If you want to scuba dive in January and see tropical fish while you're at it, you can fly to Belize, or you can drive to Belmont Springs.
Along with Bonneville Seabase west of Salt Lake City and the Crater at the Homestead in Wasatch County, Belmont Springs in northern Utah is a literal "hot spot" each winter for divers who want to hone their skills before a vacation, rescue divers who want to keep their edge, or just plain folks who get a kick out of splashing around in 90-degree water while catching snowflakes on their tongues.
Belmont sits just off I-15, Exit 394, north of Tremonton in Box Elder County.
Recently the spot was featured, with other Utah springs, in "Dive Training Magazine." The magazine said Belmont was "honeycombed with hot springs" and suggested the place to its readers as an up-tapped resource for winter diving.
"We have groups come in from Montana, Idaho and other places," says Corey Cutler, who manages the springs. "We charge $15 a day. We don't have oxygen tanks or rental equipment. The land was developed as a golf course, swimming pool and aquarium. It's a scuba place in the winter and a family place in the summer. The kids come to swim, dad comes to play golf and mom comes to, well . . . to relax, I guess."
A sunken boat rests at the bottom of one hot-spring pool — something for winter divers to explore. And though the tropical fish are small — home aquarium size — watching them thrive in the freezing cold is a unique experience.
Workers also tug about 1,600 crayfish a week from nearby pools and sell them to Utah State University.
Formerly known as Udy Hot Springs, the outdoor "spa" has always been a favorite playground for county high school kids. It is also historically significant. It was the "Salt Lake cut-off" for the Mormon Battalion in 1848 as the soldiers worked their way back to Salt Lake City.
Britany Holmgren now has the springs. And in recent years, word has slowly gotten out to travelers about the accommodations and privacy found there.
"About half of the people who come here in the summer see us as a destination, about half are people who stop by on their way somewhere else," says Cutler.
In the winter, almost all the patrons are scuba people.
Jeff Powell, a certified instructor, recently had several divers at the site.
"I wouldn't use the springs this time of year for beginners," he said. "Everyone here is experienced."
One diver was tuning up for a trip to Tahiti. Others were just enjoying an outing. Splashing about in frozen landscape, the steam rising from the pool, they looked more like swamp creatures than fun-in-the-sun vacationers.
But there were no complaints. On an icy day, you take a nice warm swim where you can find it.
At the Bonneville Seabase. the tropical fish may be brighter for divers.
And the Homestead's Crater has its underwater lighting.
But at Belmont, divers find something else.
They find a hot springs not many Utahns know about — an out-of-the-way winter day trip where they can have the springs, the sky, the sun, the mountains — and have the day — pretty much to themselves.