AZHS: Update

[Casa Blanca Hot Spring]

Hi Eric,

The "official hiking trail" from the highway to the hot springs takes you from the highway directly down the wash to the Colorado River. You then walk along the river for a short distance to the mouth of the hot springs creek canyon. A short distance up this canyon, before you get to the soaking area, you come to a sheer rock wall which cannot be ascended without the presence of the ladder. So if you are using the "official hiking trail" or arriving by boat, no ladder means no soak.

The "Petroglyph Trail" and Joe's "Doggie Trail" take you from the highway, on a more southerly route than the official trail, to the top of the hot springs canyon. You then go down the canyon until you come to the soaking area. Since you did not have to go all the way to the Colorado River by these routes, you only encounter the ladder and wall problem if you want to continue past the soaking area down canyon to the river.

Thanks a bunch. We hope that no ladder goes back up; it will help to create more natural soaking at the springs, the way it was done since time began.

NN,
C&B

[Joe Baucum]

Thanks Eric for that clarification, good job.
Not to confuse the matter even more , But. You can reach the hot springs from the River Area , but it is very hard to explain because there are no clear reference points. Three different ways and it can be dangerous if you are not good with directions and there are some steep cliffs involved.
I do not have time to explain the easiest path now but will attempt to here soon.

[Joe Baucum]

OK , I can now attempt to explain how to get to the hot springs from the Colorado river area.
First of all I take no responsibility for any one's safety !
There are 3 different ways but for clarity I will only explain the easiest to explain and climb.
That is : when you are climbing the trail southward from where the White rock canyon meets the Colorado river. Which is the way the park service advises to go from the highway. As you climb almost all the way to where the trail descends into the hot springs canyon going to the left, the trail splits and a sign with a hiker is there. Pointing hikers to the left. If you go to the right there is a steep cliff with a great view of the river. This is where you first see the water in the canyon on the left. Before going to this river view. At the sign with the hiker on it.
If you start hiking due east and up a kind of steep and featureless cliff there and 2 more mesas. After these 2 mesas you can start descending again toward the sandy beach which is just above the hot springs. There are few flat and almost level areas here I call mesas that I have camped on in the past. They are good places for quite meditation and viewing the river. Keep looking toward the canyon where the springs are located and you can see where to climb back down which has a trail. When you start climbing back down the trail is on your right hand side.
That is @ the best I can explain. It is probably best if you print out these directions or copy them exactly.
Good luck and happy hot potting !

[jaxbchbum]

Shame about the destruction of the ladder as I had the chance to visit AZHS twice last year and thoroughly enjoyed both visits.
Planning on visiting Gold Strike on my visit in May and hope for a return visit to AZHS as well; although I am a bit concerned about the alternative trails and getting lost since I will be doing this solo during the week. I will have GPS, but wondering if it would be possible for some of the regulars to somehow "mark" the alternative trail using rocks to serve as landmarks when one needs to make a turn.
I may not be the best at directions (my wife reminds me of this all the time), but I recall that on my first visit to AZHS via the regular trail, I had a devil ofa time finding the right path across the outcropping from where the canyon meets the river over to the AZHS canyon. Wasted about 30 minutes in the full sun taking various routes that looked like they would get me there only to end up at a dead end or sheer drop-off. Another alternative would be for GPS coordinates that I could preload as waypoints.

Many thanks,
Dave

[Greyfalcon]

....wondering if it would be possible for some of the regulars to somehow "mark" the alternative trail using rocks to serve as landmarks when one needs to make a turn....

I've marked the confusing trail points with brown arrows in the past (matched the Rangers' official trail markings), on both the main trail (White Rock Canyon) and the the southernmost back way. Somebody tried to scratch out some of the arrows within the first year. I've also used rock carns to signify the trail route, and had them destroyed in the same day. It ticks me off that anyone would hinder someone else's trip to the springs, especially if they hiked in over 2 miles to enjoy a soak.

GPS waypoints are a good idea, but hard to get a good fix when you're in between steep canyon walls.

[jaxbchbum]

I've marked the confusing trail points with brown arrows in the past (matched the Rangers' official trail markings), on both the main trail (White Rock Canyon) and the the southermost back way. Somebody tried to scratch out some of the arrows within the first year. I've also used rock carns to signify the trail route, and had them destroyed in the same day. It ticks me off that anyone would hinder someone else's trip to the springs, especially if they hiked in over 2 miles to enjoy a soak.

GPS waypoints are a good idea, but hard to get a good fix when you're in between steep canyon walls.

I figured that someone had tried to put in some non-obtrusive directional signs. Cannot believe that someone would regard this as their exclusive place and make it difficult / dangerous for others. Looks like I will have my brother-in-law on the trip with me so I am sure that between the two of us and the information on some of the previous posts, we can find the trail. Tried following on Google Earth the alternative paths, but as you get to the canyon areas, the shadows make it impossible to follow the trail there. Will figure it out and will make every effort to try to get some GPS waypoints and post them after our visit in May.

Thanks again to all for the excellent information.

[Greyfalcon]

Tried following on Google Earth the alternative paths, but as you get to the canyon areas, the shadows make it impossible to follow the trail there.

Those shadows mean the canyon walls are steep, so there's no way to lose the trail--it's basically a gravel wash surrounded by canyon walls and rocky hills. The only tricky parts are finding the branch off trails to the south, before entering the canyons, and the route along the river if you take the White Rock Canyon Trail. Hint: after crossing a sandy cove along the river, climb the steep rock slope to a small saddle, then follow the saddle upward to the left for 30-40 feet, and look for a notch in the rock formation to your right. Scoot through the notch and the trail is quite obvious on the other side. When you get down to the wash on the other side, turn left and follow the water to its source. Happy soaking!

[kellae]

We hiked to AZHS today. It rained all the way down and finally stopped on the way out. We only saw 3 other soaks today. The ladder is still gone, but a couple of guys we met had something they had printed from a website that said that the ladder would be reinstalled in about 2 weeks. I think they had printed this out about Jan 13. Personally, I was happy to see that the ladder was still gone. I took some pictures so maybe I'll have to figure out how to post them.

Kellae

[Kim_S]

Hi Kellae, Posting pics is fairly easy. You first need to upload your pics on a photo hosting service like Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, Shutterfly, etc. I recommend Flickr which is the easiest to navigate around and organize your photos. Since Flickr is affiliated with Yahoo, you'll need a Yahoo e-mail account. Just click on "Create Your Account" here:

http://www.flickr.com/

Once you have uploaded your photos to a photo hosting site, there are a few steps, and we can walk you through them quickly. Also check out posts here:
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=2

[Eric]

According to birdandhike.com (which seems to be a great site for planning outdoor activities in the Las Vegas area), the ladder is back up (personal opinion: ), as of February 27.

Check the Lake Mead NRA area in the "Hiking" section on that site for maps, photos and detailed directions of the various routes to Arizona HS (also to Goldstrike).

[Eric]

I went to Arizona Hot Springs today, hiking from the Hwy. 93 trailhead via the "Doggie" or "Middle" Trail and then down the wash. No route-finding problems at all. Also I can verify that the new ladder is securely in place.

Unfortunately, I went soakless. The recent rains have made the desert a gorgeous green but have also sent cold water flowing into the narrows. There's a decent thigh-deep pool behind the first bank of sandbags above the ladder but it's trapping all that cold water so the temperature was only about 93. There are no pools behind the second, third and fourth banks of sandbags because those areas have all filled up with gravelly sediment.

It would be possible to construct a soak in one of those upper sandbagged areas by shoveling out a pool on one side of the narrows adjacent to one of the sources and using the stuff you've shoveled out to divert the cold water to the other side of the narrows. I did not happen to have carried a shovel on the 2-mile hike. I optimistically descended the ladder and walked down to the river hoping to find a shovel-equipped boater, but on a chilly and blustery Monday morning I had the entire place to myself.

Oh well, it's still an enjoyable hike. I have a few photos; will post when I get the opportunity.

I'm wondering about future access to and reconstruction of the trailhead due to the highway widening. It looks like at some point they will have to close that trailhead for a while during the construction. The main trail down to the river is an official Lake Mead NRA trail, so I think the trailhead would continue to exist; just might not be able to get to it for a while.

[Kim_S]

Eric, thanks for the report. I wonder if there will be any alternative parking locations when the highway is widened?

[Casa Blanca Hot Spring]

Hi Kim,

Eric, thanks for the report. I wonder if there will be any alternative parking locations when the highway is widened?

The parking lot is far enough away from the highway that we don't think it would be affected by widening the road, unless the traveled way was actually moved west quite a bit.

NN,
C&B

[Eric]

It looks like the two new lanes will be built to the west of the existing lanes. Not far enough west to cover up the existing parking area, but due to all the grading I'm sure that a new access route would have to be built to get to the parking area. At the end of the project I'm assuming that there will still be a trailhead there. It's during the construction that I suspect the trailhead is likely to be closed for an extended period.

[Eric]

The promised photos from Monday, March 8:

New ladder:


The first pool above the ladder (and the only actual "pool"). Thigh deep, but only 93 degrees due to the cold water flowing in from up-canyon:


The upper soaking "pool" (that is the fourth set of sandbags up from the ladder). Sediment-clogged with cold water running generally down the left side of the narrows as seen here. The source on the right wall supplies a generous amount of 121-degree water. With a shovel, one could dig out a soakable pool adjacent to the source and route the cold water along the left wall.


The spillover around the bend above the upper soaking pool. That's a cold waterfall which is causing the difficulty lower down.


So you hiked down via the main trail and want to exit via the wash route above the springs. Hike about 3/4 mile up the wash and keep an eye out for the distinctive narrow needle on the left of this photo. The "middle" or "doggie" trail departs the wash near the scrawny tree to the right of the picture and heads up the slope in the middle. The trail rounds the bend and heads up the side canyon to the left. When you reach the saddle at the top of the side canyon, after a sometimes steep climb, Hwy. 93 becomes visible, and soon afterward you can see the trailhead.

[Kim_S]

Great pictures Eric, thanks for posting those! I sure hope the ladder stays and doesn't get removed again.

[Greyfalcon]

Glad you made it out to AZHS, Eric, and that you found the middle trail with no problems. I once went there on a Sunday, shortly after a heavy downpour moved thru the area. There were a couple of quicksand spots where the water was still flowing below the sand surface. The "spillover" you photographed was flowing like a fire hydrant, and the sand had completely filled all pools and covered the sandbags as a gently sloping sandy wash, instead of the typical steps down the solid rock bed. A couple of other 'shut out' soakers were there, so we started scooping sand and gravel into the flowing rain runoff, and eventually dammed off a small pool area that filled with warm, coffee-colored water, then enjoyed some soak time for our efforts.

Some regulars used to keep a stash with new sand bags and a shovel in the rocks above the spring, but I think they're long gone. I've brought in one of those folding camp shovels on occasion, which came in handy after rain or weekend party destruction.

[mrsbikertrash]

We went down to AZ Hot Springs last Friday via canoe. The beach was at about 1/3 of it's "tent city" capacity, though no one was soaking at the springs. Hiking up to the springs we found that they've been somewhat dug out since the last update on the forum. We had talked to one guy that morning that said AZHS was in the best shape he's seen in years. Unfortunately that wasn't quite the case for us. The little cooler pool at the top of the ladder was barely there, maybe 6 inches deep at most. The long middle sandbag pool was there--a little murky but near body temp and about 2 feet deep at the sandbag end. The hot pool in the narrows was largely full of sand at the source end and maybe a foot deep at best at the sandbag end. Sounds like it's slowly improving, though.

What caught us off guard was the drive back to Boulder City. The highway signs cite up to an hour delays due to blasting between 8 am and 4 pm. We pulled out of Willow Beach around 4 pm and our delay was about an hour and a half longer than it usually takes to get across the dam. It was stop and go, bumper to bumper traffic quite a ways before we even passed the trailhead parking area. Plan for some extra time if driving back over the dam!

[Kim_S]

Mrsbikertrash, welcome to soakersforum and thanks for the trip report. Sounds like it'll have to be dug out a bit more for ultimate soakability!

We can all expect some traffic delays around Hoover Dam until the new bypass is completed this November.

[jaxbchbum]

Visited AZHS via kayak on Monday, May 17th. When we arrived the beach was crowded with other kayakers, but when we hiked to the pools, we had them all to ourselves. Great to see the ladder has been replaced and seems to be "new and improved" as it was sturdier. The pool to the south of the ladder was still virtualy non-existent as indicated on earlier reports. There was only one sandbag in place so nothing there to help build up the depth of the pool. The second pool was in great shape. Clear and fairly hot and thigh-high. The third pool was also nice and we soaked there for some time. Like that pool the best as on the southern side there is a little ledge that you can move up to if you want to escape the heat. There was a constant southernly wind that day so it actually felt a bit chilly when you were out of the water.

As noted, the road constructin is in full throttle as they say they have a tentative bridge opening date in November. Access to the trailhead parking lot is a bit more difficult to spot with all the construction equipment, but still open.