Black Canyon

John at Arizona Hot Springs

We camped at the Willow Beach Full Service & Marina Campground on the lower Colorado River in Arizona recently and found some real treasures to report on.  The cost for an overnight is a bit more than we normally like to spend, but was well worth the cost.  The stretch of river just below the Hoover Dam is called the Black Canyon and the Willow Beach Campground is about 10 miles downriver.  We rented a boat from the Marina and spend the day exploring the North stretch of the river.  Being the winter season, we shared the river with only a handful of people, otherwise we were told it gets pretty busy in the summer months.  The crystal-clear water below the dam maintains a 53 degrees temperature year-round and in the mid-afternoon sun light, it’s waters reflects brilliant shades of emerald green. The highlight of our adventure was soaking in the Arizona Hot Springs.  There is two ways to reach these hot springs.  One is from the river as we did, the other is a about a two-mile hike from the parking lot at Whiterock Canyon on interstate 93 just south of the Hoover Dam.  We had the honor and pleasure of meeting John a local transplant to the area and the one responsible for building and maintaining the hot springs.  This is not an official duty of his, but rather a labor of love.  John said he has been doing this for several years and visits the springs about three times a week.  He regularly picks up trash left behind by people that lack respect for the beauty in which they come to enjoy.  The hot spring pools usually get washed out yearly from the spring floods and each year John rebuilds the sandbag dams that create the hot glistening pools.  The water in the lower pool is about 105 degrees while the upper pool maintains approx. 111 degrees.  This is a cloths optional hot springs so, if you are offended by sharing the pool with naked people, then I recommend you not visit it.  John was a wealth of knowledge about the springs and the local area and we thanked him for his dedicated service.  John told us about another hot spring about two and half miles upriver called Palm Tree Hot Springs where we ate our lunch and had the pool to ourselves.  While this pool is not nearly as hot as the Arizona Springs with a temperature of approx. 80 degrees, the view from the Palm Tree pool is magnificent as you are perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the majestic river.

 “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you.  What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”  ~ Jane Goodall