I can’t recall when I first heard about Bonneville Seabase, but whenever it was, I was intrigued. Bonneville Seabase is a collection of warm springs bubbling out of the desert hardpan roughly 40 miles west of Salt Lake City. What’s unique about these springs is that by the time the water hits the surface it’s nearly the same average salinity as the ocean. Over the years, the owners have built up the infrastructure around the springs, introduced a number of marine fish (who are mostly self-sustaining at this point), and built a SCUBA business. In addition to the SCUBA business they also offer primitive camping.
I’d already read about them sometime in the past, but stumbled upon them again when looking through Hip Camp on our first cross country trip, although the timing didn’t work out for a visit on that trip, I took a mental note to visit sometime in the future. Which brings us to the present, which used to be the future.
In typical fashion, we pulled in close to midnight, well after everything had been shut down, and anyone staying on site was asleep. We had a reservation but had no idea where the RV area was, so we just parked in the empty main parking lot.
Taking Boomer on his pre-bedtime walk I got a moonlit preview of the 3 spring fed pool. Two of them were under a plastic roof (to keep them warmer) and one larger one was completely uncovered.
In the morning we met the very nice grounds keeper who told us where we could park for the rest of our stay (just through the early afternoon) and plug into some 110 power. Not enough power to run the AC, but after the inferno that was Reno this weather was downright pleasant. It was also nice that we were the only other visitors for the day.
Lana had some morning meetings (yes, there was great cell based interwebs at Bonneville Seabase) and really isn’t that into snorkeling anway, so the plan was for me to take the boys into the water while she worked.
After a quick briefing at the scuba shop, the boys and I changed and headed into the larger of the two covered pools. We’d been given some frozen chopped up salmon to feed the fish, which they obviously knew would happen, because as soon as we got in the water we were surrounded by a school of small silver tropical fish looking for some handouts. Unfortunately the visibility was pretty bad but we could still see the fish darting around us. The website mentioned that the visibility fluctuates from 7 to 20 feet, but I could barely see my fins when I looked down so I think it was closer to 6 feet on this particular day. The water was in the low 80s so at least we weren’t getting cold.
After about 20 minutes in the covered pool we made our way outside to the larger uncovered pool. We were told that the water would be a few degrees colder but that that’s where the bigger fish tended to spend their time.
When we entered the larger pool we were immediately surrounded by some good size Mullet and Black Drum, most of them were close to two feet long. Once again, the fish were showing that they were very comfortable around people and enjoyed the snacks that came along with them.
After about half an hour in the larger pool it was time to shower off and get ready to hit the road again. I’d definitely recommend the Bonneville Seabase experience for anyone passing through the area who has any interest in SCUBA or snorkeling in unique places (we brought our own masks and snorkels but they do have gear available to rent). The water really did seem indistinguishable from ocean water. It felt, tasted, and smelled like sea water, with none of those sulphuric qualities that tend to be associated with warm or hot springs.
Next stop: Steinaker State park in North Eastern Utah where we’re meeting up with Lana’s New Jersey cousins.