California
Hot Springs and Death Valley
Spring
Break, April 2021
We started our trip at my in-laws’ house just outside
of Sacramento, California. We had
planned to caravan with my in-laws down the back side of the Sierra Nevada
mountains, hitting some of my father-in-law’s favorite hot springs along the
way. I told my father-in-law that we
also wanted to go to Death Valley, since we had never been there and spring
would be a good time to go. He then
replied back that he would take us out to the Saline Valley hot springs, which
are in a remote northern section of Death Valley National Park. The road out there is rough and I was a
little concerned about our minivan making the journey.
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| Soaking in the first hot spring at night. |
We
loaded up and followed my in-laws in their Roadtrek camper up highway 50 over
the Sierras. Our first stop was a hot
spring north of Bishop, California. It
was a short, bumpy ride out there, but we finally made it around dusk. Fortunately, the hot spring wasn’t very busy
and most of the people were leaving when we got there, so we had the tub to
ourselves. We camped just down the road
from the hot spring.
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| Our campsite. The hot spring was just to the right of our camp. |
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| Sierra Nevada mountains |
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| The tub during the day. The hot water comes from the creek in the background. |
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| Keough hot springs |
In
the morning we continued driving south, stopping in Bishop, California for some
gas and snacks. We then stopped at
Keough Hot Springs. There is a Keough
Hot Springs “resort”, which is basically a large swimming pool with the hot springs
water piped in. We hike out to where
some of the hot springs water runs down in a little creek and sat in some
natural pools. Even though it was warm
outside, the hot springs felt great.
After
a soak and some lunch, we made our way out toward the northern end of Death
Valley National Park. We hooked up with the
northern Saline Valley Road and started our four hour, bumpy, hot, and dusty
drive down into the hot springs. Since
we had to climb up a pass first and then make some more steep climbs, we drove
with the windows down and the air conditioning off so the car wouldn’t over
heat. We finally made it to the valley
floor and could see the palm trees signaling the location of the springs in the
distance, just like a desert oasis.
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| The long road down to the Saline Valley hot springs |
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| Welcome sign to the hot springs |
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| The oasis in the desert |
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| The minivan made the drive! |
It was
97 degrees when we got there, but everyone still wanted to jump in the hot
springs. The tubs are man-made, but look
very natural. Of course, there are
people out there sans swimsuits, but it just comes with the territory. We camped next to the second set of hot
springs. I was a little proud that we
were the only ones that drove out there in something that wasn’t four wheel
drive and didn’t have high clearance (a sign of good driving or stupidity).
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| Saline Valley hot springs |
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| Dinner at our campsite |
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| Saline Valley hot springs |
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| Saline Valley rock art |
The
next morning we walked down the first set of hot springs, which have had lots
of cool pieces of artwork added over the years.
We quickly found out that this is where all of the old hippies from the
60’s disappeared to. There were lots of
old naked men and women at this hot spring.
There were several tubs to choose from, all with different
temperatures. We shared a tub with an
old guy with a big gray beard who looked like he had been in the sun a little too
long. He was full of great stories, most
of which I think were completely bogus, but at least they were interesting to
listen to. The funniest person we saw
there was an old grandma wearing a large sun hat, two knee braces, and nothing
else! We told the kids, “just don’t look”. Becky said, “Well at least it is just a bunch
of old naked people and not younger naked people.”  |
| "Just don't look" |
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| Very nice warm tub for two |
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| The older tubs, full of naked hippies |
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| Riding in grandpa and grandma's camper |
My father-in-law thought we were
going to stay in the Saline Valley for another night, but the kids were eager
to move on (it was still 97 degrees outside with little shade). We packed up our stuff and headed out on the
southern portion of the Saline Valley Road.
This section was rougher than the northern part. The washboards on the valley floor were gigantic. As we started climbing out of the valley floor,
the road got very rocky. As long as we
took it slow, we were fine. But driving slow
in that heat was very hard on the car and it had a hard time staying cool. There were only a couple of times that I got
a little concerned that we were not going to make it up some hills. After four hot and dusty hours we made it
back to the highway and found a campsite in Death Valley for the night.
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| The road out of the Saline Valley (washboards are larger than they appear) |
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| Starting the climb out of the Saline Valley |
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| Joshua Tree forest |
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| Mosiac Canyon |
The
next morning we tried to get going early before it got too hot. First, we went for a short hike up Mosiac
Canyon, where the walls do almost look like someone tried to make a natural mosaic
of rocks. After this, we went out and
hike on some of the sand dunes. The temperature
was already rising. We then stopped at
the borax 21 mule exhibit, then made our way down to Badwater Basin, which is
almost 300 feet below sea level. We
wandered around out on the salt flats and even tasted some of the salt (it’s
actually very good).
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| Sand dunes |
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| We lost one... |
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| 21 mule team borax site |
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| Badwater Basin, lowest point in North America |
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| Pointing to where sea level is |
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| Salt flats |
After
turning around, we took a short side trip on Artist’s Drive to look at the
various rocks in multiple hues. We then
took a trip over to Zabriskie Point, which overlooks the valley floor. The colors of the landscape were unbelievable!
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| Artist's Drive |
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| Artist's Drive |
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| Zabriskie Point |
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| Zabriskie Point |
We
then met back up with Becky’s parents at Furnace Creek, where we looked around
a little. The temperature was already
climbing to 96 degrees and getting hotter, so it was time to leave.
In
the afternoon we drove out of the park into Nevada and headed out to another
hot spring called Spencer’s hot spring, which is out in the middle of nowhere. Most of the hot water had been piped into big
tubs or stock tanks.
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| Campsite at Spencer's hot spring |
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| Some tall guy was camping inside this bug |
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| Spencer's Hot Spring |
It got pretty cold
at night and in the morning the kids were ready to pack up and get something warm
to eat. My in-laws were still sleeping
so we left them and told them we were meet them back at their house.
