Crane's Nest Spring, Ash Meadows and Wilson's Ridge are three quick day trips connected by the fact that we took them all with our friends Sandy and Jody, who visit Las Vegas every winter from the Arrowhead area of Minnesota. It seems like a good time to be away from that area.
This was a ranger led hike. We met at the Alan Bible Visitor Center at Lake Mead and made sure everyone signed up for the hike had a ride. Then we took the highway across Boulder Dam and went into Arizona. We passed the turnoff for Arizona Hot Springs (another nice hike in the area) and continued on to our turnoff. We left our cars at the impromptu parking lot off the highway. The path was broad enough that we could have driven another mile, but then the hike would have been trivial. The trail descended a canyon cut by flash flood rainwater that travels from the mountains east of the highway all the way to the Colorado River below. Most of the wash is wide and easily accessible. It only narrows at a couple of spots very near the river.
Of course there are no rapids now that Davis Dam was built at Laughlin/Bullhead City. The lake has backed up this far so that what you see is a broad expanse of water, perhaps a half mile across. You also see the mountains rising quickly on bot sides of Lake Mojave. There is a broad canyon on the other of the river and the narrow canyon on our side of the river spreads out enough for all 15 of us to sit and admire the view in relative seclusion as we enjoy our lunches we packed in. The drop to the river was gradual enough that the return hike of about 2 miles was not drudgery. The views were expansive on the way out. Finally we returned to the car. This is a good afternoon hike for the winter. You would not want to do it in July or August.
One benefit of visiting Ash Meadows in the summer is that the pools are generally shaded, but it is still usually over 100 degrees in the shade. So most people visit Ash Meadows in cooler times. The pools are the same aquamarine or turquoise blue in any season.
This was not our first time at Ash Meadows, but it was the first time for Sandy and Jody. Instead of going in the normal entrance, we took a signed road named for some ancient general. This brought us to Jackrabbit Springs. Jackrabbit Springs is the most "barren" of the pools. There is not much vegetation around it, although the stream leading from it is lined with willows and other brush. We followed the stream for a while and came upon some measuring devices, which we left undisturbed. I expect that the rangers were measuring how fast the water flows and how fast it cools down. They may also have been sampling wildlife such as pupfish, frogs and snails.
Our next stop was Point of Rocks Springs. This area edges on the foothills of the Spring Mountains, so we did a little rock scrambling to see if we could get a view. The view was nice, but not expansive. The stream here was the broadest we encountered that day. It would have been hard to jump across. But there was a picnic table there, so we stopped for lunch.
We stopped at Crystal Reservoir, where the water is impounded by a small dam. The reservoir is used mainly for fishing, with unmotored boats allowed. You cannot swim in the lake because of infestation with some salt water parasite that gives you a rash. We continued on to Crystal Pool, the centerpiece of the preserve. The rangers have built a boardwalk to the pool from the main ranger residence and the most complete kiosk explaining the pool in the preserve (most points of attraction on the southern end of the preserve have a modest kiosk explaining phenomena occurring at that point of interest). The boardwalk was not there the first time we visited the preserve. The pool, the largest of the most accessible pools in the preserve, was clear, blue and deep.
Most of the rest of the trip was spent driving the north route out of the preserve. There are a number of isolated pools along the route. We stopped at Longstreet and Rogers Springs and admired the pools there. Both were deep, had plenty of pupfish, and were partially surrounded by cattails or willows. At Fairbanks Springs, we hiked in to find the pool, but all we found was a large, marshy area. After slogging around for a while, we gave up and went back to the car.
We took the northeast route out of Ash Meadows because Sandy and Jody had never seen a brothel. Crystal, where the road becomes paved again and we meet the highway home, has little in it beside brothels. The Cherry Patch was closed for repairs but still had the neon signs and statues in front of it. So Sandy and Jody took pictures of each other in front of the statue. Mabel's was open, and they took pictures there too. Then we drove home in the sunset.
Another short day trip found us crossing into Arizona again, this time to the Mount Wilson Wilderness Area. The wilderness area is adjacent to Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The wilderness area contains no hiking trails but does contain animal paths and former trails used by miners. The area rises above Detrital Valley, a broad wash that feeds into Lake Mead.
There are two 4wd trails to the wilderness area, both leaving from the road to Temple Bar marina. The first takes you to the western edge of the wilderness. From the wilderness boundary you can hike back to an old but well preserved miner's cabin. It looks like it was used as little as 20 years ago. The hike is about half a mile. You can walk the miner's road another quarter mile to areas where the miner's claim was. But there is not much to see there except slag piles. The "mines" seemed to be attempts at tunnels or just open pits.
The second road leads into the south side of the wilderness area farther to the east. The trail beyond the gate here leads much further. We gradually climbed about a mile before we came to a location where a former residence was. There was an old ringer washer, a stove, and other debris. But there was no sign of a foundation or walls where a building had been. The trail began to spread and divide. We walked along both sides of a gully at the same time. The trail wound around a canyon, We spied Missouri Springs in the distance, but it was getting late, so only Sandy ventured close to the springs. It got marshy near the springs, he said, but the biggest surprise he found was a large concentration of bones that could have been horse or burro bones. He did not bring out any samples.
The Wilson Ridge area presents more opportunity for exploring that we took. You can scramble up lower parts of the ridge and then walk the ridge line to the high point of Wilson Ridge, where you should get a good view of Lake Mead and maybe of the Colorado River below Boulder Dam as well. But we were worried about time. So we turned around and started to return. We noticed after about three quarters of a mile that the trail we were following did not look familiar. So my strategy, since we had gone up about 700 feet on the hike in, was to find the highest point I could on the way down and look from it for the car. Once I spotted the car we forgot about trails and walked cross country to the car.
We drove in the remaining light to Temple Bar. We got there just as the sun was going down. The marina was quiet and fairly empty; we watched the sun set in silence. Sandy and Jody took a silhouette shot with palms in the background. The drive home in the dark was uneventful.
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