Are you ready for a low-cost, relaxing — even healthful — getaway that you can enjoy summer or winter? Well then, let's go hot spring hunting.

Hot springs are produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. Heated water holds dissolved solids rich in mineral content, commonly including calcium, chloride, iron, sulphur, magnesium, potassium, boron and even trace amounts of radium and arsenic.

Since prehistoric times, mankind has believed these thermal mineral waters to have healing or at least therapeutic properties. Not just for soaking, these waters are bottled — ala Perrier, Evian and others — and consumed worldwide.

A government report from the National Geophysical Data Center has identified 1,661 hot springs in the United States, so there are plenty of choices. These springs are mostly concentrated in volcanic regions out West, but there are notable examples in the South and East as well.

Some hot springs remain in a natural state, but most have become commercialized, forming the nucleus of resorts and health spas. So let's take a look at a variety of hot springs hot spots scattered across the country.

Pools of Oheo, Hawaii, (aka Seven Sacred Pools) are located south of Hana, Maui, on the lower slopes of Haleakala Volcano, where thermal waters tumble down in a series of seven beautifully-tiered pools. This is an entirely natural area protected within the bounds of Haleakala National Park, accessed by way of a 2-mile hike along Pipiwai Trail. Although not so easy to reach, the Pools of Oheo are well worth the effort — and the $10 per car fee to enter the park.

Chena Hot Springs, Alaska, hide away in a forested setting 60 miles northeast of Fairbanks where they provide a warming soak year-round. The springs were discovered by a pair of gold miners in 1904 and have been serving visitors since 1911 when facilities consisted of a bathhouse and a dozen small cabins.

Nowadays most visitors sensibly opt for overnight stays at comfy Moose Lodge, but a $15 swim-and-soak day pass avails guests use of the resort's indoor hot mineral water pools and, for adults, access to Hot Springs Rock Lake, where temps reach a toasty 106 degrees.

Desert Hot Springs, California, touts itself as "California's Spa City," and with good reason. This Coachella Valley community of 28,000 sits atop the San Andreas Fault, which hints at the town's geothermal underpinning with its huge 300-foot-deep hot water aquifer. The water surfaces at an ideal temperature range of 90-104 degrees, filling the pools and tubs of more than two dozen resorts and spas.

Nearly all of these properties offer lodging with complementary access to the soothing waters, but most also accept hot-tubbers on a daily basis. A good choice in the budget category is Desert Hot Springs Spa Hotel, a '50s-era motel with a decidedly "retro" atmosphere where you can soak for a mere $7. At the top end is the chic Two Bunch Palms Spa Resort, where a day pass demands $70 (less with the purchase of a spa treatment).

Sykes Hot Springs, California, is a welcome site to those who endure a tough 10-mile hike from Big Sur Station into the redwood-studded Ventana Wilderness for the pleasure of a plunge into a stone-lined, 100-degree hot spring bordering a clear-running mountain river.

There is a primitive campground near the spring, and unless you're an experienced and extremely fit hiker able to make it in and out in a day, you'd best plan for an overnight stay. Use of the spring and campground is free, but you'll need to pick up a camping permit, which outlines restrictions/instructions regarding campfires, and you'll pay $5 a day to park your car at Big Sur Station. Note: This is a popular site and is often crowded on weekends and holidays.

Pagosa Springs, Colorado, was enjoyed by Native Americans way before being discovered by white men more than 150 years ago. A U.S. Army physician's report in 1860 declared: "The waters of Pagosa are without doubt the most wonderful and beneficial in medicinal effects that have ever been discovered." A bathhouse was built in 1881 and as rail travel reached Pagosa in 1900, travelers came from far and wide to "take the waters."

Today, the voluminous spring is ensconced within the upscale Springs Resort & Spa with its 79 rooms and suites and busy spa/salon. Guests, of course, soak for free in the resort's 23 hot mineral water pools, attractively arranged along a spacious veranda overlooking the San Juan River. The pools also are open year-round to the public for fees ranging from $24-$53 per day, based on selected amenity packages.

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, was more aptly named Hot Springs before renaming itself after Ralph Edwards' popular radio show in 1950. Hot water containing a medicinal mix of 38 minerals rising from a rift along the Rio Grande River remains central, however, to T or C's identity.

One writer has depicted it as a "southwestern swirl of Old West and New Age," a description quite befitting a town where the first bathhouse was built in the 1880s for the use of cowboys — but also where kitschy curios shops, health food stores and yoga parlors line the main drag.

The 1920s and '30s saw a bathing boom, during which a dozen motor lodges — most designed in the "adobe-deco" style of the times, and piped for hot mineral water — popped up around town. Today, most have been attractively renovated, making T or C a fun and affordable destination for dedicated dippers. Room rates range from $40-$95 per night, and walk-ins can enjoy a soak for as little as $5 per hour.

Hot Springs, Arkansas, is a sizeable city of more than 35,000 residents that was literally built around a row of elegant 19th-century bathhouses. Today, "Bathhouse Row" is designated a National Historic District and is maintained and operated as a national park.

Nestled in the Ouachita Mountains on a site percolating with 46 natural hot water springs, Hot Springs National Park affords visitors a fascinating look into the history of spa treatments during an era before modern medicine began displacing thermal waters as a mainstay cure for a variety of ills.

Take a tour Fordyce Bathhouse, which serves as the park's visitor center and museum, then drop by Buckstaff Bathhouse for a traditional hour-long treatment that includes a 20-minute tub bath, topped off with hot packs, steam vapor and needle shower rinse — all for just $30.

More hot springs hot spots: Calistoga, California; Thermopolis, Wyoming; Glenwood Springs, Colorado; Berkeley Springs, West Virginia; and Saratoga Springs, New York.