Dart and Map

Near Death Valley are hot springs the public can use.  I stayed at Tecopa Hot Springs for one night. They have different types of rooms/cabins, some with showers and some of the rooms had a little bit of a walk to the showers and hot springs. I booked a room that would have required the walk, but due to a slight key mix up ended up being upgraded to a room that had a shower and toilet, with the hot springs being two doors down in the building. I used to go to Montana all the time and was obsessed with hot springs. My friend, who lives there, even took me to a hot pod in Yellowstone. That was very cool. I’m sure it is very crowded nowadays. I have a vivid memory of seeing warning signs for grizzly bears as we walked to it and freaking out a lot. Luckily, we did not see any.

The hot springs tubs are a  decent size. The rooms are private with locks. All they ask is that you limit your time in the tubs if there are people waiting to use them. The water was way hotter than I expected, so I didn’t make it too long, but it felt great after a few minutes of getting used to it. There was no sulphur smell either.  As the sky grew darker, my city eyes were in love with the dark night sky and seeing all of the stars. It was extremely pleasant and quiet. The motel I stayed in has a restaurant, but I brought some delicious food over from Artesian Cellars in Pahrump, Nevada. There are very few places to eat around the motel area and the days/hours they are open are limited, so definitely investigate before going or just bring food from elsewhere, like I did.

There are other motels with hot springs in the area, and there is a public pool there as well.  I saw one review that said the public pool has no bathrooms. Not sure so make sure you look into that if you are going.

I don’t mind having no access to social media, but I was a little annoyed at myself for having wine because it meant I wouldn’t retain anything I read, so there was a fair amount of staring at the wall until I could fall asleep.  There is also no television. None of this is bad. It just made it clear that I spend too much of my time wasting time. By the next day, I was more adjusted to no reception and then fully loved it.

The next morning we went to Shoshone, with our first stop being the Dublin Gulch. It’s a bunch of former homes that 1920s miners dug into the rocks. The dwellings are all now protected by fences or doors, but you can see inside.  A posted sign reads “some caves have split levels, stovepipes, and garages.” Garage for a cave house is really something else. There is a pile of old rusty cans and a small cemetery.  It’s actually pretty cool to see. It’s on Highway 127 a bit North of Highway 178.

Walking distance from the Gulch is a Desert Tortoise pen. It’s in the middle of some cabins. There were 4 tortoises there when we went. One was staring into the abyss by a gate, trying to figure out how to get its freedom. Another was hiding in the little mud cave. Then there were two others. We weren’t sure what exactly was going on. It looked like one tortoise was being a dick to the other one, biting it and following it. Welp, it turned out that was its foreplay and so we watched a bit of tortoise porn. The bottom tortoise kept walking away and even walked over to and called out the hiding one, though we weren’t sure if it was for some major XXX kind of tortoise thing at first.  Alas, we tired of the show and went to the gas station so I can get a lotto ticket and peruse the cool items for sale in its store.

Directly across from the gas station is the Shoshone Museum, which looks like a former gas station. In front of it is a small free library, which is super great. There were a few questionable books in it which I’ve been regretful that I didn’t take out. The museum is a small space, with information about the former residents and such. They also happen to have some dinosaur bones believed to be from seven to nine different beings. As always in museums, the person in the building is full of information about the area, past and present. Brian and I had two more stops and got competitive about getting to them before the other tourists did. As soon as the docent mentioned “date farm” to them, we knew we had to book, though we thought they might stop at the hot springs first.

We actually had a waterfall hike in mind. I had it saved on my Google map, but didn’t realize it actually starts by the date farm called China Ranch Date Farm. I loved that because it made it easier to do both things.

The drive to the hike and farm is winding, with old abandoned equipment along the way. There was once a railroad here, which was loaded with gypsum and talc ore to take away.

We wanted to see the Amargosa Waterfall. It is about 4-miles round-trip if you include Slot Canyon. All very easy, with only a slight incline.  Since we had no reception, I was not aware it was in the mid 80s already. That’s still fine to hike for some people, but I get irritated & overheated quickly these days. I had a lot of water and electrolyte/salt tablets with me, so it ended up being okay. The tablets are always in my hiking bag. There is a loop you can hike if you would like to add more distance to your walk. A dad and his son had just come back from it and the kid, as freaked out about sidewinder snakes as I, said there was a good mile of the hike that was lush and “full of places snakes could be hiding” though he admitted they saw none.  We took the more direct route to the waterfall, that fully lacked shade, our bodies heated by the punishing sun. Along the way was a tiny creek that had some pupfish ( I assume) in it. There were a few cacti with gorgeous flowers. We were stalked by an evil fly-type thing. It followed us for most of the time we walked. At some point it lost us but then the little jagoff found us. I don’t know what kind of bug it was, but at least it wasn’t trying to bite us.  Long ago, the trail was used by 49ers on their way to look for gold. Some miners stopped in Death Valley and mined for borax instead. Though not worth as much as a find of gold, it was abundant and most gold miners didn’t strike it rich anyway. It was the food and supply merchants who made the $$ killings.

 The “waterfall” was not at all what I expected. It wasn’t dropping from a towering cliffside. It was small and rust colored, flowing down a small stone edge. but I took it in as though it was one in Yosemite. I had hiked in the hot sun wearing long pants, after all. 

After we saw the “waterfall” we decided to walk to the slot canyon. Walking in more hot sun, I was ready to call it quits. Now, we were below the waterfall trail, and there were cliffs and rocks around us. In my hot scrambled brain, I thought it was the slot canyon. Getting frustrated and feeling ripped off, I insisted we turn back.  Brian asked, “Do you really think THIS is the slot canyon?” He had walked ahead for a bit so knew it was LITERALLY 50 feet away from the shaded spot in which I had decided to cease moving. Taking a swig of cold water, I yelled at myself in my head to stand up and get back at it. 

The temperature in the Slot Canyon was cool. It was shady. It was a wide path and not claustrophobic in any way. A short walk and then it’s a dead end. Perfect place to cool down and look up as you meander through. We had it, and most of the hike, to ourselves. There were a few others here and there but we all managed to be perfectly spaced out so everyone got to enjoy it with no interference.

When we finally returned to the truck, I couldn’t wait to change out of my soaking clothes. Brian, of course, looked as though he had been sitting in air conditioning all along.  The farm has a store, where they sell, of course, date-related things. I opted out of buying things just to buy them, but we did each enjoy a scrumptious vegan date shake at a table outside. (Yes, they have dairy shakes, too.) What a fun hike and great way to end the day.