Geologic activity shapes the landscape around Grover Hot Springs State Park, where granite peaks to the northwest reflect immense mountain-building forces, old lava flows cover hundreds of square miles to the east, and Ice Age glaciers carved the valley’s rugged form. The hot springs are a by-product of the same interplay of rock, fire, and ice: water from melted winter snow seeps deep into the earth’s crust, contacts hot rock, is heated to the boiling point, and rises to the surface along a fault that cuts across the valley. Emerging at 148 degrees, the water carries a variety of dissolved minerals but little of the sulfur often associated with thermal springs. For more than a century, tourists have enjoyed the springs, while minerals left by the cooling water create a natural salt lick that attracts deer and other wildlife. The water eventually flows across the meadow to Hot Springs Creek, and some evaporates, returns to the mountains as rain or snow, and begins the cycle again.