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| Colorado River at Lone Palm Springs |
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| Monolith, Las Vegas Style |
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| View from top of Last Large Dry Fall |
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| New Culvert Artwork |
The Tenacious Trio drove out to Arizona (just over the border) for a 6 mile loop hike at Lone Palm Springs. These springs are one of many hot springs located along the Colorado River in a 10 mile stretch starting just below Hoover Dam. The major springs have names like Ringbolt Hot Springs (aka Arizona Hot Springs), Goldstrike Hot Springs (aka Nevada Hot Springs), and Moonscape Hot Springs. There is also a small man made cave called Sauna Cave that is ... well ... like a sauna inside. Some of the springs have pools built by visitors where you can relax the day away in warm to hot water. Lone Palm Springs is one of these.
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| Hiking down the Old Road |
We parked at the bottom of the exit ramp for Kingman Wash. There is a parking lot if you make a very sharp right turn after exiting from the direction of Las Vegas.
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| The Sliding Board Rock |
It must be noted that this hike is not easily done without some research or following a friend who knows. The route is somewhat complicated. Also, there are use trails that would likely move you in the wrong direction.
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| Old Dam Equipment Staging Area and New Bridge above Colorado River |
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| Climbing out of Wash |
We dropped down to the culvert that goes under the highway here and took note of the new artwork inside. Then we continued down the large wash and rounded a corner. Not far from the corner, the route climbs out of the wash on the left side onto the remnants of an old asphalt road. Down this road, we poured into another wash and turned to the right. The route follows this wash curving to the left and comes to a widened area. The old road can be followed up the hill to the right where we came to an area that was likely used for dam building equipment storage and tow lines. There is a nice overlook on the far side of this area. The new bridge, the river, Goldstrike Canyon's mouth, and other interesting stuff can be seen.
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| View at top of Climb Out |
After enjoying the overlook area, we returned down the road and back to the wash. We knew that we could continue down the wash and deal with the dry fall that is not too far away.
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| Mike says, "Watch for rocks breaking off in your hand!" |
But, we took a small use trail to the left that routed us around the dry fall scramble. Back in the wash and around the next curve, we turned onto a trail that climbs the hill on the left side.
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| Descending to Springs Area |
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| Nearing the River |
The next section of the hike can be a little confusing. At the top of this hill, turn left. Follow the trail up and over a hill, then drop down, down, down into a chute. The chute is an interesting scramble with a somewhat difficult finale. Continue dropping until you reach a worn rock climb on your left just before a drop. At the top of this, you will be presented with a trail and a pinnacle! Here, we noticed that someone has been doing a lot of work taking out some of the tamarisk. Good job! Next, the trail drops down the slippery slope and into the hot stream below. Find a place to climb out the other side or wade through bushes going downstream.
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| Wall at center of Loop Hike - Resembling the Valley of the Kings in Egypt |
We climbed out our regular place and finished making our way to the river. The river was beautiful today. Clear and teal colored.
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| A lot of tamarisk has been removed! |
As I wandered around taking photos, a guided kayak tour came floating by. We exchanged pleasantries and they went on their way.
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| Lone Palm Springs |
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| The Tenacious Trio at Lone Palm |
We took our break up on the rock outcropping that is nearest the river then headed out. The old trail that leads south from the springs is still used but is very worn in a few places. This is a very fun part of the hike as we got into the wash and began scrambling up the large boulders and dry falls. When the dry falls temporarily petered out, there was a long stretch of sand to trudge up. We looked for the Eye of the Needle up to our right when we reached the old wash exit route to the left. Our route, today, would not use this wash. We kept going straight. This wash had four very large dry falls to contend with.
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| Clear and Still Colorado River |
Three of the four dry falls had up and around routes to bypass the non-negotiable monsters. But one dry fall, the third one, had to be dealt with. It was not a problem for us.
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| More Springs Photos |
The fourth and last monster dry fall is red and cream in color. It is also the highest and most difficult to circumvent. After we finished our up and around and dropped back into the wash, we were faced with a humongous dry fall that we were only required to look at!
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| Starting 2nd Half of Loop |
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| Lots of Boulder Scrambles |
Here, we turned to the left and went down the wash for a few feet to the next small wash junction. A cairn resides here and we turned to climb up the wash until we saw the next cairn sitting atop a rock shelf. We climbed up onto the shelf and turned left to climb up to the top of the yellow berm ridge in front of us. At the top of the ridge, the old trail sits waiting. Here, we turned to the right and began a traverse below a rocky tor and up onto the hill on the other side. Following the trail, we arrived at a plateau where we used to begin the Lone Palm hike ... back before the new SR-93 was built. Just to our left was a high dry fall where a few modern but old petroglyphs are etched into a boulder.
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| Flattened Out past Eye of the Needle |
Hikers each have a favorite way to return to the cars from here. Our group stayed near the small hills on the left and followed a vague trail.
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| Up through the Gravel Wash |
We passed some artifact junk and an old campsite then, staying on the small trail, hiked down through a wide wash. Finally, we came to a trail with a cairn on the right side of the somewhat narrowing wash.
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| 4 Large Dry Falls |
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| Climbing up to Ridge Trail |
We were happy to find this trail since it is the magic door to the cars. It led us down next to a small wash then came to a narrow section. If you continue to follow the trail to the left, you will have a somewhat difficult scramble to accomplish. We crossed the wash and climbed a sandy, rocky hill to do the go around and drop into the culvert wash where we had started the hike. Up the hill and past the artwork and we were done. Great day at the Colorado River in Lake Mead NRA!
Stats: 6 miles; 1400' gain; 4.25 hours
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| Almost to Ridge Trail |
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| Paralleling the Highway |
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| The Trail leading to the Climb Out |
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