Can you believe I slept 12 hours last night?! Those really were some magical hot springs. By the time we rallied, made coffee and headed back to Travertine Springs it was about 8ish. It was already too busy for my liking, so we decided to explore some other hot springs.This area is called Hot Creek Geological Site. It’s not swimmable or soakable, think Bumpass Hell at Lassen National Park. 700,000 years ago 50 cubic miles of molten rock was blasted from this area creating a huge caldera. The water from the Sierras seeps down thru cracks to the molten rock 5 miles below and creates steam vents, boiling water and an occasional geyser.
We stopped by Mono Lake for a mid morning walk. I love strolling on this boardwalk at the County Park. So interesting to see the signs marking the decreasing lake level over the years. Hard to believe these tufas were under water in the 1950’s.
We’re continuing to put Wolfgang thru his paces. We decided to get off Highway 395 and take some “backroads”. Lots of fun ditching pot holes and navigating boulders and sand.
He’s passing with flying colors!
Our next soaking destination was Hilltop. We were expecting a crowd, but had this little spring to ourselves. This spring has a valve that lets you adjust the incoming water, Ned got it dialed in just right. We hung out for quite awhile, it was a great lunch spot too.
We were about 10 minutes away from Wild Willy’s Hot Springs and it had been years since we had been there so we decided to revisit it. This spring is much larger and has several soaking pools on both sides of the boardwalk and along the creek. We went in the first pool next to the rock outcropping on the left side. Some people were just getting out so the timing worked out perfectly.
Tonight we’re camped at Benton Hot Springs, an old favorite. We’re not in our preferred campsite (#5), but glad we got the last available site. It’s going to be a cold one again tonight, but at least it’s only a few feet to the hot tub.
