek Hot Springs

Crow River Warm Springs

Blue River Warm Springs

Whitehorse Area

Eclipse Nordic Hot Springs (Takhini)

Atlin Area

Atlin Warm Springs

Nakina Warm Springs

Other Springs

Northwest Territories and Central Yukon

Central Yukon

Chu Tthaw Hot Springs (McArthur)

Nash Creek Hot Springs

Tungsten Area

West Cantung Hot Springs

East Cantung Hot Springs

North Cantung (Zenchuk Creek) Hot Springs

Nahanni National Park Reserve

Moore’s (Honeymoon) Hotspring

Rabbitkettle Hotsprings (Gahnįhthah)

Hole-in-the-Wall Hot Springs

Bennett Creek (Mineral Lake) Cool Springs

Wildmint Hotsprings

Old Pots Hotsprings

Meilleur River Hot Springs

Kraus (Clausen Creek) Hotsprings

White Aster

Caribou Pass (Persistent, Stinky) Warm Springs

Nááts’ihch’oh National Park Reserve & Vicinity

Grizzly Bear Hot Springs

Broken Skull Hot Springs

Lened Creek (Nahanni North) Hot Springs

Nahanni Headwaters Hot Springs

Northern Mackenzie Mountains

Godlin (Ekwi) Hot Springs

Deca (Lymnae, Snail) Warm Springs

Twitya (Tuitye, Stinky) Warm Springs

BR Hot Springs

South Redstone Hot Springs

Tabletop Hot Springs

Mackenzie River Valley

Roche-qui-trempe-à-l’eau Warm Springs

Acknowledgements

Springs Listed by Temperature

Index

List of Maps

Index Map

Map 1. Hot springs in the Lower Mainland of BC.

Map 2. Roads and springs between Pemberton and Harrison Lake.

Map 3. Roads and springs northwest of Pemberton.

Map 4. Roads and springs in the Meager Creek area.

Map 5. Vancouver Island (top) and the Tofino area.

Map 6. Approach routes to Ahousaht warm springs.

Map 7. Hot springs in northwestern Washington.

Map 8. Hot springs in the Cariboo and Okanagan.

Map 9. Hot springs in the West Kootenays.

Map 10. Hot springs in the Nakusp area.

Map 11. Hot springs in the East Kootenays.

Map 12. Hot springs in the southwestern Rocky Mountains.

Map 13. Banff and Mist Mountain hot springs overview.

Map 14. Jasper and Kinbasket region.

Map 15. Hot springs near Banff, Alberta.

Map 16. Hot springs between Prince George (top) and Prince Rupert (bottom).

Map 17. Tchentlo Lake.

Map 18. Hot springs in the Bella Coola and Knight Inlet areas.

Map 19. Hot springs in north coastal BC (bottom) and Haida Gwaii (top).

Map 20. Hot springs in northwestern BC.

Map 21. Hot springs near the Alaska Highway, BC and the Yukon.

Map 22. Hot springs in Central Yukon and Northwest Territories.

Map 23. Hot springs in the South Nahanni River region.

Preface to the Fourth Edition

Of the roughly 120 known hot and warm springs in Canada, most are in British Columbia, and the rest are in Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Yukon, and the western Northwest Territories. These springs, often in spectacular surroundings, include steaming pools reached after a long hike up a mountain valley, tide-washed streams where you can dangle your toes in the ocean, rustic pools beside gravel roads, fully developed commercial resorts, and warm mudholes with no soaking possibilities. Finding an unfamiliar hot spring and settling in for a long, relaxing soak is one of life’s great pleasures. And revisiting a familiar hot spring is like meeting an old friend: the experience is comfortable but never quite the same as the time before.

This book describes all known Canadian hot and warm springs, including some that have never been listed in previous guidebooks. For good measure we’ve included a few springs in northwestern Washington and two springs in southeastern Alaska, just outside BC. All commercially operated springs in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon Territory are fully discussed; the rest of the descriptions are split between partly developed (but free) springs and undeveloped wilderness springs. You can drive to many of the springs; others require a short walk that can easily be longer if you can’t drive up the roads. A few springs require serious hiking, and some are accessible only by boat or plane. We have also mentioned springs that are rumoured to exist, on the assumption that (to rework an old phrase) where there’s steam, there’s hot water. Whatever your interests, there is plenty of hot water to discover and enjoy.

The first comprehensive guide to hot springs in Canada, Jim McDonald’s Hotsprings of Western Canada: A Complete Guide, was published in 1978. The first edition of the present guide was published in 1997 and the second edition appeared in 1999. The third, greatly revised edition was published in 2013 with David Woodsworth added as a co-author. But access and conditions at many of the springs have changed over the past ten years, particularly in southern BC, and it’s again time for a new edition. The four editions of this book, together with Jim McDonald’s book, give a good idea of the state of change in our knowledge of Canada’s hot springs over the last half century.

In this edition, the original author, Glenn Woodsworth, has been once again joined by David Woodsworth as co-author. We built on the previous edition, in which David was primarily responsible for researching and writing the sections on northeastern BC, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories, while Glenn was primarily responsible for southern BC, Alberta, and the introductory material. For this edition, we both participated in the research trips and interviews, we both edited and checked all the material, and we share responsibility for any errors that remain.

For this new edition, we have added half a dozen springs that were previously unknown to us. We have added descriptions for a handful of other springs that were mentioned in the old guide but for which there was no useful information. We have revisited as many of the southern BC and Alberta springs as possible and updated all access instructions. In keeping with the times, we have added GPS coordinates for almost all springs. We hope you enjoy the new look, redesigned by our new publisher. This book is intended for recreational users and those with an interest in the geology and biology of hot springs. Whatever your interests, enjoy your visits to Canada’s hot springs.

About Hot Springs

Hot springs make a great focus for a trip: hiking, boating, car-camping with the kids, or enjoying a weekend getaway for two at an elegant resort. It’s hard to worry about work when you are up to your neck in hot, soothing water in a peaceful mountain setting. For that moment, life seems simpler.

Guidebook writers often face a conflict between the wish to keep special places secret and the desire to let others enjoy them too. As more people become aware of special spots, these places experience greater use, and that greater use places increasing pressure on sensitive ecosystems. Soaking in a good hot spring is certainly enjoyable, but there’s also no doubt that hot springs are ecologically fragile and among the most delicate ecosystems in the world.

In this guide we have tried to achieve a balance by encouraging visits to the springs while also providing information about why all hot springs are special and how to treat them responsibly. Difficult, sometimes controversial, land-use decisions are being made about some of the hot springs described in this book. We believe that those decisions are best made by an educated and informed public with full access to all relevant data. The background information in this section aims to make your hot springs visits more enjoyable and will help you understand and preserve fragile hot springs environments.

What Are Hot Springs?

Hot, warm, and cool springs are natural springs that are heated by the internal heat of the Earth. For the purposes of this book, we consider springs to be hot if the water temperature is 32°C or greater and warm if the temperature is less than 32°C but over 20°C. These definitions are arbitrary because there is no uniformly accepted temperature cut-off for hot springs. Under our definition, some hot springs, such as Canyon hot springs and Rabbitkettle Hotsprings, are merely warm, but we’ve kept the established terminology. Springs 20°C or cooler but more than 5°C warmer than the average annual air temperature in the region are defined as cool springs. For comparison, body temperature is 37°C, and the hottest water that most people can stand to soak in is about 45°C. Most swimming pools are maintained at about 28°C.

A word about the names of the springs: some springs have official names, most don’t. The form of these names is not standardized, so we have Hotspring, Hot Spring, Hot Springs, and so forth. In this book we’ve kept the official names, where present, and used hot springs (or warm springs or cool springs) for most others. Some springs have several names; we list these too. And in recent years the names of some springs have reverted to the old pre-contact names, thus we have Tsek rather than Skookumchuck or St. Agnes’ Well.

The Appendix lists all springs in this book in order of decreasing temperature. For continuity with previous guides, we’ve included a few interesting or historically important cool springs in the book, but there are many others that are not listed.

Where Are Hot Springs Found?

Throughout the world, hot springs are concentrated in regions with abundant earthquakes and volcanoes. In the Americas, they are found along the great mountain belts that extend from Alaska into Central America and down through the Andes. These belt is part of the Ring of Fire that circles much of the Pacific Ocean. Most of Canada’s natural hot springs are found in British Columbia, with the remainder in western Alberta, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. These are the parts of Canada with the youngest mountains, recently active volcanoes, and abundant earthquakes.

How does Canada compare with the rest of the world in number of hot springs? Not that well. Idaho, only a quarter the size of BC, has about 250. Japan, which is less than half the size of BC, has about 4,500 springs according to one report, whereas BC has about 80, depending on how you count them. Little wonder that the Japanese are such lovers of hot springs.

Scientists do not fully understand why western Canada seems underpopulated with hot springs compared with many other parts of the Ring of Fire, or why our hot springs pop up exactly where they do. It is a matter of the geology of the region. For example, many hot springs in, say, Japan and New Zealand are associated with active volcanoes. Western Canada has relatively few active or recently active volcanoes compared with those countries. Another factor might be the relatively low population of much of western Canada, particularly in the north. There are still valleys that are seldom visited, let alone thoroughly prospected for hot springs. In much of western BC, the valleys are choked with thick bush that makes ground travel difficult and obscures small plumes of steam. No doubt new springs remain to be discovered, particularly in the vast tree-covered region north of Highway 16. A few years ago, one of us found a previously unknown warm spring, and we’re sure that this was not the last unknown spring in Canada.

What Makes the Water Hot?

Most people know that the Earth gets hotter the deeper you go. Beneath western Canada, the temperature increases on average about 30°C for each kilometre of depth, so rock 3 to 4 km below the surface is above the boiling point of water. The Earth’s heat comes primarily from the slow and constant decay of radioactive elements, particularly uranium, thorium, and potassium. These elements are found everywhere, and potassium—only a small percentage of which is radioactive—is the seventh most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. Some heat remains from the formation of the Earth about 4.5 billion years ago, when smaller bodies collided to form the Earth and released enormous amounts of energy.

Heat for hot springs may also come from the cooling of bodies of molten rock, called magma, that exist beneath many active or recently active volcanoes. Such bodies of magma exist beneath Mount St. Helens, in Washington, and possibly beneath Mount Meager and Mount Edziza, in British Columbia. Like the Earth’s heat, the heat for all hot springs, near volcanoes or otherwise, is largely nuclear powered. Hot spring water is heated by much the same atomic processes that drive nuclear reactors, but in hot springs the radiation level is far, far too low to be a health hazard.

An illustration of a cross-section of a valley. Rain falls on a higher elevation at the right side, soaks into the ground, and then comes out of the ground at a lower elevation. The temperature of the Earth's crust is hotter at deeper levels. To illustrate this, the ground is a more saturated red colour as depth and temperature increase.

Diagrammatic cross-section through the upper part of the Earth’s crust showing how hot springs such as those at Banff are formed.

Almost all the water in hot springs comes from rain or snow. Networks of faults, fractures, and permeable rock form natural plumbing systems that allow water to penetrate several kilometres into the Earth. Rain falls on the mountains, seeps several kilometres into the Earth along fractures, and then heats up by absorbing heat from its hot surroundings. How hot the water gets depends mostly on the depth the water reaches: the deeper it goes, the hotter it gets.

Two processes can drive hot water to the surface and create a hot spring. The first process, commonly called gravity feed or artesian flow, works because water runs downhill. If cold water enters the underground plumbing system at a higher elevation than where the hot water exits the ground, a hot spring can be created and maintained by this naturally occurring hydrostatic pressure. The second process, called thermal convection, occurs because hot water is less dense than cold water and thus tends to rise towards the surface. This difference in density sets up a giant convection cell, which is kept going by additional cold water percolating into the ground. Most hot springs are probably driven by a combination of both artesian flow and thermal convection, but because most Canadian hot springs are found in valleys and not high on mountains, artesian flow is probably the primary mechanism.

Spring temperatures depend on the temperature of the rocks that the water travels through, how long the water has to heat up, how fast the hot water rises to the surface, and how much the hot water mixes with groundwater en route to or at the surface. If the hot water rises slowly, it will cool off, resulting in a cool spring. If it emerges into an area saturated with cold groundwater, such as a marsh or swamp, it may become highly diluted, also producing a cool spring.

Some springs dry up at certain times of the year. The upper hot springs at Banff are a good example: they frequently dry up from late winter to early spring. Normally, spring runoff and summer snowmelt fill the hot spring’s plumbing system and maintain the hydraulic head. During the summer, the pressure slowly drops, because not enough rain falls to keep the system full. In winter, the surface is frozen, and there is no recharge of the spring system. If summer was dry, by late winter or early spring the reservoir might have dropped to a level where water can no longer flow to the surface at the upper Banff springs. With the coming of spring, snow melts, the reservoir is recharged, and the spring flows again. The springs at lower elevations (Middle, Cave and Basin) are generally unaffected. Most Canadian springs flow all year, but the rate of flow may fluctuate seasonally for reasons similar to those at Banff.

What’s in the Water (Other Than Water)?

Hot water is a good solvent, and even rocks will slowly dissolve when hot water has time to act on them. Using methods somewhat analogous to those used by archaeologists to date artifacts, geologists can determine the age of the water in hot springs. These tests show that water takes anywhere from decades to thousands of years from when it falls as rain until it emerges in a hot spring—plenty of time to pick up a load of dissolved minerals. These minerals give many springs their tangy and distinctive soda taste.

Terraces of grey-brown rock rising like stairs against a blue sky. They start at the lower left, and the layers of rock increase in height to the upper right corner. There are rounded edges and vertical ridges on each layer. A snow-dusted mountain is in the background.

The tufa terraces at Rabbitkettle Hotsprings were built up over probably several thousand years. Erich Schumacher photo

As the hot mineralized water reaches the surface, it cools and loses much of its dissolved gas and minerals. As a result, tiny mineral crystals are often deposited on the spring walls and nearby rocks. These deposits are present in at least small amounts at most of the hot springs described in this book. The resulting deposits may be crumbly and porous, as at Wild Horse River, in which case they are called tufa (pronounced too-fah).

Tufa is generally composed of a porous mixture of calcium carbonate (the main constituent of limestone and most seashells), commonly with other minerals. Sometimes tufa is hard and dense, in which case the deposit is called travertine (the same travertine that forms stalactites in caves). At some springs, travertine forms spectacular terraces, as at Rabbitkettle and Fairmont. Sometimes the deposits are thin coatings on pebbles or bedrock; many of these are composed of a form of silica that is chemically akin to opal, in which case they are called sinter. In Canada, sinter is less common than tufa or travertine, but good examples occur at Meager Creek and Dewar Creek.

Other minerals that may be present in hot spring deposits include magnesium carbonate, called dolomite (as in dolomite lime, for your garden); sodium bicarbonate (familiar in the kitchen as baking soda); and rare, bright yellow native sulphur. The brilliant red, orange, and brown colours, such as those at Rabbitkettle, result from the precipitation of iron oxides.

For simplicity, we use the term tufa in a loose sense throughout this book to refer to all hot spring mineral deposits without worrying about the form or mineralogy of the deposits.

Hot spring deposits can be used to estimate how long a spring has been active: in other words, the age of the spring. For example, at Rabbitkettle, the tufa mounds are about 27 metres high, and about 2 millimetres of tufa is deposited each year. Assuming no change in water chemistry or rate of flow, these figures suggest an approximate age of about 13,000 years for the Rabbitkettle tufa deposits. But geologists know that these deposits are built on glacial deposits that are about 10,000 years old, so it’s probable that the tufa deposits began to form as the ice left the valley and have been forming ever since.

Studies at other localities show that individual hot springs have an age ranging from a few decades to tens or hundreds of thousands of years. And, as hot springs are born, so they die (or the world would be overrun