As I mentioned, our goal was the Saline Valley hot springs, or warm springs as the National Park Service refers to them. They are just fabulous. and teeming with people, which is sort of a bummer. Most of these people are not wearing any clothing, and it tamped down my zeal for photographic documentation. I didn’t feel all that comfortable jamming a camera in peoples’ faces to take pictures of the lovely pools when they were all full of nude people. Or clothed people, for that matter. I wanted to photograph the POOLS, not the people, and I couldn’t seem to make it happen.

At the upper springs, where we were camped, the pools were…well, just pools. Clean, lovely cement pools and all that, but nothing special to look at. The lower springs pools had some pretty workmanship, inlays or mosaics, and would have made a nice picture if not obscured by bodies. I plan to return ASAP and will try to catch them empty. There was also a nice lawn at the lower springs. Weird to have a lawn in the middle of the desert, but it’s more of an oasis than a desert right around the pools. They are surrounded by palm trees (see below).

The rest of the landscape is typical desert, as you can see. Fortunately, I am extremely fond of the desert. I chose not to use the pools, which are officially closed due to Covid, but everyone else was using them. I used the inexhaustible supply of hot water to do laundry and take showers instead. I could do that without cozying up to a bunch of potentially infectious strangers.

Perhaps I should mention, since you may want to see the hot springs yourself (which I highly recommend) that the roads in are bad, particularly the last 5 miles or so after you turn off Saline Valley road and head across the playa to the springs themselves. People drive all sorts of vehicles in there, so it really depends on 1) how determined you are, and 2) how willing you are to tear your vehicle up. The majority of people drive pickups and SUV’s. The most prevalent rig was a truck or SUV with a rooftop tent. Pickups with popup campers (Hawks or Palominos) were the second most prevalent. There was a van or two. A passenger car would make it, but it wouldn’t be fun. An RV would probably make it (a smaller one), but it would take a LOT of abuse. The photo below shows a couple of rigs. Both of these were pickups with popup shells, although one looks like a trailer (it is not). The road issue is roughness as opposed to clearance. I did bottom out my trike rack a couple of times, but just touches, nothing serious. In my old RV, I would have been hyperventilating and growing ulcers, and I would have scraped the bottom of the door frame getting to the upper springs. I cannot recommend driving a travel trailer in here, although I’m sure someone has done it — someone has done almost everything. I understand these “someones” have also, on occasion, broken axles getting in, so….

Saline Valley Hot Springs