Ricks Reel Adventures: Tabernacle Hill And The Hot Pots

May 6, 2012

Tabernacle Hill And The Hot Pots

It was that time for another scout camp, and we decided to head down to my hometown to explore Tabernacle Hill and the Hot Pots. Tabernacle Hill is located west of the town of Meadow about eight miles. There are several extinct volcano's in the area and miles of lava flows. There are a lot of lava tubes in the area, as well as other interesting geological sites. I grew up exploring these areas and it was fun to take the kids to some of the places that I spent my childhood.

We arrived to find another scout troop and one came behind us a short time later. Luckily, there are several good spots to camp. As we were setting up camp, I tripped on what looked like flat ground. As you can imagine, lava rock is unforgiving and mother nature beat me up pretty good. I received a nice gash on my knee and scrapes and bruises on my hands and arms. I felt like such a cluts and my body didn't get injured as bad as my pride did! On the plus side, all the leaders and kids gave me a perfect ten on my landing after they stopped laughing. A short time later, I noticed my right hand starting to swell and it was getting difficult to move it without having pain. I gave it a few hours, but it didn't seem right so I decided to go to the ER for some x-rays. My Dad drove me in and the x-rays came back negative, but the doctor told me I most likely pulled some ligaments. It was really late so I ended up just staying at may parents house and drove back out in the morning.

We did some exploring of some of the tubes in the morning and headed into town where my Dad cooked us an awesome dutch oven lunch. We had chicken and potato's and I have to say; my Dad makes the best dutch oven on the planet, but I will admit, my opinion is biased. After we were done eating, we headed out to the Hot Pots. The Hot Pots are natural warm springs that are also near Meadow. There are three of them and they range in heat comparable to a hot tube, while others are like heated swimming pools. The kids had a blast swimming and goofing around. We had both a cannon ball and belly flop contest. The belly flop contest was so entertaining! I don't remember the last time I've laughed so hard. Some of these kids were fearless and their entire body would hit at the same time with a loud SMACK! It seemed they would only go into the water a few inches. The winner had some of the best flops I have ever seen. This turned out to be a fantastic trip and one of my personal favorites.