Eastbay, The hike in from 173 is longer and harder than hiking from the Bowen Ranch. It will probably add about 25 to 30 minutes to the time it takes you to hike from the Bowen parking area to the springs. You might find it interesting to try it for one trip at least to know how to go in from that direction. Its the trail to hike when the creek is running real high and you don't want to brave the cold water. Speaking of hotsprings in Baja. I remember hitting some hotpools with my dad on the Gulf of California at a place below San Felipe. This spot was about 50 miles south of S. F. on the coast in a town called Puertosidos. I know I've probably spelled the name wrong. This was almost 40 years ago and these pools were right in the tide zone at the oceans edge. You would get in when the tide exposed the first pool. Eventually the pool would get to hot and then you would get in the next lower pool. There were three pools as I remember and each was at a differant level. I hope my descriptions are accurate since it was a long time ago. There was a little path of asphalt that went down through these black rock to the pools. I wonder if these hotpools are still there and used by the public? It was my first hotsprings experience :-) My dad used to take us all over northern baja in his toyota landcruiser. I remember many a fine meal of all kinds of birds ( duck, pheasant,quail, dove, geese ). We also did lots of fishing on the coast. One spot, Bahia San Quitin was really nice. It was a penisula with a beach about 7 miles long on the Pacific side. We would drive down this beach out to the point where we would camp. The last I heard this area was closed to the public. We would collect pismo clambs for soup and the locals would sell us all the fresh lobster we could eat for a few bucks. Those were fine days :-)
