Traveled #10 – Lava Hot Springs with Destiny Egley – Portneuf, Bear Lake, Pocatello

Dave (2s): Today on Yellowstone Teton’s Traveled Podcast. Destiny (6s): Blackfoot Reservoir is just one of our favorite spots to go camp. And so we went out there to check out some camp spots and, and see what, where we’re gonna, you know, be next weekend. So, yeah, there’s a lot of recreation around here and I do, we spend a lot of time in our region. you know, we love to get out of the state and go see other things, but a lot of times when we’re just looking for a quick getaway, there’s always something that we find here in our region to do. Dave (35s): Destiny Egley describing what keeps her coming back home. Continuing to build our road trip out west today on Traveled. Welcome to Travel where it’s all about the journey we are all on and fly fishing and in life. This is a chance to take a deep dive into a specific area around the country so you have a better feel for the people, the resources and community that make this part of the country so unique. Before we get rolling with our guest here, I wanna share the love with our Traveled sponsor. This podcast is powered by Swing Outdoors and the Wetly Swing podcast and Yellowstone Teton territory. You can head over to Wet fly Swing dot com slash Teton, Right now, and If you get a chance, visit a hotel, any of the places we talk about today, we’re gonna dig in and share some really cool activities, pit stops, and good stuff along the way. Dave (1m 22s): This week, destiny describes why Lava Hot Springs is a must stop on your road trip. How they keep their cost amazingly low and, and why and how they do the no Sulfur hot springs. This is a, a little big benefit if you’ve been to some hot springs. Time to experience the road less traveled. Here we go, destiny ugly, from lava hot springs.com. How you doing, destiny? 1 (1m 46s): Great, how are you? Good. Dave (1m 48s): Thanks for putting a little time together to jump into a little on Lava Hot Springs, one of my favorite, we’re always looking for new hot springs, you know, as we’re traveling around and, and it looks like you have a pretty large facility. I wanna talk about that today because we’re heading out to your neck of the woods. We’re doing a big trip out there and we’re, we’re gonna be doing some different events, so maybe we can just start with, I wanna dig into what it is, but maybe you can just talk about for yourself how you kind of found yourself working at, with the group. I know you do some different things, but how did you come into that part of Idaho and working there? 1 (2m 23s): Yeah, so 20 years ago I had decided to move here with my husband. He had moved to Utah. We lived there. I was born and raised in Utah. And so after I met him, we decided to raise our kids in a small town. And He was born and raised here in Lava Hot Springs. So that’s what brought me to Lava. I was working at the local grocery store in town, you know, when I first moved here. So it was really nice. I think that that helped me meet a lot of people and get to know a lot of locals and things like that. And a couple months after I had lived here, this position came open here at the state. 1 (3m 3s): This is a state of Idaho facility and the job come open and I put in for it and I got the job offer. And it’ll be almost 20 years that I’ve been here. Oh wow. I haven’t left. So it’s a Good job. So yeah, the LABA Hot Springs Foundation is a state-owned facility. And what’s really cool about that is that we are the only agency within state of Idaho that is self-funded. you know, people think that we get dollars from, you know, tax dollars and things like that, but we don’t, we operate our facilities on our admission fees. Dave (3m 43s): Oh, that’s amazing. Yeah, 1 (3m 45s): So it’s really cool. I love the job. I started out as a office specialist for many years and then I kind of recreated the position over time with the extra duties that I was willing to take on. Hmm. And then the director at the time, we were in need of a grant administrator for Southeast Idaho, and we wanted, the goal of this position was somebody that was going to get paid and not be a volunteer position, because that’s typically how grants are operated, is through volunteers. and we wanted something more sustainable and long term. And so we incorporated the grant administrator job into my position and rewrote my job description and renamed my position at that time, or I should say a couple years after I had been the grant administrator. 1 (4m 40s): So I kind of have two jobs within one job here at the foundation. Dave (4m 44s): Yeah, that’s smart. And where is just roughly, or where is Lava Hot Springs? Like in relation to say, I’m always thinking, you know, it’s Southeast Idaho, but what would be the nearest bigger city? 1 (4m 56s): The nearest bigger city is Pocatello Idaho, which is about 32 miles from lava. But If you, I mean, other than that, more relevant Salt Lake City, Utah. Oh, wow. Yep. We’re two and a half hours from the Salt Lake City airport. Dave (5m 12s): That’s right. So Salt Lake. Yeah. You just basically go south and hop on I 15. Right. And you’re heading down. Yep, yep, 1 (5m 18s): Yep. Stay on I 15 and head this way. And, and we’re a gateway to Yellowstone, so that’s typically where we get a lot of our traffic. And our goal is to get ’em off of the interstate and see some of those things to do along the way off the interstate, you know, off the normal route to Yellowstone. We want to catch them and, you know, make a pit stop here. Dave (5m 41s): Right. And I’m sure that we actually passed, ’cause we were there a couple years ago, probably passed right by, or maybe we didn’t, I can’t remember the exact route we took, but we went into Yellowstone and we’re heading back into that area, like I was saying, later this year. So this is great. Awesome. Yeah. What is Lava Hot Springs? I, and I mean, there’s hot springs all around the country, around the world, and there’s some, you know, some are better than others, but what is makes Lava Hot Springs kind of the unique, you know, world famous lava hot springs? 1 (6m 8s): Well, I would say that makes it the world famous is one, we do not have any sulfur in our waters. Oh, wow. So you don’t get that stinky egg smell. They’re crystal clear. We have over two and a half million gallons that flow through in 24 hours. Geez. Yeah, it’s insane. So every two and a half hours, our waters have replenished itself through our five pools that we have. Oh Dave (6m 34s): My goodness. 1 (6m 35s): So up at the top, the main spring where the, the water comes in, it’s our largest pool, but it’s also the hottest pool, and it comes in from the ground at 112 degrees. Oh wow. Yeah. As it flows through the pools, it gets cooler. So it ranges anywhere between 112 to 102, depending on the pool that you’re in. Dave (6m 58s): Gotcha. So 112. And so people, I’m thinking about the old, like the hot tub, you know, it’s 1 0 4, but 1 0 12 or one 12, you can get into that. That’s still reasonable. 1 (7m 7s): Yes, it’s hot. And especially this time of year in the summer, it does feel hotter just because it’s hot outside. Right, right. Yeah. In the winter times, that hottest pool is more popular because I think people can stand it a little bit longer because it’s cooler outside. So it feels, it doesn’t feel as hot. But, you know, I mean, we’re clean, we’re a state-owned facility, so all our employees are state employees. And so we have a great staff that maintain our facilities as well as our customer representative. We call ’em service, customer service representatives that, you know, help our customers. 1 (7m 48s): And I think overall, it just really is the pride that we get by working here. you know, it’s one of those jobs where you’re proud of where you work. We keep our facilities very clean, top-notch, you know, it’s inexpensive for the most part compared to a lot of other hot springs. We have lots of minerals. We have a lot of minerals, but we don’t have as many as some of the other hot springs around. And I don’t know, I mean they, they say, you know, minerals are healing and they call ’em the healing waters. But I really just feel that ours are just, they’re just clean and fresh and it’s just a great destination. Dave (8m 31s): That is great. Yeah. And I’ve been to some hot springs. Definitely. Yeah. The price is one thing. It’s not cheap. Some of these private places you go to, I mean, I, I mean, I’m sure there’s all different levels, but, so that’s definitely one thing. And then just the, yeah, the cleanliness also is nice, the fact that it’s, you know, a state run facility, so definitely, you know, higher top notch. What, what would it cost? Like just rough, you know, if somebody’s coming there, and I’m sure you have different things people could test out, but just to get in there and hop in, what, what does that cost? 1 (8m 59s): Yep. So all our prices are one-time entries. And so Monday through Thursday we really try to entice people to come on. Those days it’s a little bit cheaper, it’s not as busy. And so the cost for that ages 12 and up is $8. Oh, wow. Yep. So it’s very inexpensive, seven 50 for kids and seniors. If you’re over 60, you get a 50 cent discount. And then on the weekends it’s $12 for ages 12 and up. Or for kids and seniors it’s $10. Wow. Dave (9m 28s): Yeah, that’s, you can’t beat that. I mean, I think the last place we went to can’t, we paid, I mean, I think we paid like a hundred dollars just for getting in or something like that. 1 (9m 35s): Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I think that that’s kind of the, that’s the nice part about being state owned is, you know, we do try to keep our rates low even though we are self-funded. We wanna make sure that they are comparable also for the surrounding areas. you know, Southeast Idaho, as we know Idaho is, is lower cost of living. Oh, Dave (10m 0s): It is. 1 (10m 1s): It is. So we don’t want to out price, you know, our people. Dave (10m 4s): And that’s what’s interesting because we’ve been setting up, you know, I’ve been setting up a trip, we’re heading out there fishing in October, and what we’ve been finding is it’s actually really expensive where we’re going. I mean, we’re heading over to, you know, we’re gonna be like on the Henry’s Fork. So I guess we’re up a little bit up north. But I mean, it, it, well, I guess in what we’re doing is setting up kind of some, like our own lodging. Hmm. So, so it wasn’t cheap to find like an catering. Right. And stuff like that. Right. But I think, like you said, in general, Southeast Idaho isn’t as expensive as say, wherever other parts of the country. 1 (10m 35s): Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Dave (10m 36s): Which is good. 1 (10m 37s): Yep. And I think that that’s why we are also a really strong tourist attraction, you know, because people, families especially can afford it. you know, we have a lot of the Mormon settlers in the areas, you know, in Idaho and Utah, and so they have lots of kids. Right. you know, and so they have to be able to afford a trip. And sometimes they can’t afford that trip to Mexico or Hawaii or something extravagant. But they can afford a trip to lava Hot Springs or even Southeast Idaho. We have Bear Lake that is, you know, a couple hours from us. 1 (11m 16s): that is another amazing spot. People love to go and recreate. Dave (11m 21s): And what is the Bear Lake? 1 (11m 23s): So Bear Lake, it’s a large, I mean, it’s huge. I, I don’t even know how big it is. Dave (11m 30s): Where would you go to find it? 1 (11m 31s): Yep, this is, you would go, it would be east of us, but the Lake borders or Straddles Utah and Idaho. Dave (11m 39s): Oh, I see it. Yeah. Bear Lake. Yeah. It’s gigantic. 1 (11m 42s): Yep. It’s gigantic. Dave (11m 44s): Right by St. Charles. 1 (11m 46s): Yes. We get a lot of travelers from there too. Like they might hit, if they’re coming from Utah, they might hit Bear Lake and then they come up to lava and then they come up through lava and then go over to Yellowstone, back onto the interstate. So we’ll get a lot of people that’ll take that route just because they can hit kind of, you know, and, and it’s different recreation points. So they’re hitting the beach, the lake, and the, you know, paddle boarding, wake boarding, you can rent boats, things like that there. And so they have a lot of fun there. And the fishing there is amazing. Dave (12m 22s): Oh, it is Bear Lake. Yes. Oh wow. Yep. 1 (12m 25s): Yep. So in Bear Lake they have rainbow and cutthroat trout. They have lake trout and yellow perch and a mountain white fish. So that’s a really nice place. A lot of boaters go out there. It’s just so big that people really enjoy the recreational aspect and fishing there. Hmm, Dave (12m 49s): Perfect. Well when people, you know, on at Lava Hot Springs, I mean it looks like you have a bunch of different types including like, isn’t there like a slide and stuff like that for kids? Is there a mix of things to do or is there stuff from like the kids all the way up to like maybe finding a quiet, do you guys do the spa thing and all that too? 1 (13m 6s): So we don’t have a spa. There is a couple places in town that offer massage therapy and a few things like that. The LABA Hotel and Spa do have some of those spa type amenities. We do also run the Olympic swimming complex and indoor aquatic center. So the Olympic swimming complex is a summer outside facility. It’s got the water slides, diving boards, diving towers, the kitty shallow area basketball. But then we also have an indoor year round pool. It’s just a 25 year yard pool. But it has a rock climbing wall. Oh wow. A diving board. There’s a hot tub that does have, there is one hot tub there that has the mineral water in it from our hot springs. 1 (13m 54s): Other than that, the rest of that facility is chlorinated water. Then we also have a kitty pool that’s there as well. And so that’s real fun for the little ones if you’re trying to keep ’em shaded and not get a lot of sun. The indoor aquatic center really is a fun place for the little ones to be. But that Outdoor swimming pool is open from about mid-May to Labor Day weekend. And then we shut down that Outdoor pool for the season. It’s just too cold here. you know, our temps drop into the fifties, sixties in the night, in the evenings. And so it’s just too cold. We don’t keep it open, you know, longer than that. 1 (14m 34s): Gotcha. Dave (14m 35s): So if we were coming there in early October, would you still have some facilities open there? 1 (14m 40s): Yep. The hot pools are open year round, 363 days a year. And then the indoor aquatic center will be open, which is that indoor facility. Dave (14m 50s): Okay, perfect. And, and it sounds like you get a diverse mix of people, you know, kind of from all over the country, types of like, you know, traveling. It sounds like a lot of Outdoor activity. Would you say there’s one type of person or family that’s coming there? Or is it just a big mix of people? 1 (15m 4s): Big mix of people. So, you know, it just kind of, we have a little of everything to do for people. So that’s what I love about lava and what attracted me, you know, way before I moved here was If. you wanted to come to lava and you wanted to relax. There was the hot springs If, you have your kids with you, you’re wanting to splash and play, have lots of fun. Make those memories with the swimming pool, dive in, sliding down the slides. Then the swimming pool was there. There’s also tubing down the river. It is a natural river. It’s the port of river. Oh, right. And the port. Yep. It flows right through lava. And so we have a lot of tubers that will go down there. 1 (15m 46s): And you know, we don’t recommend any kids under the age of four or even five, just because of the danger. It’s, I mean, it’s lava rock that’s underneath in this river. So if your tube tips, you’re gonna get scraped up pretty good. Yep. you know, there are times when it’s too high that we don’t recommend floating that happen this year, just with all the water that we got. And so, you know, the tube stands took a little longer to open up, but there’s tubing, there’s, there’s a zip line. Oh wow. Tour. Yep. Just outside of town you can reserve and book a zip line tour. There’s lava go-karts. 1 (16m 26s): You can go and ride little go-karts and get muddy. There’s shopping. We have a brewery coming in soon. There’s an awesome pizzeria. There’s lots of little restaurants that you can eat. There’s a ice cream shop that has square scoop ice cream that everybody raves about. Perfect. you know, so there’s just a lot of things to do for, from the baby boomers down to the families that, you know, wanna come and, and even, you know, just those single people that just want something fun to do and, and not too expensive. Yeah. This Dave (16m 58s): Is perfect. No, you’re saying, I’ve got a couple little kids. So I think everything you talked about is perfect. So 1 (17m 4s): Yep. Bring them along. They will love it. Dave (17m 5s): Awesome. And then if people are staying, it looks like, yeah, you have some hotels, like you mentioned already, a couple of, and there’s some cabins, then there’s a campground, right? There’s a couple campgrounds like up, or I guess up River from me a little bit. Lava Campground, is that nearby? 1 (17m 19s): It is. and we actually have 11 campgrounds in and around the town of lava. And then we have over 500 accommodations, which would include the hotels, motels, cabins, Airbnbs, vrbo, your basic camp, you know, site for tents, larger sites for those big larger RVs that we are seeing more and more of. So yeah, we have so many accommodations to, to attract any kind of traveler. We also even have theme roomed. Lionsgate Manor is Theme Roomed and Graystone Manor. They both have more of like the theme room facilities where like the BMBs, you know, they’re bed and breakfast. 1 (18m 2s): So very, very accommodating to any type of traveler coming through. But we have people come from all over the world and it’s amazing to see the difference. you know, I think just a couple weeks ago we had some people from London here, we had some people from Germany. So it’s been really cool to see those people come through all the different diverse, you know, nationalities. But what’s also cool is we have tour buses that come here. The Korean tour buses stop here at the Hot Springs. This is one of their main attractions. They purchase a tour out of California and they stop through here ’cause they’re wanting to go to Yellowstone. 1 (18m 47s): Oh, Dave (18m 47s): Yellowstone. Yeah, of course. 1 (18m 49s): Yep. And so this is one of their stops. And so we’ll have a bus of, you know, 30, 35 people come through, soak, they’re here maybe at 45 minutes and then they’re on their way to the next stop. So, you know, we have a lot of interest from the all over the world. Yeah. From people all over the world that like to come visit us. Dave (19m 10s): What would be If, you were in Lava Hot Springs, I guess in heading to Yellowstone, I guess you can go either way. You can go back through Pocatello and up, or you can go down Soda Springs, I guess the main highway kind of goes down and then back up. What do you think most people are doing to get the Yellowstone from where you’re at? 1 (19m 25s): I think most do the interstate through Pocatello, just because it’s the interstate and not the highway. Yeah. The highway’s travel, you know, it’s fine to travel on and it’s a great road. It’s just a one one lane. Yeah. Dave (19m 39s): Takes you longer. Yeah. 1 (19m 41s): It takes you a little longer. So if a person has a little bit more time, I highly recommend going through Soda Springs and going that way you can stop in Soda Springs and see the Geyser. Oh really? Yep. There’s a geyser there. Some people claim it’s bigger than Old Faithful, but honestly I don’t think it is. But it is. It is awesome. It’s a very, very neat attraction. It goes off every hour on the hour. So if you’re going through that area, stop by. There’s way finding signs to stop and see it and you know, hit there from there. Go through soda, go over to Jackson Hole. That’s always a cute little place to stop and see, you know, all the things and Yeah. Dave (20m 25s): Yeah, Jackson Hole, that’s right. It’s, it’s probably not too far from Soda Springs. I’m guessing it’s probably what, less than a two hours up there maybe? Yeah, 1 (20m 32s): You’re about an hour and a half. Hour and a half. Dave (20m 34s): Yeah. Then you take a nice cruise down. And even down south, I haven’t really haven’t been through that area. Like Mon Montpelier down to that. Montpelier, yeah. Montpelier. And then over through Geneva, and then you’re over into Wyoming, and then up 89, highway 89. 1 (20m 49s): Yep. Dave (20m 49s): Which is great. Yeah. So it sounds like you’ve traveled a little bit around the southeast part of Idaho. Do you, do you find yourself kind of doing your own kind of, you know, exploring out there, you know, when you’re not working? 1 (21m 1s): Yes, we do. We actually own a side-by-side, A U T V. Oh. And so we’re blessed that way we can leave right from our home and go, you know, wherever Dave (21m 12s): It’s a side by side. Is that a, like a vehicle? 1 (21m 15s): It’s, it’s a off-road vehicle. There’s several types, the kind we have as a Polaris General. And so it’s just fun. It’s, you can get, you know, on those off-road trails. and we just did a ride over the weekend, went from our house just outside of, of lava here, and drove all the way over to Blackfoot Reservoir. And I mean, it was a 10 hour day, I think it was like 125 miles. It was a, it was a nice ride. It was an all day. But you know, you just see so much country. Dave (21m 47s): All right. So you took your vehicle, your all-terrain vehicle, just, you didn’t even drive your car, you just could draw live right. From lava out, and that’s pretty amazing. Yep. 1 (21m 55s): Yeah, we have hundreds and hundreds of miles of trails in Southeast Idaho to ride, and so we enjoy that. We used to fish my husband ice fish, so there’s Chesterfield Reservoir that he likes to go to. Blackfoot Reservoir is one. People like to go ice fishing. Dave (22m 12s): Yeah. Chesterfield, I’ve heard of that one. 1 (22m 13s): Yeah. Yeah. There’s lots of reservoirs and Lakes around the area where, you know, people like to boat and fish and do all the things. And so Blackfoot Reservoir is just one of our favorite spots to go camp. And so we went out there to check out some camp spots and, and see what, where we’re gonna, you know, be next weekend. So yeah, there’s a lot of recreation around here. And I do, we spend a lot of time in our region just because a lot of times that’s what we have time for. you know, we love to get out of the state and go see other things. But a lot of times when we’re just looking for a quick getaway, there’s always something that we find here in our region to do. Yeah. Dave (22m 52s): That is really cool. Nice. All right, well, so we’ve got a little primer on some of the things you have going. I mean, what do you think people that are coming there that, that know of the hot springs, or maybe they’ve been there before, what is the thing they really love, do you think? Is there one thing that people really are coming back, you know, for? Is it, I mean, obviously you’ve got the, the great clean water, or are there other things that we haven’t talked about today you might highlight? 1 (23m 16s): I think for the most part, when people come here, we are, the reason they are coming is because of the hot springs. I really do feel that that is why they come here. But then while they’re here, they have so many options of other things to enjoy. you know, we have the, the indoor pool, if they have the kiddos with them, maybe it’s nightlife that they’re wanting, maybe it’s, you know, they’re gonna go fishing. Snowmobiling in the winter is huge. So we’ll get a lot of people that will, you know, warm up. They’ve been snowmobiling all day, it’s cold, maybe it’s a, a windy day and they need somewhere to warm up. So they’ll come and warm up hunters, fishermen, you know, they might be fishing all day or hunting all day, and then they’ll come and warm up or just soak their sore muscles from hiking all day, or whatever it may be. 1 (24m 8s): I think that the hot springs really are the main reason why people come here, but they have so many other options while they’re here. you know, a lot of times we’ll see hunters and fishermen that will come and leave their wives here in town while they go shopping all day while the guys are out hunting or fishing or doing their thing. And they meet up, you know, in the evenings for dinner and maybe, you know, hit the local pub and, you know, have a couple drinks or whatever. Yeah. Dave (24m 36s): That’s great. And then for Chesterfield, how long does it take to get there from where you’re at? From 1 (24m 41s): Lava Hot Springs? It’s about a 45, maybe a 40 minute drive. Dave (24m 45s): Yeah. Not bad. Yeah. We had a guest that was talking about Stillwater fishing, and he highlighted Chesterfield. He said that was a really, yeah, he said that was a really great fly fishing lake, I guess. So that’s, you know, again, building this trip I could see, you know, cruising down through lava, stopping by there. And then either way, either after, before fishing, and then you head up and eventually work your way up towards, you know, wherever, like we said, Jackson or anywhere. And so there, it’s just a, it seems like there’s just, you know, unlimited amounts of things to do. Right. Whether that’s fishing or, I mean, what are the other Outdoor activities that you, you hear about out there that people really love 1 (25m 21s): Besides the snowmobiling? We have, I mean, in the wintertime there’s snowmobiling, there’s cross country skiing there. People like to go snowboarding and skiing up at Pebble Creek Ski area that is just outside of income, which is maybe 20 minutes, maybe a 30 minute drive from laba. So that’s another thing, you know, they’ll go skiing all day and then they come warm up at the hot springs. So there’s good skiing. There’s several museums in town, not in town, but in southeast side Idaho. And so people will go do a history tour or maybe a geology tour. We have Minnetonka Caves, Paris Ice caves that are over near Bear Lake, you know, all the water sports that we have, the hiking, the biking. 1 (26m 9s): Pocatello has a lot of biking and hiking trails. Dave (26m 13s): Oh, right. Like mountain biking and stuff. Yeah. 1 (26m 16s): And then we have the surrounding hot springs. There’s, they just changed names. And I, sorry, I can’t recall the name. It was Riverdale Resort. Okay. Out outside of Preston. And they have hot springs there. There’s also down Atta Hot Springs that’s a half an hour from laba. So people will go to Downa or American Falls Reservoir, or Indian Springs is just outside of American Falls. So there’s a lot of, you know, surrounding area with Hot Springs besides, you know, we have the camping and the, there’s golf courses all throughout our region. We have a nine Hole golf course just here in lava that people enjoy. 1 (26m 58s): So yeah, there’s just a lot of Outdoor recreation. Dave (27m 2s): Yeah, that’s what it is. That’s the hub. I mean, it’s, and that’s what’s cool about it, right? You don’t have, there’s not a giant city nearby. Right. It’s kind of, you know, like you said, and the cost of living isn’t super high. Right. So it sounds like a pretty good place to live. I mean, what’s the downside of Southeast? Because it seems like it’s a pretty cool place to live. What, what are the things? Yeah. 1 (27m 20s): Well, so the downside would be, you know, with the market since Covid, you know, things just as we know everywhere, it’s gone crazy. What we’re finding is it’s hard to find employment. you know, it’s hard for people. It’s hard for employers to find workers. We are struggling with finding PE people don’t wanna work. Or maybe because of Covid they found those online jobs where they can work from home. Yeah. And so we’ve seen that shift where we struggle with finding employees. And when you’re a tourist town, that makes it difficult. So that’s one of the things that I would say is hard. 1 (28m 2s): The other thing that’s happened is all of a sudden people think that, I mean, yes, lava is an attraction, it’s a tourist town, but they think that they can get millions of dollars for their little tiny home. And so the market has really shifted and that has made it rough for people to, locals to live here. So if you’re getting the, you know, Utah, California, Texas, you’re getting people from those areas. They can sell their home for over a million dollars and come buy a $700,000 home in laba. They think that that’s cheap. Dave (28m 37s): Right. 1 (28m 38s): But to us locals, it’s a lot. That’s just, it’s a lot. Yeah. It’s a lot. you know, and so I think that that’s probably the downside currently is we’re seeing, you know, these homes that aren’t much, and they’re selling for outrageous amounts, and then it just pushes the locals out of the market to even afford to buy something. So we’re seeing a lot of families leave our area and go to Pocatello, you know, other bigger cities where, you know, they don’t have to commute so far for work, but to be able to afford it. But even Pocatello has gone up. I mean, as we know, I think even, yeah. you know, you there, Dave (29m 19s): Everything, 1 (29m 20s): Everything has gone up. Yeah. And so we’re seeing it everywhere. But I think that’s kind of the struggle from what I hear from our, our local residents. and over the years, when I first moved here 20 years ago, our city limits population was, was probably over 600. And now it’s under 400 for year-round population. Gotcha. Dave (29m 48s): You’ve lost, yeah. You’ve lost people. 1 (29m 50s): We’ve lost people because of course, a lot of people that have lived here are, are all their lives. They’ve either passed away or they’ve had to move in with family members to be taken care of. And so we see a lot of that. But a lot of families we’ve seen move out because they can’t afford it. And then, I don’t know, I guess for me, I just struggle with seeing that population go down, because then we struggle with finding people to run for city council. Oh yeah. you know, just to, and again, jobs basic, the basic stuff, just, yeah. Being able to run the, the hot pools and swimming pools, the restaurants in town, things like that. 1 (30m 33s): They have to really be strategic on when they’re opening, when they can close for a couple days just to get a break. Because you don’t wanna burn out the employees you do have. Yeah. Dave (30m 44s): You know? That’s right. So those people that are coming there from around the country, you know, with lots of money, are they just buying these as like second homes sort of thing? Or they moving Yeah. 1 (30m 51s): Yep. Second homes and then they’re renting ’em out and they’re Dave (30m 54s): Renting. Oh man. Yes. That’s 1 (30m 56s): It. Airbnbs and vrbo and you know, in a year. So just to give you an idea of, you know, now, you know, the population for our year round attendance for both hot pools and swimming pools, we get over 500,000 people through lava every year. That’s just our numbers here at the hot pools and swimming pools. But we don’t know how many people that are tubing the river that don’t visit our facilities. Right. Yeah. And so when you have, oh, maybe I can’t think off the top of my head how many, but I’m gonna say eight places to eat in laba, that’s hard to take care of 500,000 people. 1 (31m 42s): Right. you know, it’s not all at once, but you know, on an average weekend we’re, we’re pushing 3,500 to 5,000 people a weekend. Yeah. And so to feed that many people, you know, in these restaurants, you know, they’re working their butts off. and we hope that the tourists appreciate that. And you know, sometimes it’s not the best service, you know, if they’re that busy. And so, you know, we ask for patience because a lot of times it’s just hard. Dave (32m 13s): Yep. That’s a good reminder. That’s a good reminder. We were at a place last night and, and it was, yeah, it was kind of a tourist part of, you know, near where we live. And Yeah, it was, you could definitely tell the people working there were, yeah. I mean, it was at the end of the weekend. I’m sure they had a rough re and I’m sure it’s probably similar in other places around the country. Right. The same thing where people are coming in, you know, you know, making it hard for local people to live because the cost of living is getting so expensive. Right. And yeah, so I’m sure this is not a unique story to your area, but it’s something I’m glad you highlight it though. ’cause I think if nothing else, people can realize, hey, when you’re traveling around, give the people that are working there a little break, because at the end of the day, I mean, you know, they’re not making, you know, a ton of money and you know, they’re doing really hard work. Dave (32m 55s): Right. I mean, that’s not easy stuff. So I think maybe that’s, it’s, yeah. 1 (32m 59s): Yep. It’s not easy stuff. And that’s, you know, one thing that, I mean, I used to be a waitress back in the day. I know what it’s like, you know, you work your butts off and then when you’re in a tourist town and you’re short staffed, because like I said, it’s hard to find employees, you know, they’re pulling extra weight, they’re doing more than the normal because we are having to pick up the slack because of the lack of employment. So, you know, I always tell people, give our hospitality staff a little bit of grace and appreciate them because they are, we are here to serve our tourists and our customers. 1 (33m 40s): But we do appreciate the nice people and the appreciative people, and the ones that, you know, are just happy. We understand. And I guess, you know, that’s something that I’ve learned over the last few years is, you know, we don’t understand what people are going through. And so sometimes that can be taken out on the person right in front of them. I know. you know, but ultimately we don’t know what that other person’s going through. And so we just need to show grace and be nice and, you know, appreciate our workers that are serving us in whatever you’re doing. Whether that’s at the grocery store or the restaurant or your hotel. 1 (34m 23s): you know, those cleaners that are working their butts off to make sure that your room is clean, you know, for when you arrive. Those things are, those are hard jobs. And when you’re in the tourist industry, that is one thing that we really, really pay attention to. I was talking last night, my husband and I went to the local pizzeria in town, and we love their salads. And so we got a salad and a cauliflower crust pizza. and we were sitting there and, and a couple of the workers from the local bar come in and they were having dinner. And I was asking ’em, okay, how’s this summer been? you know, how are you guys, you know, filling with the clientele? 1 (35m 5s): Are they being friendly? Are they being mean? Like, I want to know that stuff because I promote the travel and tourism for the region. I’m bringing them here. So I wanna know, okay, do I need to change my demographic? Do I need to change my focus? you know, what type of people am I attracting with our advertising and what, what is working, what isn’t? And so I love that feedback from our hoteliers and our local restaurants and bars and all the tourism staff. you know, even my, our staff here at the hot, hot pools and swimming pools. I wanna know, okay, what people are being mean, you know, how do you feel? Are they being, you know, when they come in, are they ornery? 1 (35m 46s): What types of people are, are they, are they from Utah? Are they from California? Are they from Idaho? I wanna know. Yeah. you know, Dave (35m 55s): That’s cool. So you’re, I mean, yeah. And that’s part of your, your grant part, right? Where you’re doing exactly some stuff, trying to get, make, get some more funding. How’d you get into that little position? Is that something that you’ve developed over time? Or is it just you doing kind of the grant funding? 1 (36m 9s): So yeah, we have a, a, a board that we, so our board is made up of representatives from cities, chambers, Idaho, fish and Game, Shoshone Bock tribes. We have a member from every area in Southeast Idaho. Dave (36m 28s): Okay. Oh wow. So, so what is that area? How big, like how far out does Southeast Idaho go? Like how far, what cities does that go out to? 1 (36m 35s): So it starts at Milad at the Utah border over to Bear Lake, the Montpelier Garden City border over to Soda Springs area, and then over to American Falls. And Blackfoot. Dave (36m 50s): Okay. American Falls. Yeah. So you got that nice American Falls, that corner. So yeah, Pocatello and then up, does it go up to Idaho Falls? 1 (36m 57s): Nope. Just before Idaho Falls is where our cutoff is. Dave (36m 60s): Gotcha. So it’s that, that’s that basically that corner, that Southeastern 1 (37m 4s): Yep. Bottom southeast corner. Dave (37m 5s): Yeah. Corner from basically Pocatello is the big city in there. That’s up of the upper. Okay. Exactly. Yeah, you got it. Yeah. And you’re right on the edge. What’s the, you’ve got forests all around you, but is there, that’s all National Forest, right? That’s just kind of around? Yes. 1 (37m 17s): Yeah, we have the Caribou National Forest just outside of us here. And then of course we have all the Bannock County area. So we have 11 counties in our Southeast Idaho region. And so how our grant is funded is we operate off the 2% state bed tax that’s collected in Southeast Idaho. So every lodger, doesn’t matter if you’re a nightly rental, monthly rental If, you are a rental, you should be collecting and remitting that 2% bed tax to the state of Idaho. And that is how we are funded. And so there’s three grant grantees in our region, bear Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, Pocatello Convention and Visitors Bureau, and then Southeast Idaho High Country. 1 (38m 3s): And so us three grantees work together. We all apply for that 2% bed tax. and we strategically work together to market what we need to market for our area. And you know, the state has asked us, how come you guys just don’t do one grant and, and Destiny just, you know, do the entire grant for the entire region. But the reason why we separated out is because Bear Lake is kind of its own demographic. You’ve got the large sailboats, the big speed boats, you’ve got the big, huge boats that people are bringing in, you know? Dave (38m 40s): Oh gosh. So Bear Lake is not a small lake. This is a massive 1 (38m 42s): Lake, no massive lake. And so you are getting so many people that have those, you know, a hundred thousand dollars boats that they’re putting in the water. So that’s typically where they’re gonna go for the bigger lake. So you have that type of market. Right. And then of course that recreation with the families and the, the beach and all the things that you can do there and the water sports. But then you have Pocatello where they really, besides lava, they are lava’s the second largest location for accommodations. So, and that, that’s why I say, I mean lava Yeah, you’re big lava has just really, yeah, we are big. 1 (39m 25s): We’ve just grown. Dave (39m 26s): Even though you that’s, it’s amazing, even though you only have 400 people there, you’ve got the second largest facilities next to Pocatello. 1 (39m 33s): Exactly. Wow. And that’s, you know, accommodations not necessarily shopping, but for overnight stays. And so what Pocatello focuses on is they have the larger venues, they have port of amphitheater, they have the Holt Arena, they have the ME center. Those three venues alone besides the university, they have a place to house the large venues, even the fairgrounds, you know, they can do rodeos to concerts, to sporting events. They have wrestling tournaments and all the sport tournaments there. 1 (40m 13s): There’s so many things going on in that type of industry that that’s kind of their focus. And also the business leisure, you know, they can really attract, you know, bringing in those small conferences and things like that. So that’s where their market is. Where for Southeast Idaho, high country, our focus and market is really all that Outdoor recreation that we have throughout the region. But we want to include all our small little towns, you know, like Soda Springs, they have a couple motels, but they have the geyser, they have some, you know, attractions there. 1 (40m 53s): We have two scenic, well, one scenic and one historic byway that goes through our region. We have the Oregon Trail, bear Lake Scenic Byway, and then we have the Pioneer historic byway. So, but for those byways, these are really focused on the people that want to stop and see. Dave (41m 11s): Yeah. They attract the, the old history. 1 (41m 14s): Exactly. They wanna read the signs, they wanna read the history on, you know, the old Oregon Trail and when it, you know, cross through that part of the town. And so we have a lot of those type of history buffs that love to travel the byways. And so that’s kind of where we focus on is those smaller communities and feature what they have to offer. you know, for example, Blackfoot, they don’t have very many accommodations, but it’s a great place to stop at the Idaho Potato Museum. Hmm. you know, people love to take pictures by the huge, huge potato outside of the museum and eat a farm grown Idaho potato at their potato bar. 1 (42m 3s): you know, so things like that, that are just a little quirky, a little different, you know, we’ve always talked about, we wanna be known for more than just potatoes, but in reality that’s what people automatically assume. you know, If, you say, oh yeah, I live in Idaho. Oh, Dave (42m 19s): Oh, they still, so potatoes are still like, people still think like, yeah, Idaho’s. Oh, just potatoes. 1 (42m 24s): Absolutely. Yeah. They’re like, oh, you get some great potatoes. Yes, we do. That’s pretty funny. you know, so we wanna be known for something different than just potatoes. But again, it’s kind of, okay, what are we really known for? And I really feel that we should be known for our recreation of all types. Dave (42m 43s): Yeah. Well that’s the thing. You are, that’s the cool thing about, you know, I love about this conversation is we haven’t talked about fly fishing at all. And the great, and I knew, you know, this is gonna be focused on, which is great because we do occasionally these episodes that aren’t fly fishing at all. And the cool thing about it is on this subject is that, I mean, you have one of the greatest trout rivers in the, in the country, maybe the world, you know, the Henrys Fork of the Snake River, the South Fork, the Snake, and we were heading up there later this year. It’s one of the best places for dry fly fishing and, and you’ve got some of the best shops. So you know, you have all this stuff you’re talking about, you know, and you have this, a lot of other stuff we haven’t even talked about today, which is I think makes it special on top of potatoes. Right, 1 (43m 21s): Right. Well, you know, you mentioned that we have 48 reservoirs, Lakes ponds type fishing spots. Dave (43m 32s): Yeah. And hunting. Right. Hunting’s probably big too out there. 1 (43m 34s): Oh, hunting’s huge out here. And so that’s it. Like you look at those 49 Lakes reservoirs, rivers that you can fish on. I mean that’s just a touch on, that’s just in our region. So that’s what I think is so cool. And that’s why I say I really think we need to be known for our, our Outdoor recreation. Yeah, Dave (43m 58s): I think that’s it. That’s what I know. I mean, and we talk, I mean I’m in this, but you know, I mean that is it. I don’t even think of potatoes, you know, at all. At all. I think of the Outdoor, that’s awesome. Recreation, right? It’s all that stuff. Right. So, you know, if somebody was wanting to go and we have the lava hot springs.com, you’ve got where, where would you send ’em if they want to dig more into, you know, maybe the history or what to do, you talked a lot about today, but where do you send people if they wanna take this conversation further? 1 (44m 22s): Yeah, so they can go to Idaho high country.org and that’s our Southeast Idaho website. And on there there is a place where you can request brochures and we can mail ’em out. I mail those out daily. We get requests all the time. We have a fisherman’s guide to Southeast Idaho. So talking about those 49 bodies of water we have in our guide what type of fish are in these areas. It’s got all the local rules, a small map, things like that. So if people are wanting information, more brochures mailed out to ’em, we can send them out so they have the physical form or they can download ’em. 1 (45m 5s): They’re all downloadable on our website as well. We also have a Bird Watchers, that’s one thing that Oh, nice. We hadn’t talked about. Yeah. Was we have a lot of birding in our area and a lot of birders that love to come and visit us for the Amazing birds. And so again, Idaho high country.org, we have a bird watching guide to Southeast Idaho RV guide if they are looking for places to camp to the private local campgrounds, to the state campgrounds. So yeah, Southeast Idaho is a great resource for all the information. If you’re just wanting to, you know, read up or laba hot springs.com, that will give you our pull information for our, for our little town. 1 (45m 47s): Yeah. Dave (45m 47s): So lava that’s a great thing is that we started with lava, but really we’ve given a nice little southeastern Idaho kind of snippet, right. On everything. Yep. Not just the lava. So, but Lava Hot Springs is definitely a destination that we’re gonna be swinging by. So maybe we’ll connect with you when we get there and we’ll send everybody out, like you said, all of these great places, and if they have any questions for you, they can remind us again what is the email if people have any direct questions for you? 1 (46m 12s): So there’s two of ’em. One, the easy one is info at lava dot Idaho dot gov or destiny dot ugly at lava dot Idaho dot gov. Dave (46m 28s): Perfect. All right, destiny, well, we’ll leave it there. And yeah, as we move ahead, if I get out that way, I’ll definitely let you know and we’ll see. I think, you know, we’re gonna probably make this an annual thing just because we got some people really interested. The trip that we put together with the group on the podcast, you know, everybody’s super excited. Awesome to get out there. So yeah, I think we’re gonna make this an annual Southeast Idaho tour. So yeah, thanks for all the time today and we’ll look forward to keeping in touch with you. 1 (46m 54s): Sounds great. Thank you so much. Dave (46m 56s): Destiny Egle traveled part of the We Wetly Swing podcast and Swing Outdoors. This podcast was supported by Eastern Idaho’s Yellowstone Teton territory. You can support this podcast in Eastern Idaho by heading out to Wetly Swing dot com slash Teton, T E T O N. And check in there and visit any of those brands. Check out the websites, just dig around there a little bit and you can plan your trip decent Idaho, don’t forget to check in with me. If you’ve got a spot you’d like us to travel to, always love to get the feedback. You can send me an email Dave at Wetly Swing dot com and one shout out before we get outta here, the Euro School, we’re gonna be heading up to do that. Dave (47m 36s): And although that’s filled up this year, we are gonna be filling that next year. You can go over to Wetly Swing dot com slash Euro school anytime, add your name there and we’ll follow up with you. And we get around to this next year. And one more, shout out to our Stillwater School in this neck of the woods. We’re heading right back here next year, so we might be doing two trips out here. It’s gonna depend on how much interest we have in this Stillwater School, but we’re gonna be fishing some of the famous waters out here as well with our friend Phil Roy. Check it out, Right now, Wetly Swing dot com slash Stillwater School. And we’ll follow up with you there. That’s all I have for you. I am gonna head outta here into the sunset and, and it is a great sunset. Dave (48m 18s): And there’s gonna be a full moon as well tonight. This is just one of those nights you’re out in this part of the world, the big skies, and we’re enjoying it. It’s warm. It’s one of those days when you spend your time next to the water and, and I’m excited to get on the water with you, If. you can check it with me anytime. Love to get on the water and do some fishing, and I’ll talk to you soon and hope you’re experiencing the road less traveled.