The following morning, I hit the trail while it was still dark, and reached the hot spring just as it was starting to get light. I quickly stripped down to my swimming suit, took my Tesoro stingray under water metal detector out and inched my way into the steamy hot waters. I no sooner lowered my search coil to the ground when it instantly started beeping. I quickly retrieved it to find it was a quarter. I then lowered my coil again, and again it instantly went off, and again I retrieved a quarter. I found myself retrieving pennies, nickels,dimes and quarters as fast as I could lower my search coil through the water to the ground below.

I couldn't believe it, all the money and hardly any trash at all, I had figured I was going to have to sift through all kinds of pull tabs, but I only dug up a couple. Then it hit me, about what was going on, the people using this natural hot tub respected it and didn't want to ruin it by littering the bottom with trash that could cut their feet. But at the same time, they were using it as a wishing well, throwing their spare change in making a wish. I continued detecting for the next couple of hours, pulling one coin after another up and I finally found a couple of rings. Although they were silver and not gold like I was hoping for, it proved to me that my theory was right about the hot water expanding the rings so that they would slip off the fingers of the unsuspecting people easily.

People finally starting showing up so I decided to pack up and leave. As I was hiking back down the trail, the wheels started turning in my head again, and I thought there had to be more natural hot springs around, that people were using, and maybe by some slim chance that people would use it as a wishing well too.

All that next week I asked around to see if anybody knew where some hot springs were located mearby that people were using. To my delight I got the directions to several different locations. When the weekend finally rolled around I grabbed my detector and off I headed for the nearest hot spring to test my theory. When I arrived I anxiously got my detector set up and ready to see what this hot spring had to offer. And just the same as the first spring I visited, my detector started beeping right and left. There were coins every where, my theory was right, for some strange mystical reason people were using these hot springs as wishing wells, and they are virtually trash free. I even found another ring, of course, it wasn't gold like I was hoping for. But I am sure with my persistence I will find one. I recently purchased a book on the geological study of all the hot springs in Utah. There are more hot springs than I would have ever imagined, and if for some strange reason, all these sites are used for wishing wells like I suspect, then I have just stumbled on to a free vending machine route, where people throw their money in and a get a wish, and all I have to do is make the rounds periodically and retrieve the profits.