Welp, looks like the big fix is finally here for my 07 HCH.
Hoping it's not a cracked block.

~262k miles.
Recently been losing coolant without a visible leak underneath where I park, so assumed I was loosing at high speeds(my daily commute for work is 35miles each way, half being interstate speeds).
Due to the loss of coolant, have been seeing the temp rise. I have yet to let the temp rise TOO much, but it has gotten up there a couple times while I was trying to diagnose if it was simply a bad rad cap.

Was thinking it was a bad rad cap due to how it'd dump coolant to the reservoir and not take it back in. That plus how the cap looked, it looked like it was time to replace anyways(no idea when it was replaced last, if ever, as I got the car at 212k miles)
After changing the cap, things seemed to be better for a bit, but then it finally started to creep up temp wise slowly. Gauge would stay about the same position, maybe add one bar or two, while using my bluetooth obd reader and monitoring actual temp reading through Torque, it'd sit around ~85-90c when at the normal position on the gauge. When I would be going up a slight incline or stopping at an incline, it'd rise to ~100-112c until I leveled out again, which this made me think I just simply have massive/several air pockets causing it.

Well, after it started to go up again but remain close to typical temp, that night I noticed a soft white smoke coming from the exhaust, I was hoping it was just from how there was the whole snow storm and just hoping for the best so I just parked it just incase.
A couple days later the weather cleared up and I started it with the rad cap off to see if I saw any bubbling going on(first I dumped the coolant that was in the reservoir into the rad to make it visible with the cap off to be able to notice any bubbling of course). Well, the video I have linked(end of post) is the result of doing so.

It bubbles, but not crazily at least.
Doesn't look anything like a milkshake, still looks like coolant.
Oil cap looks fine, no whiteness, and the dip stick looks like it should, oil that's a little overdo for a changing (6.5k miles since last oil change)

First, how the hell do I diagnose the rad fan? Is there any way to force it to run? I haven't noticed it running lately so would like to know about that while I'm at this. The A/C fan seems to function as intended though, just not the rad fan, or it just eludes me and turns off anytime I try to look at it lmfao.
ANYWAYS
So, what should my first steps be to diagnose this? Assuming it's headgasket, I guess I caught it early enough to not cause much damage seeing as the oil and coolant look typical thus far? If it's a cracked block, am I able to diagnose that myself without doing anything crazy? (My arms are slender so can reach my phone in behind the engine or under if it's clear enough to look where any cracking would be with flash on and recording video if it's reachable.)

I have very basic tools currently and just a simple scissor jack at my disposal currently, but can get ahold of jack stands if need be.

Video mentioned above(video starts like 5secs after starting the car, turned the vehicle off once I noticed the larger amount of smoke)-

 

Is the cooler hose getting hard,especially at full engine temperature? You should be able to squeeze it easilly by hand.

 

What coolant do you use ?