Colorado River Hot Springs Packrafting

June 23, 2019 tarannosaurus

Epic Travel → North America → Mountain States → Nevada → Colorado River Hot Springs Packrafting

Location: Black Canyon Area, Las Vegas, Nevada

Time Required: several hours – all day

Red Tape/Notes: We did this via packraft, but there are various other options for renting canoes and kayaks and doing self-guided trips, like these ones through Desert Adventures, which launch you from the base of the dam. Paddling upstream can be challenging in certain areas. Presumably you should have a day pass for Lake Mead NRA if you’re using park resources – a day pass (valid for 7 consecutive days) is $25 per vehicle.

What’s Nearby?: Bighorn Canyon, Weeping Springs Canyon, Secret Canyon, Goldstrike Canyon, Hoover Dam, Historic Railroad Trail, Ringpin Canyon

The Colorado River hosts a number of sweet hot springs that are most easily accessed from the water. Some of these spots may not be accessible at all overland. Aside from the fun of being in the water at the base of Hoover Dam (it’s more impressive from below than above, in my opinion), there are several great spots just downstream, so even if you’ve only got a couple of hours, it’s worth renting a kayak and having a paddle. Aside from the hot springs in Goldstrike Canyon, which can be accessed via a trail overland but are easiest to access via the water, there’s also the sweet hot spring above the waterfall just south of Secret Canyon. But even before these springs there are a couple of great spots north of Goldstrike. One is a little a cove just north of the entrance to Goldstrike, where incredibly hot water seeps from the walls of the rock, and my personal favorite, a “secret” cave hot spring north of the cove on the west side of the river. There’s a little beach and you can see a footpath heading up into the shrubs and a rope to help with the ascent when it’s muddy. Head up the trail and to your right, the scramble up the rock to an opening in the cliff, where a totally sweet cave/tunnel is filled with knee deep warm water (just don’t put your head under…I’m sure brain eating amoebas are rare, but I’d rather not take the chance). If you have more time (or a couple of days), there are more hot springs downriver at Boyscout Canyon and Arizona Hot Springs.