Symes Hot Springs Hotel and Mineral Baths

What to expect

The Symes is the big building in Hot Springs, Montana, and the easiest place in town to walk in off the street and soak. It is a two-story stucco hotel with curved parapets and quatrefoil windows, built in the Mission style in 1929 and 1930. The owners pitch it as a step back to the 1940s, and that is fair: rooms are furnished with antiques, many share a bathroom down the hall, and there is a cafe, a restaurant and a cantina with local beer and wine. Some people love that, and some find it tired. Go in expecting character, not polish.

The soaking happens in front of the hotel. Mineral water flows through a set of outdoor concrete pools, with a small waterfall spilling from the hotter pool to the cooler one. Beside them is a larger swimming pool filled with the same natural water but kept much cooler. The hotel’s own analysis shows it is high in silica and sodium and low in calcium, so it feels soft rather than heavy.

There is no attempt to make this look like a modern spa. The pool deck is simple, and you will share the water with locals who come every evening. That is a large part of the appeal.

The pools and baths

The hotel lists three pools:

• Hot pool: about 107°F42°C on its pools page. Another page on the same site gives 110°F43°C for the top pool, so it varies.
• Lower pool: about 101°F38°C, below the waterfall. This is where most people settle in.
• Swimming pool: about 95°F35°C, 20 by 40 feet and 5 feet deep. Good for kids and for cooling off between hot soaks.

Indoors, the original bath wing still has four clawfoot tubs in private stalls, filled with the same mineral water. There is also a two-person jetted tub with a steam room that you rent by the hour. The hotel’s add-on price for an hour in the soak and steam room was $35, and a one-hour Swedish massage was $80 by appointment.

Prices and booking

The hotel’s price list, last updated in October 2024, gives these day rates:

• Adults: $15
• Children under 12: $7 (the pools page says $6 for 11 and under)
• 10-soak punch card: $70, no expiry
• Monthly unlimited pass: $50 per person
• Towel rental: $2. Robe rental $3 if you are not staying.

Rooms include pool use. The October 2024 rate sheet starts at $80 a night (plus 8% tax) for a room with a sink and toilet and a shared bathroom down the hall, rising to about $94 to $110 for rooms with a full bath or a clawfoot tub, and $190 for the Jacuzzi Suite with a private jetted tub and sauna. Cabins and apartments run from about $120 to $175. Check-in is 3pm and check-out 11am.

Book rooms by phone. The hotel says plainly that it does not sell rooms through travel booking sites, and it charges a full night if you cancel inside 48 hours. Day soaking needs no booking. Walk in, pay at the desk and head out to the pools.

Tent and RV sites are on a separate lot, not around the pools. The posted rates were about $45 for a tent, $35 to $51 for an RV without hookups or with electric only, and about $65 for full hookups, plus tax, and each site includes two swim passes. The two pages on the site do not agree exactly, so confirm when you call.

Getting there

Hot Springs is a small town in Sanders County, on the Flathead Indian Reservation, roughly midway between Missoula and Kalispell. It sits a few miles west of Montana Highway 28 on Montana 77.

• From Missoula: Take US-93 north to Ravalli, then MT-200 west. Turn north on Highway 382 near Perma to reach MT-28, follow MT-28 to the MT-77 junction and turn west into town.
• From Kalispell: Go south on US-93 to Elmo, then west and south on MT-28 to the MT-77 junction.

The hotel is at 209 Wall Street, two blocks north of Main Street. There is a parking lot by the building, and the pools are right in front.

When to go

The Symes is open all year. Winter is the classic time: cold air, steam over the pools and fewer road-trippers. Summer is busier, and the swimming pool fills with families on hot afternoons. Weekends can get crowded, and the town notes live music at the hotel on Friday and Saturday evenings.

For the quietest soak, go on a weekday morning soon after the 7am opening. Avoid Wednesdays if you want the large pool, since it closes that day for cleaning.

Rules and etiquette

• Swimsuits are required. This is a family hotel pool.
• Kids under 14 need an adult with them in the pool area at all times, in the same pool.
• No glass, no smoking, no music, no food and no animals in the pool area.
• Swim diapers are required for small children and sold at the desk for $1.50.
• No smoking anywhere in the buildings. The hotel is a registered historic landmark.
• Dogs are allowed in some rooms for $10 per dog per night. Some cabins are pet-free. Puppies are not accepted.

Where to stay nearby

Staying at the Symes is the obvious choice if you want the pools after hours. Other options in town, all within walking distance:

• Alameda’s Hot Springs Retreat on Spring Street is a restored 1930s spa-motel where each suite has its own tub of mineral water. It has no outdoor pool.
• Big Medicine Hot Springs on North Road has an outdoor public pool and camping, including tepee rentals.
• Sophia Springs, a few blocks away on Third Avenue North, rents suites and a guest house with mineral tubs for guests only.

Wild Horse Hot Springs, once called Camp Aqua, is a short drive outside town and rents private soaking rooms.

History

The springs were used by Salish, Kootenai and Pend d’Oreille people long before the town existed, and the hotel’s own history describes them as the “Big Medicine” waters. In 1855 an area around the springs was set aside as a government reserve. The Flathead Reservation opened to homesteading in 1910, and the townsite grew around the baths.

Fred Symes bought a three-acre lot in 1929 and built the hotel for $50,000. It opened in early 1930 with twenty baths and a doctor on site. The business did well through the Depression, and a two-story wing was added by 1940. The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. The old tribal bathhouse across town, Camas Hot Springs, closed in the 1980s, which left the Symes as the main place to soak.

Safety notes

• Heat: The hot pool can be above 105°F41°C. Keep soaks short, drink water and move to the cooler pool if you feel light-headed.
• Wet decks: The pool surrounds are concrete and get slick, and icy in winter. Walk, do not run.
• Children: The swimming pool is 5 feet deep. Watch small kids closely.
• Alcohol: Hot water and drinks do not mix well. Take it easy if you have been in the cantina.