Astoria Minerial Hot Springs — Local services in Hoback

Astoria has positives and negatives. I'm comfortable rating it 3/5.

I travel quite a bit and spend substantial time in hot springs across the Rockies. In the last month I've been to Bozeman hot springs, Glenwood hot springs, iron mountain hot springs, penny hot springs, heise hot springs, Hot Sulpher springs, and one or two others I'm sure I'm forgetting...

This is a unique location with some pros and cons.

TL:DR: I won't be coming back...

Pros:

This is a nice facility that was clearly designed to the vision of someone who wanted to have a high turnover of visitors. I like how the water smells and that this is a mineral rich hot springs. The people working here are professional and clearly experienced in the way of doing things here. The view is nice, and I've heard that elk can sometimes be spotted here.

Cons:

It is VERY expensive for what you get. I go to a hot springs to relax. I want to sit around and lounge. Not watch the clock and hear announcements about there being 15 minutes left. It is micromanaged. It doesn't feel relaxing. I've noticed a trend of hot springs moving to a time based system. It is unfortunate as it negatively impacts the culture of the hot springs. I don't go back to the ones making announcements. It's not relaxing. For as micromanaged and as expensive as the experience was, they don't enforce quiet zones. Someone who was clearly on a stimulant was making disruptive noise in one of the quiet areas. I didn't want to waste ten minutes of my precious minutes of relaxing to get staff to deal with it, I just moved to another pool, but if you are going to micromanage, it would be nice if antisocial behavior was addressed proactively. Apparently, the helicopter landing pad wasn't labeled as a no parking zone, so they had people running to the parking lot to move their vehicles at the end of the shift. This was before they could take showers. It was a bad look. Again, people are here to relax. People in robes and flip flops running across a parking lot is a terrible experience.

This feels like being herded like cattle. I suspect whoever designed this was trying to maximize the experience for the most people/revenue. It accomplishes that goal, but it just feels rough and clunky compared to other hot springs I go to. Guest experience is not a focus here.

If it was $15 I would be fine with the clunky experience. But the price point demands better. I understand I could pay substantially more to stay through the break. It just doesn't offer enough value to justify the expense.

Conclusion...

It's not a terrible place. The people are nice enough. The rest rooms are clean.

I just think of the range of hot springs. Luxury and more Spartan and the experiences I've had at all of them.

Astoria is not a repeat for me.

I'm glad I tried it. Maybe you...

I can confirm that as of March 9th, 2021 the place is open to both locals and visitors. I honeslty would not look at reviews with one star that stated the place is only open to locals. It is in the middle of a pandemic, and they are doing their part protecting the locals. I was very impressed with how Wyoming is handling the pandemic...Kudos. I made two reservartions for the week éhat I was in Jackson Hole skiing, and this place is beautiful, well maintained and very clean. The only drawback is that there are no areas to lounge/relax, as it is all open air, but we did not mind that at all. It is unfortunate that the facilities are closed, but again this is understandable because of the pandemic. Also, one suggestion for you guys. I am a physician, and i strongly believe that you can increase the number of visitors, as this place is open air, so the large pool can take a lot more visitors as long as you keep enforcing masks and social distancing. One more suggestion. You should extend the hours to allow skiers to soak and relax "apré ski" , that way more people can enjoy your facilities.. Also, for our next visit we are hoping for more additions, as I did see somewhere that you are still at the early stages. Highly recommend visiting these very nice hot springs while you are...

MOST OF THE REVIEWS FOR THIS LOCATION ARE FOR THE WRONG PLACE. They're referring to the paid-entry hot springs park, which is across the river and has a separate Google Maps location. There are free, undeveloped hot springs here, but the location shown on Google Maps is also incorrect. The correct location is close roughly 862J+2CW (search Maps for that code). Park near the Astoria boat ramp sign, right near the highway turnoff, and take the trail leading west that goes down to the river.

As for the springs themselves, they're pretty nice, and having a natural attraction that is free and publicly accessible 24/7 is a nice rarity in this day and age. That said, there are some downsides to not being developed. The water is clean in some spots but less so in others - I saw geese nearby, and one of the pools appeared to have either algae or goose poop, or both. The temperature is also quite variable, so you might have to keep moving around to find the right spot. If you're with kids and can afford it, you'd probably have a better time at the developed hot springs park on the other side of the river. Unfortunately, it has pretty...