I didn't know how long I'd be out, but I knew I'd be in some very remote country, so I packed for five days and "cameled-up" on my water. My plan was to travel to central Nevada and kind of make a loop through a hot spring rich area. My itinerary was to: 1.) find a secret spring I'd recently learned about, but had never been to before; 2.) visit Potts hot spring, which is one of my all time favorites; 3.) visit the historic little Nevada town of Belmont and have a beer at Dirty Dick's Bar; 4.) visit Darrough's Hot Springs; 5.) visit Spencer's Hot Springs and finally, 6.) visit Smith Valley Hot Springs.
I left about noon on Tuesday and drove east on Highway 50, which is nicknamed "The Loneliest Highway in America" (maybe that's why I like it so much).
Sand Mountain is worth a brief stop to take a few photographs and let Dexter stretch his legs,
but I don't really care for the vibe here. Not to be an elitist or anything, but Sand Mtn. seems
to attract the motor head crowd. Everyone seems to have a noisy dune buggy, sandrail or quad
to zip all over the place at 50 mph. It definitely attracts the "party crowd" and with that, loud
music, blaring generators, car alarms and the trash that they always seem to leave behind.
Too bad because it's such a beautiful mountain.
Dexter started to pace back and forth in the rear seat, so we found this nice
wide spot in the road for him to jump out, stretch his legs and mark some territory.
Since I was in "meander-mode" I thought I'd go see the earthquake faults. I'd driven past
this turn off many times, but I was always too busy to make the 12 mile round trip to see them.
On December 16, 1954, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit this area and dropped part of the basin
down from 6.5 to 10 feet. I made the side trip out to the faults, but after 60+ years, the impact
of the faults weren't that apparent to little ole me. "All Around Nevada" has a very
informative, interactive website on the faults
On the way up to the faults, we hit one little section where we were attacked by
swarms of grasshoppers. They all hit at once and just as quickly, they were gone. Four
or five of the little guys hung on for almost an hour before giving up and let the
wind take them to their next home.
Just east of Middlegate, NV, is the shoe tree. The original shoe tree was cut down by vandals
in 2011, but this little stand of cottonwood trees seems to be taking its place and already has
quite a load of zapatos.
The legend is that a newlywed couple were camping beneath the tree one night when they
got into an argument. The woman threatened to leave her new husband and he told her that
if she did, she'd have to leave barefooted. He then threw her shoes up into the tree and drove
to a nearby bar. The bartender convinced the man to go back to his wife and when he returned
to the tree, she was still there, so he climbed the tree, retrieved her shoes and they lived happily
ever after. They did return after their first child was born and threw his shoes up into their
lucky tree and the rest is history.
From the shoe tree, we continued eastward...
My destination for the night was a secret little hot spring that the Ski3pin's had visited recently. They
had posted some photos of the spring, but kept it's identity a secret. The spring looked so inviting
that I had to put on my detective hat and do whatever it took to find it. After hours and hours of
stabbing at the keyboard and visiting website after website, I finally found what I thought was it. I'm
also going to keep the identity of this spring under my hat too, but one can find it if you're willing to
put in the work.
Now all I had to do was find the actual spring itself in the middle of the country's 7th largest state...
We found it!
I must have looked like a kid who just saw Santa when I came upon this little hot spring.
The time I had put in to locating it made finding it all the sweeter. Thank you to the
Ski3pins for tickling my interest.
This is actually the newer of two springs at this location, with this one being
dedicated to "Melanie" on July 4, 2015.
The water was clear and clean (no sulphur) and was the perfect temperature. I don't carry a
thermometer, but I would guess it's around 102°.
I wasted no time and within 15 minutes of arriving, I was soaking. Dexter kept
me company from the edge as I sipped on a beer and enjoyed the view.
There were however, some drawbacks to this spring. First, there are some little water beetles
(I only saw 6-8 of them) that nibble on you if you happen to lean back on them. I tried to scoop
most of them out, but you had to stay vigilant or they'd find a tasty piece of flesh to chew on.
Another problem was the flies! Although I didn't see any cattle in the immediate area, the springs
are located on open range land and that usually means BEEF. There was a lot of horse manure
everywhere though and that, in combination with a fresh water source, is enough to bring the flies.
Some were the big long grayish horse flies that can really take a chunk out of you, but other
were small flies that looked like miniature house flies, but they too were fierce little nibblers.
The flies were bad enough that even when they weren't landing on you, every little itch made you
think they were.
My plan was to duck into the camper until dusk, when hopefully, the flies would be calling it a night and then I could go back to the springs for soak number 2. Dex had a cowhide to chew on, I had a book to read and a beer to sip on as I listened to the flies buzzing outside the window screens.
I did go back to the spring around dusk and the bugs had, for the most part, gone to bed I guess.
The soak and the views were amazing!
I soaked for about an hour until it was starting to get too dark to see the "path." Most of this area
looks dry, but in fact, it's some of the muddiest, gooshiest, slimiest mud you can imagine. There
is a dry looking crust on top, but just below that crust is something akin to quicksand. There
was evidence of a couple of vehicles that had been stuck near the pools.
At one point while soaking, I watched Dexter exploring the area and then suddenly he sank
in the mud all the way up to his belly. He started panicking and flailing about, at one point
even getting his entire muzzle buried in the mud. Just as I was stepping out of the spring to rescue
him, he managed to free himself. He was so muddy that he looked like Cujo when he was in his rabid phase.
This was one of the first steps I took towards the spring and learned
the hard way about the mud.
After getting a good soak, Dex and I went back to the camper, cooked dinner, and settled in
for the night.
Around 10:30 p.m., I heard a lot of heavy foot falls outside the camper. I looked outside, but it was too dark to see anything. I assumed it was cattle coming in for their evening drink of water, when I
heard the unmistakable whinny of horses. I don't know how many there were but judging by their
activity, it was a herd of them.
How nice it is to live in a place where wild horse still roam free.
All of the spring's runoff is what makes the area so muddy. I parked a
considerable distance away to avoid getting stuck.
This appeared to be the source pool for the hot springs.
This is the original soaking tank and it's still in use. It would be a very nice
pool in which to soak, if there weren't so much Bull Thistle growing around
it. If I ever return in the spring/summer, I think I'll bring a machete and hack
some of it down.
The loneliest little heart I ever saw...
Now, it was off to Pott's Hot Spring...
When I tell my friends that I went to the middle of nowhere, I can show them this sign as proof.
After 30+ miles of dirt road and lots of twists, turns and forks in the road, I was rewarded with this!
POTT's HOT SPRING
Look at the incredible views!
As you can tell from the photos, it was a HOT day, but damn it, I drove all this way
and I'm gonna soak even if it kills me. I only put 3-4 inches of water in the tub, dropped
trou and jumped in. I left my shirt on to avoid getting sunburned and I actually had a
nice 30 minute soak.
Dexter had better sense than to jump in...
A couple of old buildings on Pott's Ranch.
On to Belmont, NV
35 miles of this to Belmont, during which I didn't see another soul out and about.
I know a mid-day shot doesn't do this craggy area justice, but it would be a great place
for exploring if you don't have a problem with snakes, that is...
Like most of Nevada, Belmont has a rich mining history. "Combination"
was the name of the mining company and this is what's left of their legacy.
The little town of Belmont was very charming--I'm definitely coming back here in the future.
Here's a link to a very informative website on Belmont, NV.
One of the tabs on my blog is "Bars of the West" and I've been planning to visit some of these
out of the way watering holes and thirst parlors, so Dirty Dick's will be my first entry!
Dirty Dick's is just what you want a bar to be. It's historical, unpretentious, allows dogs and
has a clientele that's friendly and genuine. I stopped in for a beer and stayed for three. I even
considered camping in the area so that I could experience Dirty Dick's at night.
Dexter had to stretch his legs and mark some territory before coming inside.
The 10 year old cowboy in the bar was the owner's grandson, who prefers
to help his granddad punch cows every summer rather than stay home
in Arizona.
Dexter can always make friends wherever he goes...
What we have here is the Triple Spinning Heinie Sniff (TSHS). I'm just glad
the customers in the bar preferred the traditional handshake instead....
Diane, the bar's owner, purchased the place about 4 years ago and hasn't changed it much. Belmont is a very small town and doesn't even have a gas station, so the bar is pretty much the town's epicenter.
An old bar just wouldn't be the same if it didn't have one of these hanging on the wall...
Some old Nevada train history
If I saw this dog running around outside, I may have mistaken him for a
coyote. He was a very lovable guy.
Any hound dog who'll sit quietly at the base of his dad's bar stool, is a dog worth keeping.
I had to get my requisite shot of my traveling buddy "Porky" on this trip, so I posed him on the bird
feeder. I clicked the shutter right as the wind was blowing him off. He wasn't injured.
As much as I would have liked to hang around Belmont for another day, I pressed on.
My plan was to visit Darrough's Hot Springs and then camp for the night at Spencer's
Hot Springs and daylight was a burnin.
I love it when you're on a paved state road that the GPS doesn't even recognize.
As I was crossing over the southern end of the Monitor range, I dropped in to the little town
of Manhattan, NV. The fact that this was the only picture I took of the place should tell you
something. Manhattan was a creepy little broken down town with a bad vibe to it. I drove
through it without looking back.
My dirt road eventually connected with State Road 376, where I turned north and into Smokey
Valley--destination: Darrough's Hot Springs.
I stopped in Carvers, NV, for a little "piece of mind gas."
When's the last time you saw this???
Or this???
With the tank topped off, I drove the 5 miles to Darrough's Hot Springs only to find a sign saying
that it was closed. The sign didn't specify if it was just closed for the day or for good. Some of my pre-trip research said that since the matriarch of the Darrough family had died a few years ago, that the springs may be closed indefinitely. The "Closed" sign looked new, which suggested that it may just be temporary. Diane, the owner of Dirty Dick's, seemed to think it was still open for $1.00 per hour.
A review of Darrough's Hot Springs by CmdrMarkdotcom, gave a really creepy review
of the place and warned people to stay away, so maybe I didn't miss much.
So, with my trusty hound dog in the back seat, we pressed on to Spencer's Hot Springs.
We arrived at the lower pools of Spencer's as the sun was low on the horizon.
Spencer's is a very popular destination for hot springers, probably because it's so close to
Highway 50 and to Austin, NV. The place has a "party" look about it in that there was litter,
old fire rings, tire track marks through the vegetation and just a trampled down look about it.
Being that it was the week after the 4th of July, there was hardly anyone there, so I
popped the camper, got nekkid and jumped in with only a sweet hound dog, a beautiful
view and a beer to keep me company. Life was pretty great.
About 30 minutes into my soak, Dexter started growling and that's pretty rare, so he got my attention.
As I looked to see what he was looking at, I saw a wild donkey making his way down towards
the springs (probably to get his evening drink of water).
Dexter trotted over to meet him when the donkey stopped in his tracks and started yelling at
Dexter in that ridiculous honking sounding way that only a donkey can do. Dex got the
message and left the ass alone for the rest of the evening, but he never took his eyes off of him.
This is a crappy hand-held low light shot of our ass...
As the donkey began to munch on the green grass surrounding the springs, I saw more movement
out of the corner of my eye. When I looked up on the little ridge, I saw a whole herd of wild horses.
They were watching Dex and I and probably hoping we'd get the hell out of there so they could come
down for a drink.
Not wanting to keep them from their water, I got out and made my way back to the camper. Most of
the herd trotted away, except for one stoic horse. He may have been the stallion, but the light was too low to tell.
I managed to get one more hand-held low-light shot of one of the horses before jumping in the
camper for the night.
That night, Dex and I were treated to a concert of horse whinnies and donkey honking that
lasted until around 2 a.m. It sounded like they were fighting for territory or something because
it just went on and on. It was a pretty cool evening to be outside in Nevada!
Here's a little better photo of one of the lower pools at Spencer's.
It was too hot outside to even consider a morning soak.
This pool is only about 30 feet from the other pool
This appeared to be a labyrinth that had seen its better days.
By now, Dexter and I were a little road and sun weary, so we decided to call it a trip and head
back to civilization and the land of the ice cube. We'll leave Smith Valley Hot Springs
for another time (fall sounds nice).
Little Austin, NV.
I'm still wondering what I was thinking to have planned a hot spring circuit in the middle of
summer in scorching hot Nevada. Even though it was blistering hot, I had a great time just being out
there AND I visited a few new places that I plan to re-visit in the future.
Belmont, NV was the highlight of this trip and I plan to add it to my ever-growing list
of places that I intend to visit annually.
Now I think I'll head to the mountains!
Loved reading about yours and Dexters adventure-maybe I'll run into on the road sometime. from El Dorado County.
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