There are direct flights to Vegas but they are more expensive, so we ended up with tickets that had a stop in Los Angeles. Our plan was to fly out to Vegas first thing Saturday morning, so we were in the airport early. It turns out that our flight was overbooked and they were begging people to take a later flight. We had to get on the water that afternoon so we did not volunteer. However, they called us to the counter and offered us an opportunity. Since our final destination was Vegas and the direct flight had not left yet, they would put us on the direct flight AND give us free vouchers for another domestic flight if we would free up our seats to LA! This sounded like a win-win situation until we discovered that our luggage was already loaded on the trip to LA and would get there two hours after we did!
We found a good use for those two hours. We picked up our rental car early and drove around Los Vegas buying groceries and camping supplies for our trip. We stopped at several places and could not find white gas for our camping stove in quantities less than a gallon! So instead we bought a liter of regular gas for my "dual-fuel" camping stove. Then we went back to the airport and picked up our luggage, which included two folding Feathercraft kayaks. We drove out to Black Canyon and arrived at the Willow Beach put-in by 3:00 PM. This turns out to be a little late. By the time we put the two kayaks together and finished packing our camping gear in them it was very late and we didn't have time to paddle to the Arizona Hot Springs campground. We started paddling but at 5:00 we gave up and stopped at Crane Canyon and set up camp. We barely had time to put up the tent and cook dinner before dark. I was disappointed that we were not camped near one of the hot springs, but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise later.
In our original plans we were supposed to get to the hot springs campground on the first evening, set up our tent once and spend the rest of the weekend doing day trips. But on Sunday morning we had to break camp and take down the tent. We arrived at the Arizona Hot Springs campground early in the morning and discovered to our horror that it was packed with people. In retrospect, going to Black Canyon on a three day weekend was probably a mistake. We landed for a few minutes and checked out the hot springs. There was a group of people with their children and there were screaming kids everywhere. We decided to paddle up the river with all our gear still in the kayaks and come back late in the evening. Perhaps all these people will move out by then.
We paddled all the way up to Hoover dam to check it out. Black Canyon is narrow and winding and we could not tell by looking at it where we were. I deduced that we were close to the Hoover Damn when we started seeing a regular procession of airplanes and helicopters cycling overhead. We paddled as close as the 9/11 foolishness and barriers would let us and took pictures of the damn. There was not very much water flowing through it and the bypass tunnels that look so impressive in the post cards were mostly dry and empty. One interesting thing about this whole weekend was watching the fluctuations in the flow of the river. The amount of current was directly related to how much electricity was being used in Los Vegas. In the evening when the lights came on the water flow and the level would go up. On hot days the flow would also increase as air conditioners were turned on. I found it interesting to contemplate this directly observable side effect of electric use. Despite the Green Party complaint about ANY source of energy generation, I found the flow of cold clear water to be a very benign side effect.
We landed at a gravel beach near where we expected to find a hot spring called the "Sauna Cave". There were 20 or so kayaks and canoes parked on the gravel here and I had a sinking feeling we were skunked again. These boats turned out to be two groups from the same outfitter. There were actually three groups of 10 in the area. They had themselves scheduled in waves to have lunch on the beach, go into the Sauna Cave, and soak in the hot water of Goldstrike Creek nearby. The three groups took turns at each site and had them "booked" for the rest of the afternoon. Perhaps it was not such a good idea to come here on a three day weekend.
We walked up to look at the Sauna Cave and discovered something interesting. Someone had built a damn out of sandbags at the entrance of the cave, which caused the water to back up create a hot springs pool there. All the people the outfitter had brought in were sitting in this water at the mouth of the cave. Kate and I were able to apologize to them, step over their legs, and walk to the back of the cave where we had it to ourselves. The cave is rumored to be man-made, but it has limestone growing down the sides so it looks completely natural. The story I heard was that it was supposed to be a bypass cave for water during the construction of the Hoover Dam, but it ran into a vein of hot rock and had to be abandoned. The back of the cave is supposed to be 120 degrees F, but if you sit down the air near the floor is bearable. Someone has dragged boards in to the back of the cave for sitting there. We were able to sit for an hour in the dark with few disturbances.
When we left the Sauna Cave we wanted to check out Goldstrike Creek. This is a very civilized creek that has hot and cold running water! Just paddling close to shore in the Colorado River you can hang your hand in the water and feel the layer of warm water coming off the creek. A hundred meters north of the creek there is a gravel beach with a few rings of stones on it. I landed to check these out. Apparently the level of the river used to be higher and these rings used to be at water level. A jet of hot water squirts out of the cliff here which was too hot to touch. The gravel between the cliff and the river was hot to the touch and steaming. If the water level was higher the rings would be full of hot water mixing with the cold water of the river. We stopped for a minute at Goldstrike Creek. There was an outfitter lead group of 10 kayaks parked there and a bunch of other people having picnics on the beach. It was another crowded scene and we didn't feel like being part of it. We made plans to come back here early in the morning and went back down the river.
When we got back to the Arizona Hot Springs the crowd scene was worse than when we had seen it in the morning. We counted canoes and kayaks and calculated that there were at least 60 people camped at this spot! It is a big gravel floored canyon and there is room for this many tents, if you like being jammed close to your fellow man in the wilderness. We paddled back up the river to a beach we had seen on our way by. We set our tent up hidden in the willow brush above the "high tide" line and camped for the night. The next morning we broke camp, put all the gear back in the kayaks and paddled up to Goldstrike Creek early. We beat the crowd and had the hot pools in the side of this creek to ourselves. One other couple walked up the creek and talked to us. They saw our kayaks and wondered if we planned to camp there for the night or if they could stay here. I had been under the impression that the Arizona Hot Springs campsite was the only "legal" place to camp on the whole Black Canyon area. We had been hiding our tent in the bushes to avoid official attention. But this couple told us that camping was allowed anywhere you wanted! Our plans required being closer to the cars so we let them have this spot.
When we returned to the Arizona Hot Springs campground that afternoon almost everyone was gone. We set up our tent there at last, having had to set it up and take it down every night! The hot springs at this site is a very nice one. The canyon running into the river here turns into a slick-rock-canyon with a flat bottom and steep solid walls. At one place boiling hot water flows out of the rock. This runs through gravel for a while and some people simply lie on the hot gravel! In other places people have built damns out of sand bags full of gravel and this creates several pools of water at different temperatures. I have been told that sometimes people damn up a wide spot in the canyon and create an Olympic sized pool of hot water! This was not the case when we were there. However, right where this pool could be created there was a five meter drop in the canyon that had a permanently installed ladder to allow people to get to the pools. A hot waterfall pours under this ladder and we took hot showers there to wash our hair. The water in the Goldstrike Creek hot pools had a lot of creek sediment in them and it was muddy and murky. The water in the Arizona Hot Springs was crystal clear with a gravel bottom. A very pleasant place to be. Previous users have chipped dents into the side of the canyon walls and you can stick candles in these at night. Monday evening Kate and I had this romantic rocky alcove all to ourselves.
On Tuesday morning we went for a hike. The canyon that continues past the hot pools reminds me of the arroyos that I have hiked on the shores of the Sea of Cortez. We tried to follow some of the other trails up the edge of the canyon and over, but got lost and turned back. Instead we waded through the hot springs and simply followed the canyon up from there. Once you get pas the place where the hot water seeps out of the side of the cliff, the canyon is dry. It has a mostly flat gravel floor like the arroyos in Mexico and is easy to hike on. We found the arrows painted on the rocks that lead us up a side canyon to see some famous petrographs. These are chipped into large boulders that are sitting in the middle of the canyon. The boulders are as big as 10 meters and stained a rusty red color. From some damage by vandals you can see that the rock is bright white underneath if you chip off a thin layer. The Indian petrographs have faded to a yellow rusty color that indicates their age.
We hiked back to our camp which we immediately broke down and packed into the boats. We had to paddle back to Willow Beach, unpack, repack everything including our kayaks in their packs and drive back to the airport in time for our flight. Again, this took longer than we had planed and we had to finish taking the kayaks apart by flashlight! I hope I didn't leave any parts behind in the dark!