Tecopa Hot Springs
(in Tecopa, California)

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Area Weather:

The Hot Springs:

Tecopa Hot Springs is a County (Inyo) run facility in Tecopa, California. As such, it is free of any charges (unlike the ones at nearby hotel/motels or RV parks), but Inyo County ordinances require nudity, and are separated by gender, with one house for the men and another for the women.

The spring there is naturally heated, but a man-made enclosure & pools have been created to make better use of this natural resource.

See a shot of the outside of the Men's baths from the South side parking lot. (It's a 33k .jpg)

The temperature of the hot springs "hot pool" is around 106, but the "cool pool" is somewhere around 103. (That's what it feels like to this author, who's used the men's bathhouse, anyway.) According to a brochure at the park office, the water has an avg. temp. of 108... I guess I was pretty close!

WARNING: The water there is unfit for drinking, due to unsafe levels of arsenic, lead, & fluoride. Bring drinking water with you when you visit! If you forget or need more, you'll need a container, but there are drinking water sites available at the Tecopa-Francis School (first sign of being in Tecopa that you passed on the way in, at the School Zone sign), at the General Store in Tecopa (limited hours), and at the Fire Station.

The bathhouses are open around the clock, except during cleaning schedules. In the Summer (late June-late Aug. or early Sept.), one house is usually closed, with the other being open on 3-hour shifts (around the clock) for one gender and then the other. On one of my prior visits (10/25/96), they had just started another cleaning schedule (on 10/20) where the Men's bath (at least, may be different for the women) is closed from 7am-Noon Sun., Tue., & Fri. This changes a bit from year to year, as this year it was marked closed from 7am-Noon Mon, Wed., & Fri. on my 1/17/98 visit.

County ordinances require you to take a shower with soap (water is from the hot springs for the two showers) before entering the pools, in order to keep them as clean as possible. Oddly, no soap is provided.

Bring towels with you as well.

There are no gas stations (unless there's something in the Spring Mountains area, near the Saloon there) anywhere to be found once you leave the outskirts of Las Vegas (NV) at Rainbow & Blue Diamond Rd. (actually, there is a new Chevron station a few more miles out now - late 2001) until about 10 (approx.) miles PAST Tecopa Hot Springs, in the town of Shoshone, so gas-up before you leave! On my 11/15/96 visit when cheaper regular unleaded gas in Vegas was $1.239/gal, gas in Shoshone (Chevron, BTW) was $1.729!

While there, if you're looking for a meal, the Miner's Diner back down the road may be open (the store is only open 9am-5pm), or keep going further past the Hot Springs (about 10 miles), taking the eventual right fork in the road to Shoshone (CA), where I quite recommend the "Red Buggy Cafe" (that's the name for the cafe, according to the waitress' shirt - it's not on the building, but there is a sign on the red buggy our front...) at the "Crowbar" (name on building). Sign only says "Cafe" now. It's a very nice, rustic/old west looking place, with very good food. A typical sandwich-type meal is around $5, and the dinners vary from around $6 to around $9. On my last visit, my "British Burger" (Swiss & bacon) was $4.75, and included fries (seasoned - very good! - or slaw or potato salad - On 11/15/96 the slaw was pitiful - but everything else was good, again!). Update, 11/2001: About a year or a bit more ago the Red Buggy Cafe became the Crow Bar Cafe, same name as the bar. Also I've found the French fries are no longer that wonderful seasoned wedges they used to serve (unless they ran out?), and my burger was not what it used to be, either. [Sigh] You might like to visit the Shoshone/Death Valley Museum (no charge, $1 donation suggested) while you're there (next door).

Directions:

From Las Vegas, NV, Tecopa Hot Springs is approximately 80 miles from the Center Strip area (Flamingo Rd. & L.V. Bl. So.), and travel time will be around 90 minutes, depending on traffic in town, and how much you stick to speed limits. :> Allow 2 hours if you are towing a camper or somesuch and cannot attain the avg. 70 MPH that is possible most of the way.

Best bet (unless you're too far away from I-15) is to take I-15 to Blue Diamond Rd. (NV 160), but get to Blue Diamond via whatever route you like. (If you've never been that far South in LV, BD is a bit over a mile South of Tropicana.) Note that it's a 2-lane highway from hereon for MOST of the trip.

Take Blue Diamond Rd. (NV 160) West outta town. You'll pass the Red Rock, Spring Mountains, and the turn-off to Sandy Valley (long) before you turn off the Pahrump Hwy. (NV 160).

You'll see a "-|" fork sign, and at the fork, a sign will point left, stating that Tecopa is 34 mi. (and Pahrump is 15 if you keep going straight). Turn left here. The next 9 miles will be in Nevada, FWIW.

This road is somewhat a boring drive, at least until you get to the California border... when it gets QUITE rough all of a sudden, almost like driving from a paved road onto a previous paved and recently grated for re-paving. This road is known as Old Spanish Trail Highway in CA.

There are LOTS of twists and turns, esp. after this point, and I certainly recommend working high-beams if you'll be driving in/out at night.

Once you see a sign that says "DIP" right before it goes somewhat STEEPLY upwards, SLOW DOWN!, as soon after you'll need to go 25 MPH, according to the sign for the curves ahead, but I'd suggest slower than that, really... The curves around the mountain here are sharp, and it's VERY hard to keep in your own lane (the other goes the opposite direction!) even in a small vehicle at 25 while going up. (When coming back down, it doesn't seem that hard for some reason.)

Once into Tecopa, you'll spot a school and signs indicating you should slow to 25. Not long past this, and a non-school-zone 25 MPH limit is enacted as well.

When you see the Miner's Diner & General Store on your left, you'll note a fork immediately to the right... Take that, and about 2 mi. later you'll be at the Hot Springs.

The Springs is in the Tecopa Hot Springs/Inyo County Park are, amidst several camp/trailer sites. You can rent a site (w/o electric & water hook-ups) for $6.50. (It's $8.00 for electric equipped sites, with a separate billing for the electric meter.) There are no PUBLIC campgrounds with water or sewer hook-ups... If you NEED direct connections to water (AFAIK, it's all spring water, warm to hot & full of minerals, not fit to drink) or sewer, you'll have to go to the private camping sites, which are doubtlessly more expensive.