Homestead Activity Center and Crater

Swimming in the Homestead Crater is like floating in a giant bathtub. One side of the dock has a floating «hot tub» where you can climb in for a soak (even though all swimmers/​snorkelers are required to wear life jackets). I chose to just hang around and float, myself. Snorkeling doesn’t offer much to see other than other snorkelers, so if you’re doing it with your kids/​friends, it may be worth it for the fun factor. The sessions run officially for 40 minutes, but may run longer if there aren’t many in the water. It is relaxing and the atmosphere is definitely different. The Homestead is a great place to just relax and soak up the vibes; a soak in the crater isn’t necessary. But it’s fun. Next time, though, I may try the yoga paddle class they offer.

Finally decided to come here with my friends visiting from out of town. Wanted to get the groupon, but because we were going on a weekend, we had to pay full price. However, it was worth the trip to be able to swim in a crater.
Make sure to bring a towel so you don’t have to rent one there. Also bring a pair of sandals so that you don’t have to walk around barefooted. Be aware that the bathroom is a bit of a walk from the crater, and although they do have changing stalls in the crater, they are a bit small and cramped. You can also borrow goggles there as well.
They weren’t too strict on the time spent in the actual pool, but 40 minutes is a perfect amount of time. We enjoyed wading in the water, but we had to be careful of all the scuba divers.

Just make sure you know what you’re paying for.
My friends and I decided to go to the Crater hot springs to get our swim on. After checking in and paying $ 16 for swimming tickets, we went into the Creator Springs changing area and two of us jumped into the water. Not 10 seconds after we got in the Manager told us we needed life jackets to go swimming. Immediately after he told us this my friend and I got out of the pool. Not being told this before entering, and not wanting to float around the hot spring confined by a life vest we politely asked if we could get a refund. The manager told us «No way man. Once you get into the water there’s nothing I can do. If you go to Disney Land and get through the front gate you can’t get your money back.»
What??? We were in the water for less than 30 seconds and were never read or told to read the rules. And let me tell you, this place is nothing like Disney Land. The comparison is laughable.
Anyway, after an extremely uncomfortable conversation with a rude and passive aggressive manager, I was unable to get a refund for a $ 16 pass for a 40 minuets. Honestly after such an astoundingly disappointing experience I wouldn’t recommend coming to this place at all. There are natural hot springs for less money near by and you’ll probably get a much more fulfilling experience.

I saw this place on tv and was sold for my next visit into UT. Called and made a reservation for 4 of us. There are reservation times with limited spots for each time slot. The price was something between $ 15 and $ 30, I dont recall it being very much. It is a 45– 60 minute soak session so be on time for max value. Wear bathing suit under your clothes so you can quickly get in with minimal time wasted in the changing area, pack light and put belongings in a cubby (more about that on my tip). The thing I dislike about this experience is grabbing a previously worn cold and wet life jacket– blehhhh. You must wear one to get in the pool. Its pretty deep and people learn to scuba in the in the deep crater, so life jackets are a must for liabilities, etc. I get it… but if putting on a cold wet life jacket that someone else recently wore peeves you out like it does me, maybe show up first thing in the day to get hopefully dry ones. Anyway, getting in is easy because it is warm and toasty. Floating is cool, especially with friends or on your back looking up at the sky. The crater is dark but lit by an opening at the top which lets light in from the sky. They also have a main desk and attendant, lockers, changing area inside so there is obv electricity. The day we went there were tons of people learning to scuba –apparently the bottom of the crater is deep with caverns, which must be cool. It’s cool in general that people in Utah can scuba dive in the dead of winter. When your time is up it totally sucks. Get out and try to grab a changing area and shiver and run to your car– eek! On tv they showed a paddle board yoga class, which I think would be awesome here, but not sure about class schedule or if it was just for tv. The property is nice– white picket fence and seems like a golf course and hotel are adjacent. Worth a try.

I was pretty excited to go here when I saw it online. After going, I would say it is just okay. Perhaps it was a bad first impression that took away some of the excitement. We made reservations for 7:30pm. (Only time available)
We got there to check in at 7:15pm. Most places like you to get there a few minutes early. I walked to the counter and mentioned we had reservations for 730pm. Instead of being warmly greeted, I was told «Then come back at 730pm. You can’t check in early» We were still in street clothes so it wasn’t like we were trying to get extra time. He could have pointed to the changing rooms and suggested we change as we were still a little early.
Although they offer scuba and snorkeling, only scuba divers can go underwater. What is the point of using a mask? The warm water did feel good. Perhaps during the daylight you can see more but at night it is pretty dark. There are a couple of hanging lights. I understand it is a natural crater, however, it is more like a dome surrounded by a resort. Spelunking to a natural spring would have been more fun.

We did some scuba — diving at the Crater. The water temperature is nice and toasty. This a good practice location for newbies like me.

The Homestead Crater is an awesome Winter Dive site. I help with a dive shop out of Lakewood, CO and we come up here from Nov — May.
The activity center and the dive crater have a terrific staff and are very accommodating to their patrons. A very professional operation with the ability to rent gear and get refills.
I highly recommend a trip to the Crater.
Paul C
Dive Master Candidate

I dont have a single bad thing to say about this place except I wish I lived closer to it.
I’m very big on being outdoors and exploring places like this, so when I heard about this place about a week ago I had to try it out. I was not disappointed at all. The whole atmosphere and the look of this place is really something you need to experience!
It’s not overly cheap but it’s enough that you won’t be able to go everyday. I didn’t think it was over priced though. It was just right considering what you are getting.
It’s really warm inside of the whole crater which I was worried about going into it because we did go in the dead of winter. It made getting out and changing not too bad. Plus the man who worked there was one of the friendliest guys you’ll ever meet.
The water isn’t overly clear and since it was cold outside it was kinda foggy in there but that’s what nature does so it’s not like you can be mad about that.
The water was a PERFECT temperature! It was incredibly relaxing and we brought our own snorkeling gear so it was a pretty neat experience.
This is probably one of the coolest outodoor Utah attractions. EVERYONE needs to try this if you live in Utah.

Do NOT scuba dive here! You will waste your money! And, if you’re smart, just avoid it completely. There are other warm pools in the open all around the area. They are beautiful to see! This one has been turned into an expensive (and gross) tourist trap.
Our experience:
* There is zero visibility underwater. Honestly. Zero.
* You might think warm water is nice but when your head is under the water, it’s completely awful.
* We went there in late December when the temperature was in the single digits outside. That’s not the problem, though. The gross part is that the bathrooms are on the opposite end of the property, so nobody leaves the crater to use it! That explains the smell you’ll experience.
* There are 3 tiny changing rooms. This isn’t a huge deal except that you’re absolutely freezing and, not surprisingly, selfish, rude people will take all the time they want changing — while you’re actually freezing every time someone opens the door to the outside!
* It’s way too expensive for what you get. It’s nearly $ 30/​visit. Yikes.
I hope you have a warm, clean shower to go to immediately after leaving. I wish we hadn’t wasted our money getting here, paying for a hotel & then one of us not being able to scuba dive because it was simply too hot under water. I can’t believe any scuba school would take you here.

The crater is the perfect family activity for a day off the ski slopes! The staff is very friendly and there is even a smaller area with benches to seat in the hot spring if you do not want to swim.

It’s a cool place that I’ve always wanted to visit, but once you get there you realize it might not have been worth the ~$ 20. In the future I won’t bother renting the snorkel gear as you won’t find much use for it since you always need a life jacket on. The entire time there we were wishing we were diving certified as that looked like where the real fun is. For those not certified, you can look towards floating around in a life jacket in a small area for 40+ minutes.
The fact that you’re floating in warm water during winter is cool, but there just isn’t much to do other than that, unless you can go dive. Worth seeing once, but I can’t imagine I will be back until I’m diving certified.

A really cool crater and volcanic dome. For as expensive as it is, I would expect more organization ($ 27 for 2 hours of scuba with your own gear). That said it is the closest reasonable place to do open water SCUBA test. So it is what it is but it could easily be made better.

Did they hire someone new. They don’t Pu the phone. Don’t return calls or email n
What the hellls going with this place. When they finally answer the phone they act like they can’t hear me. Say hello a few times and then bam! Hang up quickly. N
Get your sht together. We now gota return our groupon, get money back. Incompetent

This place is exactly what it says it is. A swimming hole in a crater!
The people are awesome, the place is clean and well kept, and you can learn how to scuba dive here! There’s a 40 minute time limit but no one is keeping track and it’s actually the perfect amount of time because you start getting wrinkly hands and feet from being in the warm water for too long.
We really enjoyed our visit, we’ll be recommending the place to friends and family when they visit!

Cool, one time experience. The water is warm and it wasn’t too crowded when we were there. It’s another part of Homestead that could really use some updating. New, comfortable life jackets, towels, lighting, etc. It’s a neat experience because it’s very unique but I wouldn’t call it romantic or really even relaxing (because of the life jackets). Again, cool, one time experience.

So my family and I spent our Christmas back in 2013 in a nearby resort and when we heard about this place we felt we just had to try it out. You do need to make a reservation which isnt hard to do, just give them a call. It isn’t the cheapest activity but its by no means expensive either. I didn’t have any negative experience with the staff.
The crater itself was pretty amazing. Because of the cold snowy weather outside the crater was very foggy which gave it a awesome ambient setting. Their is a hole in the ceiling of the cave (hence it being called a crater) which was mainly the only light. I thought that was pretty cool. The water was very warm. I didn’t think it was «hot» but very comfortable. There wasn’t any divers when we went and it was pretty much just our group. I think that made the experience even better. This place made a big deal about all the natural minerals that this hot spring had. You can totally feel your skin being alot softer when your done.
I would also recommend before going in to just take the stairs to the very top of the crater and you can look down into the crater. Its a great experience for everyone!

It’s a cool place but too many rules make it a highly mediocre experience. Required life jacket, no dive below the water, can’t come within 5 ft of the walls, ‘graceful’ entry and exit… are just a few of the rules with a grouchy owner hover around; they’ve found a great way to suck the fun out of a good time.
It’s a nice spot, probably a good swim spot for a group of well behaved kids, but just enough rules to shift the focus from fun to a practice of obedience.

We visited the Homestead Crater this past weekend. My two friends wanted to scuba dive (one of them got certified at that location in 2009) and I was going along just to snorkel.
The crater is essential a body of clear, warm, blue water in the belly of a cave. The water fills up a tube-​shaped cavern that goes down approximately 65 feet and the water is about 90 degrees year-​round.
I’ve never visited a hot spring before so it was interesting enough. You walk through a carved out piece of a mountain onto a deck. You can scuba, snorkel, or just lounge in the water.
It costs $ 16 to lounge and an extra $ 5 to rent snorkel equipment. This seems really overpriced to me, especially considering you only get 40 minutes for your $ 21, and you can’t really see down more than 15 feet. My friends who scuba dived paid about $ 60 for the dive + equipment — they got an hour’s dive and they said they couldn’t really see anything at the bottom because the trifecta of lights they have strung over the water hadn’t been lowered enough to light up the lower depths.
It’s not like they’re policing how long you stay in the springs; no one came out and said «it’s been 40 minutes/​1 hour, time’s up!» but honestly you probably don’t want to stay in that long, especially in the summer. I probably hung out for about 20 minutes and then got out.
What you should really do is definitely just walk in, check out the water, take a few pictures, and leave. That is completely free and takes less than 5 minutes. It’s not really worth it to snorkel or scuba for how much it costs. But it is a really cool natural landmark. Don’t forget to walk around the side and up the stairs to check out the view of Salt Lake City!

Learned about the Crater from Groupon. I’ve always wanted to go swimming underground. Didn’t realize I could do it without leaving the states. I surprised my parents for their birthday when they came I visit me. Anyway…
If you google when you’ll se why life vests and waivers are required. It only took a min to fill out and sign the papers.
The changing rooms in the crater are small and since there was a large group before us they recommend we change in the restrooms… plenty of room there!
Our time limit was 45mins (the usual) but then didn’t call us out till we had been in there for an hour and 15 mins!!! But even 45 mins is PLENTY of time! I recommend going on a slow day! Especially Sundays! Seeing how it’s in Utah. Lol
The staff was ok. The gal at the front desk didn’t seem to like being there. Wasn’t pleasant at all! Didn’t greet us and didn’t really answer questions. Pulling teeth getting her to talk! :/​But the gentleman inside the crater was nice!!!
Overall…EPICALLY AMAZING!!! We were laughing and giggling the whole time! Never seen my mom like that before! They said it was the best birthday… EVER!!! (And they’ve had 53 of them) lol Loved the fact that the water 90 – 95 degree! And there was fresh air coming in through the top! It was beautiful!!!
I would recommend bringing a lock. Lockers are available but if you bring cameras and such I would lock them up.
I’ve been recommending the crater to everyone I know. Lol
HAPPY SWIMMING! (Don’t forget to walk around the crater and up the stairs to the top of it for a great view of the valley and look into the crater from the bridge!) :)

This natural wonder is amazing. Unfortunately, the experience was not. This would have been a phenomal, once in a life-​time experience, but essentially I floated in a lifejacket in a bath in a cave so packed I could barely move.
The crater was FULL of scuba divers. 4 different small groups (of 6 or so people). 2 groups at surface, 2 under water. 3 divers surfaced into me, even though I stayed away from the diver down buoys. We were forced to wear lifejackets to swim or snorkel because of the divers. My husband and I are experts at snorkeling & often dive below the surface for better views. It was not possible in a life jacket, which was ill-​fitting to say the least. They did not disclose a life jacket was mandatory at booking, check-​in, or purchase but waited until we were entering the water. The fact you sign a waiver because no lifeguard is on duty & you swim at your own risk contradicted the lifejackets policy.
The water was dark because they had a tarp covering the crater surface hole, blocking & filtering out sunlight. Instead of seeing an unobstructed upward view of the cave, a triangle light chandelier was hung overhead. The water wasn’t much better. It was murky because of the bubbles from the divers, and visibility was poor. The only view in the water beneath us we could see was divers, unless you scaled the walls & looked at the waterline. It was crowded.
The changing areas were cramped. And the facilities themselves were not well maintained. Even the parking lots were full of litter. Not wrappers, and trash, but rotten boards, rope, a nails. I booked well in advance knowing the crater is only so big & reservations are limited. Did I mention, I’m also a professional photographer? The water was so packed, unfortunately «in water» photos were not possible because I could not get from the floating platform to the side of the cave with scuba groups utilizing the entire area & swimmers cramped to the walls. Total disappointment. The experience would be better if they prioritized information, had adequate facilities, and scheduled divers & scuba divers separately.