Tecopa Springs

*The eclectic landscaping at Delights Hot Springs Resort*

It was a miserable night in the car. My air mattress deflated (probably user error—my misunderstanding of modern inflation valves. We could not find a comfortable position. According to my measurements, my six-foot-one frame should have fit in the space available. It did not. We did not sleep well. What had once been an unremarkable event in our youth (spending a night sleeping in a car during a road trip), had in the decades since become physically challenging! What happened?

Revived by our morning coffee, and with the sky clearing to blue, we enjoyed a wonderful hike up Mosaic Canyon, the trailhead just “across the street” from the campground. We had a little trouble with the occasional short scramble over the smooth marble-colored geology of the canyon, which narrowed in several places to just a few feet across. It widened to broad washes as it continued its climb, but eventually choked down again, eventually presenting a boulder wall, stopping our progress. There was a designated route up them, and with help from fellow hikers, we could clamber up and continue. But beyond the wall, the canyon remained narrow and twisted with yet more obstacles. We decided to turn back; we were feeling at the “halfway point” anyway and didn’t want to take risks. Another thing that has changed over the decades.

Mosaic Canyon. Click to see the full images.

We learned that the forecast was for rain, and among our plans for the week was to visit Tecopa, a hot springs area south of the park so it seemed that this was a good time to make that trip. Rather than take the usual paved highway route, we chose to explore the backcountry “Furnace Creek Wash Road” in Greenwater Valley. It turned out to be an unremarkable straight-line through broad generic desert– a gravel road that could be navigated at 20-30mph max. It took over two hours to reach pavement again. We probably won’t have reason to travel it again.

But it took us to Tecopa Hot Springs, a grouping of commercial interests that exploit the natural spring-fed hot water found here. One of the businesses, “Delights Hot Springs Resort” was an odd mix of cabins, campgrounds, and miscellaneous structures providing support for soaking and relaxing around pools of 104-degree-F mineral-infused water.

Recalling the prior sleepless night in our car, we inquired if there were any accommodations available for the night. No, they were fully booked, but maybe they could prepare the unoccupied trailer home across from the office—it would take an hour or more, but first we needed to reserve and pay for it, just so nobody online could reserve it out from under us. I don’t know if we were being played, but we desperately needed sleep and hot spring soaking privileges came with the room. We took it and spent the next hour soaking in a private pool (clothing optional), then the public pool (suits required). By the time we were fully soaked, the room was ready. The trailer home had seen better days, showing scars of haphazard repair work, but we were glad to have a bed for the night. We moved in.

Ahh, hot springs! Aren’t they great? We slept soundly that night.