La Verkin • Tourists and visitors to the southern Utah town of La Verkin will soon no longer have to resort to bathtubs or backyard spas to enjoy a hot-water soak.
More than a decade after La Verkin Hot Springs was closed and made off-limits to bathers due to the then-owner’s legal and financial problems, construction on a new $60 million resort is underway on 16 acres on the north side of the Virgin River, opposite the old resort.
Zion Canyon Hot Springs, which is affiliated with Texas-based WorldSprings, broke ground in late March on a swankier resort that its investors hope will draw fans of the old resort while luring newcomers and tourists.
“We are thrilled to announce Zion Canyon Hot Springs …, welcoming southern Utah’s worldwide visitors and those of us who call it home,” Christian Henny, president of the resort, stated. “We look forward to creating what will become one of the top destinations for relaxation and overall wellness in the greater Zion area.”
Once construction is completed in June 2025, resort officials hope to divert 500,000 visitors from the 5 million-plus who tour Zion National Park each year and lure them to visit their water attraction, which they promise will “redefine” southern Utah’s tourist landscape.
Sulphur Springs and shower water
Even as they tap into Zion’s tourism mainstream, resort officials are adamant their tourist attraction near State Route 9 won’t be a major drain on Washington County’s water supply. Zion Canyon officials have a contract to draw water from La Verkin Hot Springs, which the district acquired in 2013 after a protracted legal battle with the previous owner who went bankrupt.
All told, the district’s springs — also known as La Verkin Sulphur Springs, Dixie Hot Springs or Pah Temp — produce roughly 7 million gallons of 107-degree hot water per day, according to the water conservancy district.
Under the 50-year lease, the district will provide the resort with access to the mineral water from La Verkin Hot Springs alongside the Virgin River for $25,000 a year, automatically adjusted for inflation, or 2 percent of the resort’s annual gross ticket sales, whichever is greater. But Zion Canyon will have to pay for everything else, including installing and maintaining pipes.
Henny said the contract allows the resort to pump up to 2,000 gallons per minute of mineral water from the district’s hot springs up the hill to the resort’s pools via a 2,500-foot pipeline. That water will flow through the resort’s 32 natural mineral pools before it is eventually returned to the district and the Virgin River.
“Because of the dry climate, we will return virtually all the water [to the river] other than what splashes when … people get out of the pools or through natural evaporation,” Henny said.
A side benefit, Washington County Water Conservancy District manager Zach Renstrom told the Tribune 18 months ago, is that the water returned to the river will be cooler and thus help endangered fish such as woundfin, Virgin River chub and spinedace, which stop eating and get stressed when water gets too hot.
Not all the water will come from the existing hot springs, though. The district will also supply the resort with another 10.7 acre-feet of culinary water — nearly 3.5 million gallons — per year to supply the showers, WorldSprings pools and the administrative building.
To conserve water, the resort will feature native, drought-resistant landscaping and refrain from using grass or tropical trees. Resort officials are also investing “several million dollars” to build a plant to remove sulfur dioxide (S02) gas from the water and air to rid the area of “that rotten egg smell.”
(Zion Canyon Hot Springs) A rendering shows Zion Canyon Hot Springs resort near Zion National Park.
Fahrenheit hot poolers
In its latest iteration, Henny told The Salt Lake Tribune, Zion Canyon Hot Springs has more than double the attractions resort officials initially envisioned when they announced their resort plans two years ago.
“The project has grown from about two dozen pools to 53 bodies of water,” said Henny, adding the temperature of the pools will range between 90 degrees and 104 degrees fahrenheit.
That total will be divvied up into family and adult sections. The family side of the divide will feature 14 mineral pools, a cold plunge pool, and a barrel sauna adjacent to a large freshwater pool and whirlpool. The adult-only section will sport 18 mineral pools, two barrel saunas, two cold-plunge pools and 16 WorldSprings-inspired pools.
Instead of using natural hot spring water, Henny explained, the WorldSprings pools will contain culinary water infused with a special co*cktail of minerals to match or mimic some of the world’s best natural hot springs, including the famed Blue Lagoon in Iceland.
A food and beverage building, strategically located between the two sections, will provide comfort food and beverages. Patrons of legal drinking age will have access to beer in the family section. The adult-only section will sport a full liquor license, enabling bathers to imbibe both beer and a mixture of co*cktails.
Adding to the allure of the adult section, it will have a bit of a downhill slope and feature terraced or tiered pools that will afford bathers more privacy and a better view of a nearby bridge and the Virgin River. The resort will also offer cabanas that hotpoolers can rent to shield themselves from the sun.
Patrons will access the resort through the main building or entrance, take the elevators or stairs to the locker rooms to secure their valuables and change into swimwear, before exiting out of the buildings to the pool, saunas and other attractions.
(Zion Canyon Hot Springs) A rendering shows Zion Canyon Hot Springs resort near Zion National Park.
Like many other locals, former La Verkin Mayor Karl Wilson is enthused about the new resort and that the opportunity to soak hot mineral water will resurface after a long hiatus. He remembers frolicking with boyhood friends years ago in the La Verkin Hot Springs and cooling down in the current of the Virgin River.
Wilson even enjoys the area’s signature sulfur smell.
“We had some guests over for a weekend,” he said. “One of them asked, ‘What is that smell?’ I said, ‘We don’t even notice it unless someone brings it up. We just consider that home sweet home.’ "
