Great Big Story visits Jigokudani Valley, aka “Hells Valley,” in Japan’s gorgeous and rugged Joshinetsu-Kogen National Park where some naturally occurring hot springs provide the perfect spa day for dozens of chilly macaque monkeys.
“The Jigokudani Valley is a high altitude, snow-covered landscape of cliffs and chasms that holds a surprising secret: hot springs that bubble with subterranean heat and fill the air with steam. However, we humans aren’t the only primates who have discovered the hot springs. In the early 1960s, macaques moved down from the higher forests and made themselves right at home in the warm waters.”
Previously from Great Big Story: The Man Who Beat ‘Pac-Man’