Siphon Hot Springs
Camp Review
The parking lot for Siphon Hot Springs is a small dirt pull-out.
It takes about 2 miles of driving on a bumpy dirt road to get there—it does not require high clearance, so Ramona was overkill.
The pullout wasn’t super flat, but we made do.
There are no bathroom facilities nor big trees/bushes to do one’s business. Bringing a shovel and leaving one’s modesty at home are good ideas.
At night it was quiet, as road “traffic” was non-existent. However, one will get woken up by the sounds of birds if they are a light sleeper.
There was a single bar of internet on Verizon. It was barely enough to send out texts, but not for much more.
Hot Springs Review
This was my third natural hot spring (previously, I had been to Mono Hot Springs and Tecopa Hot Springs) and this was my favorite one.
The water didn’t smell much and it felt really clean. Actually, the tub was also clean and comfortable, with a gradient of temperatures from piping hot to lukewarm.
The views were gorgeous, especially of the steaming creek and the grassy hills.
Birds were flying all around us as we soaked in the tub for more than an hour.
When we woke up and headed to the hot tub, a couple cleaned up and left us the entire tub—the tub was ours for about half an hour before another person joined us (he turned out to be a super cool guy from New York).
The tub was 30 feet or so from the small pullout that served as the parking lot.
What I Learned
I am good at dealing with strangers in one-on-one settings. Christian, our new New York friend, was a total stranger, and I first resented his presence—it was a private hot spring for Cassie and me before he came— but once I got to know him, he was delightful.
Cassie painted in the hot tub for about an hour while I chatted up Christian. She drew a mind-numbly beautiful rendition of the surrounding hill as it was lit by the rising sun.
Friends
Marina was camped out in the parking lot before us and joined us for a quick soak in the morning. Her camping and climbing partner, Katie, didn’t join us, but we did get introduced to each other after we got out of the tub. It was really fun meeting up with a local friend 200 miles away.
What Happened?
Cassie and I had planned on a trip to Death Valley and when I saw that Marina was planning a trip to Bishop in the same week, we coordinated to see if we could meet up on Thursday night (as a surprise to Cassie).
Cassie and I arrived around 2 AM, where after a long drive (including getting a speeding ticket), we got to the parking lot, parked, brushed our teeth, and promptly fell asleep. We woke up at first light feeling cold as it was in the upper 30 degrees. We quickly put on our swimming clothes and scampered over to the hot springs where we hurriedly dunked ourselves into the hot tub—it was just right to warm us up. After a bit, we saw the sun start to crest over the White Mountain range and it basked us in warmth.
With the sun came Christian, who respectfully parked himself on the other side of the hot springs and gave us a wide berth even after we let him know that we were hogging the hot end of the tub and that we could switch places if he’d like. He stayed at the cooler end where I found myself after a bit as we chatted about life and got to know each other. While I was getting to know Christian, Cassie went and grabbed her painting supplies so that she could paint the beautiful landscape around us.
After an hour or so, Marina woke up and we surprised Cassie when she joined us in the hot spring. We caught up, Christian took some photos of us, and as much as we loved it here, we soon got out to head to our first activity for the day—bouldering the Happy Boulders.