Lone Palm - 2/15/18

Lone Palm River Overlook

Lone Palm Hot Springs

Hoover Dam Bridge and Colorado River from Overlook Area

Down the Old Road to the Wash Below

 There are five hot springs along the shores of the Colorado River in the three miles below Hoover Dam. They are Arizona Hot Springs (aka Ringbolt Hot Springs), Goldstrike Hot Springs, Boy Scout Hot Springs, Moonscape Hot Springs and Lone Palm Hot Springs. Today, fifteen hikers parked at the Lone Palm Trailhead just to the west of Exit 1 on Highway 93 in Arizona. This is Kingman Wash Road in the Lake Mead NRA. Although the trails here seem to indicate a turn to the right, the absolute better way to go is to the left down an old asphalt track by the highway culvert. This drops you into a wash. This entry will attempt to give directions to one of the Lone Palm loop routes. (It's complicated.)

Remnants of Road Gate Chain

 Turn right in the wash and make a fairly quick left up the bank. This puts you on the continuance of that old road which takes you down a longer hill to another larger wash.

Climbing to the Overlook Area

 Turn right again. Now, allow the wash to lead you down until you begin to drop into an easy scramble. Pass a cottonwood tree coming out of the left side rock. The tree is hanging on for dear life.

Parts from Dam Building

Overlook Cliff above River

 As part of the Lone Palm hike, we always include a hike up the old road on the right side of the wash here. This takes you to a great bridge / river overlook. It is an area that seems to have been used for staging of construction equipment during the time of the dam building since there are rusted artifacts lying around here. We hiked straight over to the overlook side and took the circle tour of the scenery. We also got a look at the mouth of Goldstrike Canyon which comes out right across the river from here; albeit about 150 feet straight down!

Route from Overlook

 At the last part of the counter-clockwise tour, we looked down to see the next part of our hike leading down, up and over to the Lone Palm Hot Springs.

The Hill

 We hiked back down the old road and dropped into the wash. A new addition on today's hike was to use a marked trail up and around on the left side of the wash. This is a different way to get around the dry fall in the wash. (We usually just skirt the dry fall on its right side.)

Looking down from top of Hill to Dry Fall in Main Wash

Down the Chute

 Back in the wash, we hiked through a narrow part then headed up the steep hill to the left. (Try using the trail on the left side. It takes a little bit of sting out of the climb!) At the lip of this hill, we turned to the left and continued going up to a saddle. Next, we channeled down to a fun chute and continued dropping until we were in a small wash heading toward the river. Wait! The trail continues by climbing a rock bank up to the left. Pass a hoodoo. (See photo below.) Then start dropping again. The next wash you drop into that is heading toward the river is the hot springs.

Passing a Hoodoo

 If you want to take a dip in the hot springs, take a right. There are two pools if the sand is sufficiently scooped out.

Upper Hot Spring Pool

 Otherwise, cross the hot stream and climb the hillside. Turn right and follow the trail down to the rock outcroppings above the river.

The Lone Palm River Overlook

Cliffs Above

 There are a few palm trees next to the river now, so don't expect a "lonely" one! Most of us climbed up and over the rocks and headed out to the outcropping closest to the river above the waterfall. If you would like to view the waterfall up close, do a messy drop down to the left of the rock and make your way over to the right. This can only be done when the river is low unless you don't mind getting wet. Today, we could hear the waterfall running very strong. We took a nice break here among the gorgeous scenery.

Taking the Trail to the Scramble Wash

 Looking back up the canyon, we saw high cliffs. These cliffs are basically what our loop route encircles.

The Escalator Down

 After the break, we retraced our steps to where we had climbed up out of the hot stream. A trail led us around the side of this small mountain on the right and into a wash.

Scrambling Here and There

More Scrambling

 Right away, we began scrambling in this wash. There is some good stuff here! A moderate scrambling workout. The group stayed together pretty well. When the wash leveled out, we followed the sand until we reached the Eye of the Needle wash junction. This wash junction is so called because of an unusual white spot on a rock about twenty-five feet up on the west side. We turned left into a smaller wash and began more scrambling of a moderately strenuous nature. Although there are a couple of go arounds, we stayed in or near the wash until we found a flattish section.

Peekaboo

 Here is where a trail can be found on the other side of the wash. It leads on a traverse and then starts to climb up to a saddle.

Our Fearless Coordinator among Brittlebushes

 Here's where it gets a little tricky. Follow the trail on a fairly straight route but don't follow it around to the right. (Well, you can but it's longer.)

Chuck nearing the Eye of the Needle Junction

Steep Wash to Trail Up

 The preferred trail will lead you along a large barren saddle then curve around a little to the right up and over onto the top terrain. Here, you will begin to see Highway 93. Before the highway was "new and improved" about six years ago, the trailhead for the Lone Palm hike was just off the pavement not far from here. We used to do the loop in a clockwise direction. This included a section of wash that we no longer do since it is no longer a direct route back to the trailhead. But, the large dry fall, here, that is adorned with an inscription from 1955 is still on the route and a few of us took a look see.

Scrambling

 The other hikers went on ahead and when we were done looking down the dry fall, we had to play catch up.

Arriving at the Trail Leading Up and Out

 We stayed in the shallow wash that headed straight from the dry fall toward the cars until the wash got wide and began a descent.

Trail up Ridge

Trail on Saddle

 Here, there is a cairn up on a little saddle to the right. This is a nice trail that will take hikers back to the smaller wash that the very first old asphalt track drops into. (Another hint: take the up and over on the right side. It's a lot easier than the scramble at the bottom.) From here, we turned right and hiked up the track to the cars. Yes, there are a lot of directions for this loop but when you learn the route, it is worth the learning process. This hike is one of the best that Lake Mead NRA has to offer and will live long and prosper. Great group today!

6 miles; 1400 feet elevation gain; 4.25 hours

Neat Writing above Large Dry Fall

Standing atop Large Dry Fall

Starting across Desert back to Trailhead