Liard river hot springs is located along the ALCAN Highway about 200 km from Watson lake and 66 km from Muncho lake in Canada. This is our first Hot spring experience. During our roadtrip through Alaska highway in 2017 we passed this place twice. Both the times we had some excuse to skip. But this time(2018) while returning from Dempster highway, we made sure to visit. Glad we did! 😃
Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park
The hot springs is actually within the provincial park that has a day use fee of 5$ for adult, 3$ for kids and 10$ for a family. You have to pay at the entrance. Apparently, you can also rent swim wears here! If you would like to stay, the park also has paid campground (26$) inside. But most of the crowd visits for this hot spring. So there is ample parking area separately for the hot springs.
The hot springs is about 10 minutes walk from the parking lot. Its a nice 5-6 feet wide board walk over the swampy vegetation. It looked like we were walking through the evergreen forest. At the end, you will see a wooden shelter with hot springs on other side. It has change rooms and shelves to store your bags. But no shower. Without entering the shelter, if you take right along the path way, it will take you up and around the Hot springs to an overlook. On the way up, there are toilets (composting) which can be used as private changing rooms. There is also a trail from the overlook there leading to the water falls. But it was closed due to bear activity in the area.
Hot springs
To our surprise, the hots springs area is well maintained and clean. The place is always crowded due to its popularity. That’s one of the reason why we were skeptical to visit. But we thoroughly enjoyed being there. Since we visited during late August, the climate was rainy and cold. The hot springs was very warm, soothing and relaxing. We din’t wanna get out of the water. The water temperature here is always 42C to 52C all year around. It has three different levels. The one closer to the source is much hotter than the other levels.
Check out the Video below!
We highly recommend you to visit this hot springs if you happen to drive through the Alaska highway in Canada. Its a wonderful place to relax and enjoy the nature. 🙂